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Selecting Resources: Identifying Bias and Evaluating Websites/Images

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Selecting Resources: Identifying Bias and Evaluating Websites/Images

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You may encounter media today from any number of sources, from traditional news sources to social media to email.

How do you know what to trust?

Ask these six questions and they will unlock whether something is trustworthy.

It's easier than you think. They will make you a more critical thinker and save you from being misled. (These come the book "Blur: How to Know What to Believe in the Age of Information Overload" by myself and Bill Kovach).

1. Type: What kind of content is this?

Recognize first what kind of content you're looking at.

Is it a news story? Or is it an opinion piece? Is it an ad or what some people call native advertising produced by a company? Is it a reaction to someone else's content?

Knowing what you are looking at is the first step to figuring out what you can believe.
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Part of knowing what you're looking at involves knowing who produced the content. Is it a news organization? Or is it a publication that is sponsored by a think tank, or a political group or a corporation? (If the story or graphic you're looking at came in a tweet or through a friend, look at the name of the organization, not just the name of the author. If you don't know the organization, look it up online.)

Another thing to know is where the organization gets its money. If it's a non-profit or an advocacy group, where did that money come from? If that isn't clear, that's a problem.

Does the content have an obvious political slant? There are a lot of new partisan sources for news now. Sometimes it's hard to tell from any single story whether the source is political. One way to identify partisan or political leaning is to see whether all the stories seem to point in a particular ideological direction, or would tend to reinforce the views of one party. If they do, that is a tip off that the site really has a political viewpoint. It's easy to recognize. Scan the stories quickly. You will know it when you see it, even if each story itself seems fairly straightforward.

Knowing what you are looking at is the first step to figuring out what you can believe.

2. Source: Who and what are the sources cited and why should I believe them?

News content usually cites sources for the information provided. These are the people quoted, or the documents or reports or data being referred to.

As you read, listen or watch a piece of content, note who is being cited. If it's text, print it out and circle the sources. Is it a police official? A politician? What party? If it's research, what organization produced it and what background if any is offered about them?

A major part of understanding sources is recognizing the level of knowledge that someone might have-or how close it is to being first hand. There are lots of different kinds of sources.

The key question is, how do they know? If it's not clear, you should be more skeptical.
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Sourceless News: Some news is actually "sourceless." If the president says something on television or in public, the account may cite no source at all. It was a public event for all to see.

The Journalist As Witness: The journalist or author could also be an eyewitness. In that case, the account may make it clear the author saw it but cite no one else.

Credentialed Experts: In some cases, the author or journalist may have such obvious expertise or credentials that they are a credentialed author/source. Doctors who are also reporters (such as Dr. Nancy Schneiderman on NBC News or Sanjay Gupta on CNN) are examples. An opinion column written by Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is another example.

Proximity of Knowledge: When we move to content that cites other sources, one question is how close is the source to the event. In other words, how well would they know what they are talking about? Are they a first-hand eyewitness? Or is it second-hand? In courtroom trials, only things that people saw for themselves are usually permissible as testimony. If they are an official source, such as police spokesperson, they are likely second- or third-hand witnesses, but they may be basing what they say on multiple first hand witnesses.

The key question is, how do they know? If it's not clear, you should be more skeptical.

Distance in Time: Time is also a factor. Research shows the more time that has passed since an event, the more faulty memory is. Police investigators know this well. So ask yourself: how far in the past did this event occur before the witness was asked to recall it?

If the source is a document (a study, or data), ask the same question: Who produced it and what background do you have on how the study was done and what other studies that group might have produced? There is no such thing as knowing too much about a source.

Then there are outside experts who might be asked to comment based on their experience. Just because they are called an expert doesn't mean they necessarily know a lot about this situation. Do they have a lot of experience with this kind of event? Have they done any research on this particular situation?

The source could also be anonymous (journalists using sources without naming them, because that person could get in trouble). If so, what background is offered about how this source would know what he or she is talking about and why you should believe them? And why were they were allowed to remain anonymous? Sometimes journalists simply fail to identify the source for some statistic or assertion to save time or because they forget.

Once you have identified who the sources are, ask one other thing: Do they have a bias?

If so, that doesn't necessarily mean what they have to say isn't reliable. Think about whether they are a witness to facts or are just describing their opinion. They may be the perfect authority. But this also leads to the next question you should ask

3. Evidence: What's the evidence and how was it vetted?

Evidence is closely related to but slightly different than source.

Evidence is the proof that the sources offer for what they know. It overlaps with how close someone is to an event. But even highly credentialed sources may begin to speculate sometimes. They may be guessing.

So, first, identify the evidence that any source is offering. Circle it. Write it down. Do it as an exercise a couple times. It becomes easy to recognize.

Trust the material that offers more evidence, is more specific and more transparent about the proof being offered.
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Is the evidence a document? Was it something the source saw as an eyewitness? Is it hearsay, or second-hand? Or are they speculating about someone's motives or what they might have done?

Next, what if anything did the author do to verify this evidence? Did they check with a lot of sources? Do these sources disagree? Can you see how they vetted the evidence?

If the report is specific, that helps. If it says "scientists agree," that isn't all that specific. But if it says they interviewed 15 scientists and they all agreed, you have a better idea of how much authority there is. If they say scientists examined 10 years of peer-reviewed scholarly research, more than 10,000 pieces of research, that is even more evidence.

Look for signs of a method-a method of verification. If you can see how the author or reporter checked or corroborated the evidence-if the method is explicit-that is a sign of more credible work.

Looking for these signs-and identifying what evidence a story contains-isn't as hard as it might sound. You simply need to start looking for it. And once you do, you will trust the material that offers more evidence, is more specific and more transparent about the proof being offered.

4. Interpretation: Is the main point of the piece proven by the evidence?

Most media content offers a thesis, or main point, of some kind.

The one exception might be a straightforward account of a breaking news event. Most other stories, however, are built around an idea, a trend, or even some angle on a news event. Even content that isn't narrative usually has a thesis or a point. For instance, most charts point you to a conclusion - like the number of people with jobs in America is going down or baseball salaries are going up.

So the fourth step in knowing whether something is reliable is to ask whether this main point makes sense, and whether the conclusions are supported by the evidence offered.

In other words, think about what conclusions are being drawn. Do they follow logically from what has been cited? Sometimes this is a matter of some conclusions making sense but others going too far. Are too many conclusions being drawn from evidence that doesn't support all of them?

We should expect enough evidence to prove the case. We shouldn't just take someone's word. The more evidence the better.
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One concept to keep in mind here is people may wrongly assume that because two events occurred the first one must have caused the second one. In fact, it could be a coincidence. Or the second event could have been caused by something else. This is a common mistake that people make from looking at data.

One way to test conclusions is ask if the same evidence might be used to draw a different interpretation. In science, there is a concept for this called the null hypothesis. It refers to the idea that whatever hypothesis a scientist is trying to test, one should also examine the possibility that there is another explanation.

Here's an example of the null hypothesis. If research shows that younger people are more inclined to use social media than older people, someone might think that they use social media because they are young. If that were the case, then logically, they would stop when they become old. But that is probably wrong. It might be they use social media more because they understand it better, and they will keep using it as they get older. That would be the null hypothesis.

When looking at media content, it means asking whether there might be a different conclusion to draw from the evidence in the story or content than the one presented.

To see if a story or segment or other form of media content lives up to its thesis, there are some simple indicators.

First, we should expect enough evidence to prove the case. We shouldn't just take someone's word. The more evidence the better.

Second, we should expect that the other side(s) are given a good hearing. Ask yourself this: are alternative views given the chance to make their best argument. If the alternative views are weakly presented, be skeptical.

Third, what is unknown, unanswered, unclear, should be acknowledged. Usually, news is simply the best obtainable version of events at the moment. Tomorrow we will know more. The best accounts admit this, and help us even more by acknowledging where the weak spots are.

Fourth, the best news providers and publishers let us know when new information comes along that contradicts or fills in what was thought before. These publishers feel responsibility for giving misinformation or partial information that may have left a wrong impression. They show that sense of responsibility by letting know when a better view has come along.

All of these are signs that the publisher is mindful of the null hypothesis, or that an alternative thesis might be as good or a better explanation. The man the police suspected initially might have been innocent. The conventional wisdom that in the long run the vote in Congress would hurt the Republican party was wrong.

Look for signs, in other words, that the author is skeptical and open minded.

5. Completeness: What's missing?

Most content should lead to more questions. An important step in being a critical, questioning consumer is to ask yourself what you don't understand about a subject. Look back at the piece. Did you miss something? Or was it not there?

If there was important information missing from the story, that is a problem. If something was explained so poorly that it wasn't clear, that's also a problem.

If something was missing and the story explained why-this couldn't be answered yet-that is a good thing.

The point of any news content is not just to tell you something. It should be to create understanding and also to help you to react or take action. So sometimes what might be missing from a story or segment or piece of content is what you can do about it.

6. Knowledge: Am I learning every day what I need?

This last, sixth question is less about checking one story than checking yourself to see if you are spending your media time well. It's almost like calorie counting.

Think about what media you consumed yesterday. What did you learn about? What did you read about? It can be hard to remember. But try. Jot down what you consumed for a couple days. You might be surprised. It also might not have been done in a conventional way. Maybe it came through social media. Or conversation. It's still consuming news.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if you are learning what you think you should

What are some things you hear people talking about that you wished you understood better? Where could you go to learn?

Could I explain this situation to someone?

Look at top stories on a website or a newspaper front page? How many of them are you familiar with? Do you think you should understand them?

This process of critical thinking about media is something we all do. When you decide what to click on, what to read, and when you lose interest and stop reading, you are making critical decisions about what matters and what you trust or what you don't understand. These six questions are the same ones that editors and producers in the media world use to edit stories and make up web pages.

In the age when we are all both editors and consumers, we all need to know them.

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Six questions that will tell you what media to trust - American Press Institute

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You may encounter media today from any number of sources, from traditional news sources to social media to email. How do you know what to trust? Ask these six questions and they will unlock whether something is trustworthy. It's easier than you think. They will make you a more critical thinker and save you from ...

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How can kids figure out what's credible news and what's fake news?

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How can kids figure out what's credible news and what's fake news? Get expert advice and tips from Common Sense Media editors.

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Common Sense Media editors help you choose Best News Sources for Kids. News websites designed for a young audience.

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Update: Please also see our new, 2017 lesson, Evaluating Sources in a 'Post-Truth' World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning About Fake News

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How do you know if something you read is true? Why should you care?

We pose these questions this week in honor of News Engagement Day on Oct. 6, and try to answer them with resources from The Times as well as from Edutopia, the Center for News Literacy, TEDEd and the NewseumEd.

Although we doubt we need to convince teachers that this skill is important, we like the way Peter Adams from the News Literacy Project frames it in a post for Edutopia.

As he points out, every teacher is familiar with "digital natives" and the way they seem to have been born with the ability to use technology. But what about "digital naïveté" - when students trust sources of information that are obviously unreliable?

Even though they know how easy it is to create and distribute information online, many young people believe - sometimes passionately - the most dubious rumors, tempting hoaxes (including convincingly staged encounters designed to look raw and unplanned) and implausible theories.

Below, a roundup of tools, questions, activities and case studies we hope can help reduce this digital naïveté. Tell us what you think - or what we missed.
Getting Started: What is News Literacy and Why Do You Need It? Video and a related lesson plan from TEDEd.
The concept of " media literacy " has been around for decades, but "news literacy" is a new field that is growing as fast as the boundaries around old definitions of journalism are being dismantled.

The Center for News Literacy explains it this way:

The most profound communications revolution since the invention of Gutenberg's printing press seems to make it harder, not easier, to determine the truth. The digital revolution is characterized by a flood of information and misinformation that news consumers can access from anywhere at any time.

News aggregators, bloggers, pundits, provocateurs, commentators and "citizen journalists" are competing with traditional journalists for public attention. Uninformed opinion masquerades as news. Lines are blurring between legitimate journalism and the propaganda, entertainment, self-promotion and unmediated information on the Internet.

This superabundance of information has made it imperative that citizens learn to judge the reliability of news reports and other sources of information that is passed along their social networks.

Teachers can check out Edutopia's Five-Minute Film Festival on News Literacy to find more resources on the concept, or, to explore it in much greater depth, visit the Center for News Literacy's Digital Resource Center to access a comprehensive curriculum series "From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg in 14 Lessons."

Before you embark on a full unit, however, we suggest two exercises.
First, Ask Your Students to Weigh In

More people have died from selfies than shark attacks this year: //t.co/0IcHpOaWgY pic.twitter.com/1Ij5cG6iMs

- Mashable (@mashable) September 27, 2015

Mashable claims that, in 2015, selfies have killed more people than sharks. The Washington Post's Intersect says that's ridiculous. What do you think?
A couple of years ago, we asked students on our blog, How Do You Know if What You Read Online Is True?

One of our daily Student Opinion questions, it was inspired by a Times article that week, "If a Story Is Viral, Truth May Be Taking a Beating," that noted, "viral trumps verified ... as long as the clicks keep coming."

Here are some of the questions we posed in the course of that discussion. You might invite your own students to talk about them in pairs, small groups or as a whole class before you begin a news literacy curriculum - and then revisit their answers after you finish. And since all of our Student Opinion questions are still open to comment, they can also post their thoughts to our blog:

1. How many viral posts - whether articles, videos or photographs - do you click on each week? How many on average do you share on social media?

2. How often do you check to make sure what you are sharing or commenting on is real? How do you go about finding that out?

3. How much do you care if a story purporting to be real actually is?

4. How much more careful are you with online sources when you are doing work for school than when you are simply surfing the web for fun? How do you decide what is a reliable source for your schoolwork?

5. What sources of news do you usually trust? What sources do you rarely trust? Why?

6. What responsibility do journalists and news outlets who post or link these stories have to make sure they are true? Is it their job to make sure something is not a hoax before they cover or link to it? How do you think they go about verifying information?

7. Can embellished, or outright fake, stories have real-world consequences? What examples can you give?

8. In a world where news can be reported by anyone with a cellphone, how do you decide what is true? What questions should you ask to find out? What personal rules might you develop to decide what news you post and when you post it? What harm might be done by not following those rules?
Then, Impose a 48-Hour News Blackout
Another introductory exercise that can help students examine their media habits and show them why and how news matters comes from the Center for News Literacy, as described in a 2007 Times article about its work:

At the outset of the course, students are required to impose a 48-hour news blackout on themselves. They are not to watch, read or listen to the news, including weather reports and sports scores. The idea is to emphasize the role that such information plays in their lives, often without students' realizing it.

You can find more about that idea here.
Tools and Strategies: How to Tell Fake News From Real News Worst Twerk Fail EVER - Girl Catches Fire Mexican Red Rump Tarantula Missing in Brooklyn Post a Facebook Copyright Status to Protect Your Information
These stories all went viral on social media, but if you click the links, you'll see all of them turned out to be hoaxes. And yet, sometimes something that sounds fake - like this story about West Point cadets who "weaponized" a pillow fight - isn't.

How can you tell? Before you hit "share," what questions should you ask?

First, suggests Chad Lorenz in a piece for Slate that explores the need for news literacy curriculums, consider the places from which you routinely get information:

Today a tour through your social media news feed might take you to Mental Floss, Dadaviz, Colossal, Cracked, Dangerous Minds, Uproxx. How is a reader to know what from this assortment of blogs and webzines can be trusted? What about a site like Inquisitr? ( Approach with caution.) What about Before It's News? (Trick question: That one is definitely not to be trusted.) While it might seem easy to distinguish real news from fake news, many people, including experienced journalists, get suckered more often than you would think. Students, as heavy users of social media, where fake news and hoaxes proliferate, should think about their own responsibility to share reliable information and not perpetuate misinformation.

Once you've done that, you might next consult the Newseum's popular Believe It Or Not? lesson plan that walks teachers and students through basic news literacy. Students learn to ask these six "consumer questions" when vetting a story:

Who made this?

How was this made?

Why was this made?

When was this made?

What is this missing?

Where do I go from here?

Another method for questioning sources of information is the mnemonic the students at Intermediate School 303 in Coney Island use: IMVAIN.

Independent sources are preferable to self-interested sources.

Multiple sources are preferable to a report based on a single source.

Sources who Verify or provide verifiable information are preferable to those who merely assert.

Authoritative and/or Informed sources are preferable to sources who are uninformed or lack authoritative background.

Named sources are better than anonymous ones.

Watch a video and learn more about how they use this technique, from the Center for News Literacy, here, then try it yourself with this checklist.

Finally, here are some guidelines specifically about breaking news from NPR's On The Media:
More Sites and Tools for Fact-Checking What You Read Going Further: Applying Your Skills, Reading Case Studies and More Practice With Content From Your News Feeds
Go through your social media feeds or your daily newspaper or both, and choose one news story, then try asking the six questions the Newseum suggests. (To learn more about how to apply each individual question, consult this resource.)

Or, compare two or more news reports on the same topic but from different news outlets to see how the same story is covered in each. You might compare lead stories or, via the Newseum's daily gallery, compare newspaper front pages from around the world, whether from that day or from big news events of years past. Or, pick a divisive or controversial topic and look at how different news sources have handled the subject.

Remember as you read that news outlets feature both straight news reporting as well as opinion about the news, and that sometimes those distinctions can blur. How can you tell the difference?

If you are a teacher doing this with an entire class, you and your students might eventually create a full classroom gallery walk of news items that highlight some of the issues raised in this post.
Learn From Some Famous Case Studies
So far most of the examples we've provided have been fairly silly - pigs rescuing goats, twerking problems - but there can be serious consequences to inaccurate news reporting, and to contributing to viral stories by sharing them yourself.

And sometimes, even generally reliable sources will make mistakes.

For instance, just after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, the F.B.I. released pictures and video of two young men who officials believed may have been responsible for the explosions, and the Internet quickly offered to help find them. Nick Bilton writes about what happened next:

In a scene metaphorically reminiscent of a movie in which vigilantes swarm the streets with pitchforks and lanterns, people took to Reddit, the popular community and social news Web site, and started scouring images posted online from the bombings.

One Reddit forum told users to search for "people carrying black bags," and noted that "if they look suspicious, then post them. Then people will try and follow their movements using all the images."

In the process, each time a scrap of information was discovered - the color of a hat, the type of straps on a backpack, the weighted droop of a bag - it was passed out on Twitter like "Wanted" posters tacked to lampposts. It didn't matter whether it was right, wrong or even completely made up (some images posted to forums had been manipulated) - off it went, fiction and fact indistinguishable.

Some misinformation online landed on the front page of The New York Post, incorrectly identifying an innocent high school student as a suspect.

Later in the week, the Web wrongly identified one of the suspects as a student from Brown University who went missing earlier this month.

Read Mr. Bilton's article, as well as " The Pressure to Be the TV News Leader Tarnishes a Big Brand" and " Should Reddit Be Blamed for the Spreading of a Smear? " to understand the real-life consequences of the race to be first with news.

During Hurricane Sandy, news and images circulated quickly via social media. ( Poynter reported, for instance, that Instagram users were posting 10 Hurricane Sandy pictures every second at one point.)

Reports that the New York Stock Exchange was underwater and that sharks were swimming in front yards in New Jersey spread widely.

This article from The Atlantic, " InstaSnopes: Sorting the Real Sandy Photos From the Fakes, " explores the stories and photos that circulated, helping readers understand which were real and which weren't.

Why might it be dangerous to rely on social media during a crisis or disaster? What did we learn about social media from Hurricane Sandy?

Finally, you might also consider The Times's Retro Report series, documentaries exploring major news stories of the past and their lasting impact. This one looks at "a moment in 1999 so searing that it is still instantly evoked with a single word: Columbine."

As the related article says, "much of what the public came to believe about Columbine was flat-out wrong. Myths took root from the start, nurtured by frightened and confused students and amplified by news outlets running hard with rumor and conjecture" - and the way the media reports on school shootings today is still affected by those early reports.

To find many more examples of news reporting gone awry, and to consider questions of accuracy and bias in far more depth then this post has room for, we again recommend the Center for News Literacy's 14 lesson series.
News or Satire?
If you spend a lot of time on social media, you've most likely been tricked, or nearly tricked, by taking at face value a story from The Onion or some other satirical news site. In fact, in 2012 the Chinese Communist Party's news outlet may have fallen for an Onion story calling Kim Jong-un, the young, chubby North Korean ruler, the "Sexiest Man Alive for 2012."

Every week in our News Quiz, we save the 10th question for news literacy. Each lists four recent news headlines - three from The Times and one from The Onion - and asks which is which. Though we often feature wacky news as "distractors," these are not trick questions: Close reading should reveal fairly quickly which headline just can't be true.

Try it. Here are two from recent quizzes. You'll notice that not only is the "news" from The Onion improbable, the humor in it is almost always a riff on real news, so keeping up with what's going on in the world in general should make the exercise even easier:
What About The New York Times?
Though most people consider The New York Times, with its reporters, editors, fact-checkers, and ethical reporting guidelines, to be among the most reliable news sources, the paper can still make mistakes - sometimes very important ones.

In 2003, after the Jayson Blair scandal rocked the institution, The Times added more safeguards, including a public editor. This person writes about The Times and its journalism, investigates matters of journalistic integrity and works independently, outside of the reporting and editing structure of the newspaper. The position is now held by Margaret Sullivan.

In her column, you can read her take on everything from the paper's coverage of Iraq in 2003 to its current use of anonymous sources and recent dubious reporting on hipster trends like "man buns." Anyone who has a concern about The Times can write to her at public@nytimes.com.
Related Learning Network Resources 50 Ways to Teach With Current Events News and 'News Analysis': Navigating Fact and Opinion in The Times Three Teacher-Tested Ways to Encourage Your Students to Follow Current Events This School Year Skills Practice | Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion Guest Post | Practical Tools for Teaching News Literacy Guest Post | News Literacy Is Not Optional if You Need to Be Well-Informed

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Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources

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Update: Please also see our new, 2017 lesson, Evaluating Sources in a 'Post-Truth' World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning About Fake News _________ How do you know if something you read is true? Why should you care? We pose these questions this week in honor of News Engagement Day on Oct.

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Research Guides: FAKE NEWS vs. REAL NEWS: How to Determine the Reliability of Sources: Fake News

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Research Guides: FAKE NEWS vs. REAL NEWS: How to Determine the Reliability of Sources: Fake News

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The Internet may be the greatest information technology ever developed: every minute, four million YouTube videos are viewed, 3.5 million Google searches are performed, and 156 million emails are sent.[1] The Internet and social media have made it easier for everybody to access, share and publish information, but that has come at a cost: it's harder than ever to tell the difference between accurate information and advertising, misinformation and parody, and it's easy for any of us to help spread false information without meaning to.

Because so many of us turn to online sources for information, authentication (the process of verifying that information is true, unbiased and relevant) can no longer be something we only practice in school: our health, our finances, and even our democracy depend on having - and sharing - good information.

To help Canadians develop the search, authentication and critical thinking skills that are needed in the digital age, MediaSmarts and Facebook Canada have partnered together to develop the Reality Check! program. Over the course of this two-year public awareness and education initiative, we will be developing a series of videos, tip sheets and activities that will give Canadians of all ages the tools they need to verify different kinds of online information and to help them understand whyit's important to double-check before they share information online. Come back often to see what new resources have been added.

The first video and tip sheet in this series provides tips and tricks to verify online news.

If this video is not displaying properly view it on Facebook.

Online news is one of the hardest things to verify. Sometimes early reports that turn out not to be true still circulate on the Internet, and people may spread false reports for commercial or malicious reasons, or even just for "fun."
[1] "What Happens in an Internet Minute in 2017?" Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist, Aug 2 2017. http://www.visualcapitalist.com/happens-internet-minute-2017/

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The Internet may be the greatest information technology ever developed: every minute, four million YouTube videos are viewed, 3.5 million Google searches are performed, and 156 million emails are sent.[1] The Internet and social media have made it easier for everybody to access, share and publish information, but that has come at a cost: it's harder than ever to tell the difference between accurate information and advertising, misinformation and parody, and it's easy for any of us to help spread false information without meaning to.

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Managing kids' search habits will keep them on approved sites -- and produce better results in the long run. Advice from Common Sense Media editors.

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LibGuides: Finding News and News Evaluation: Evaluating News Sources

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LibGuides: Finding News and News Evaluation: Evaluating News Sources

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Table of Contents

Part 1: The Need to Evaluate Internet Resources
Part 2: Evaluating Online Resources
Part 3: Checklist on Evaluating Online Resources
Part 4: Improve Your Evaluation Skills
Part 5: Content Issues: Plagiarism, Copyright and Accessibility

Why Do We Need to Evaluate Online Resources?

Everyone and anyone can create content online. Today, it's hard to determine whether an internet resource you find is authentic or not.
Evaluating online resources is an important step in any research process. Identifying trustworthy content should be part of your research journey.
If you're looking for factual resources, search through newspaper publications, TV news, journals, official pamphlets, books, and magazines. But, nowadays people opt to search for information on the Internet. They tend to believe anything posted on the Internet without even checking for credibility.

Satire and fake news sites publish erroneous data; people believe these sites because of its persuasive, believable nature. If you're looking for a credible resource, you should avoid hoax sites as this may affect the veracity of your study.

Meanwhile, many content publishers rely heavily on copying content and owning those as theirs to get decent followership. Duplicating content and passing it as if it is their own content is copyright infringement or plagiarism.

In this guide, we will help you improve your knowledge and skill in evaluating online resources. We will guide you on how to check a resource for authenticity and credibility.

Moreover, we will discuss skills that you will need to assess a resource such as speed reading and skimming. As an evaluator, you should be familiar with the different citation and referencing styles. Also, we will review several content issues like plagiarized content, DMCA, and copyrights, and web content accessibility.

Evaluating Online Resources

There are several aspects that you should look for in evaluating online resources. You should check:

who published the content (Authorship),

where was it published (Publication),

when was it published (Currency and Relevance),

the truthfulness and integrity of the facts (Accuracy),

how it is written and presented (Purpose and Objectivity),

and what references are cited within the article (Links)

Authorship

The author of the content is a concern when considering the eligibility of the content. First of all, the author should be an expert in the subject discussed in the article. He should have the credentials to back up his knowledge of the subject matter.

Usually, the information about the author can be found on the website along with the content. The name of the author can be found below the title, on the side of the article, or at the bottom. Sometimes, more information on the author is found below the article, also known as an author bio. An author may be credibility if he is oftentimes mentioned in other authoritative websites.

But, it is not easy to verify an author's background through the Internet. Website articles and resources rarely have fact-checkers or editors for copyediting an article. Another thing to consider is that authors vary in tone and purpose. Some do it for their personal blog. Other authors are advocates of a cause, while others do it for marketing their product or service.

Publication

If the information about the author is not present, the publisher of the resource article can be checked for authority.

Take a quick look on the website. Are you familiar with the publication name? Is the publisher reputable and credible on the subject matter? Look at the website name, its logo, the URL of the website, and other indicators that can prove its reliability on the topic. One quick look at the URL can help you determine if it's a reliable source or not. Trustworthy websites end in .org, .edu, .gov, or any recognizable web address.

Another way to check the publisher's site is via its About Us and Contact Us page. These pages will contain information about the publisher. You can countercheck their details by conducting another search.

Reliable websites publish content that is relevant or under the same scope as the resource page that you found. Check how often do they publish content and if they published related content as well. News and publication websites (NYTimes, BBC, The Washington Post, TIME, etc.), are authority sites for facts. Consider the resource's credibility if the publisher has mentioned or been mentioned by authority sites.

Currency and Relevance

In conducting a research, the currency and timeliness of data are important in making inferences for data gathering and analyses.

David Loshin, President of Knowledge Integrity, is a well-known thought leader in data quality and management. He has defined the difference between currency and timeliness when it comes to data:

"Currency," Loshin explained, "refers to the degree to which data is current with the world that it models. Currency can measure how up-to-date data is, and whether it is correct despite the possibility of modifications or changes that impact time and date values. Currency rules may be defined to assert limits to the lifetime of a data value, indicating that it needs to be checked and possibly refreshed."

On the other hand, timeliness refers to the time expectation for the accessibility of data. Timeliness can be measured as the time between when data is expected and when it is readily available for use."

Information changes throughout the years. On the Internet, it's easy to get lost among the billions of data available at your fingertips. Even academic articles such as theses and investigative reports can have obsolete data. Out-of-date content has information that is not relevant or applicable in today's time. How can you determine if the content that you're looking at isn't outdated? How do you check if the data you have is current and timely?

Look for the date of publication. Oftentimes, it is located near the title of the resource. You can look for the date at the side information of the article, and even at the end of the article.

Currency is a modern issue; some websites update their articles to adapt to the modern world. Data does not become obsolete, but you need to check its relevancy to the current times. For updated content, look for the date of publication and the date when it was recently changed and updated.

Here's an example from Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL):

The American Psychological Association (APA) is used as a citation style in academic and scholarly articles for social sciences. Since it started in 1929, the APA style has changed over the years and it is on its 6th edition.

With that said, updated resources oftentimes tag relevant statistical data with proper citations and referencing. Aside from that, these resources mention other resource and link back to them, regularly updating any link references should they find that those links are obsolete.

Accuracy

In writing, accuracy refers to a writer's correctness in using the language system. This means that the writer's use of grammar and vocabulary should be correct and as good as it could be.

Minimal errors are virtually present in all kinds of publication, but poor spelling and grammar can easily reflect how careless an author is, and this may result to distrust. Again, web resources are prone to technical errors since not all web publications go under the scrutinizing eye of a copy editor.

Online resources can be verified easily through a quick search on the Internet. Other resources provide a reference list that can help in double-checking facts cited within the article.

Purpose and Objectivity

An online resource clearly serves its purpose  it should teach, inform, explain, or persuade. By reading the article, it should become evident what the article aims to impart to its readers. The author should not be biased with his views reflected in the article, unless stated otherwise. You should comprehend whether the content is backed up with facts or based on opinion and propaganda. The content should show its intended audience.

Links

Links are used to cite and credit references found in other websites. During evaluation, links on the content are useful and relevant to the topic of the content. On the other hand, links on the content should proceed to an existing web page. In any case that the links within the content proceed to a 404 page or "Not Found", the content may be outdated, thus may be unreliable for new information.

Checklist on Evaluating Websites

We'll help you assess online resources easier with this concise infographic checklist brought to you by Hosting Facts:

Improve Your Evaluation Skills

Effective evaluation of online materials requires a set of skills. To effectively evaluate online materials, you must be able to do proper speed reading and skimming of content, as well as citing of references. Possessing these skills will give you the ability to objectively and successfully critique online materials. Let's discuss in detail how these skills can help you in evaluating content.

Speed Reading and Skimming

Before you will be able to evaluate any material, you will have to read it first. Going through the whole thing, even up to every punctuation mark, can eat up your time. Reading entire materials will not be practical especially if you have a lot of materials piled up. Therefore, it is vital that you possess speed-reading and skimming skills.

The average reader can run through approximately 200 words per minute. A good reader can reach 400 to 500 without sacrificing comprehension of what he had just read. Any more than 500 words risk losing comprehension so going beyond that is not advisable. We shall then consider those who can read at least 400 words a minute as a speed reader. It is, however, crucial that comprehension is maintained as there is no point in being able to finish a material quickly if you were not able to pick up anything from it. Speed reading is therefore a fast-paced manner of reading that retains understating of the material.

There are two speed reading techniques: scanning and skimming. Scanning is a very quick running through of the material in an attempt to find a specific piece of information. If you pass through an article very quickly in search for a name, a date, an amount, or the likes, what you are doing is scanning. Skimming, on the other hand, is rapid reading that goals to get the main ideas contained in the material in an effort to get the general overview of the content. Skimming is then considerably slower the scanning.

In trying to evaluate online materials, what you would most likely do is to skim through them. Unless, of course, if you're trying to look for a specific information that you are trying to verify. Skimming through an article allows you to quickly complete a material without losing its essence.

Skim effectively and finish a lot of materials with less time. Always remember than comprehension must never be sacrificed for speed. Speed reading is a total waste of time if you did not understand what you have just read.

Citation and Referencing Styles

In order to check the validity of the facts stated on an online material, references must be presented so that you can verify them. It is the responsibility of the author of the material to include citations and references in a way that follow standard referencing styles, but as the evaluator, you must also be aware of how to do this so that you can use it as criteria in critiquing the said material.

First of all, have a check on the references of the material. Make sure that these are credible resources. A lot of satirical sites and content are available on the web and one may easily come across them and eventually use them as part of the material. The writer must be careful enough to distinguish the validity and credibility of the site or content that he is basing his material from.

There are a couple of ways to include ideas from other materials into your own. It can be done through quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing. Quoting is done by directly placing portions or parts of what was included in your resource material. It is a word-for-word placement of the resource material. Summarizing is providing a shorter version of the resource material while acknowledging that your material is based on the information you got from the source. Paraphrasing is trying to reword your source material but with the necessary attribution of where you got the idea from.

These three methods of including ideas from other materials should have a list of references. This list of references must obey one of the referencing standards and styles. There are two prevailing referencing styles that are being followed: the APA format, and the MLA format.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) format is distinguished by the following characteristics:

1. Authors' and editors' names are spelled out completely. If there are more than three authors, list the first one only and then write "et. al" as a substitute for all other authors.

2. Important words in a title is capitalized.

3. The shortened name of the published is placed.

4. Only the city is placed on the place of publication.

5. Dates are placed at the end of the citations.

6. The second and subsequent lines are indented while the first line is made to align with the left margin.

7. In-text citation uses authors name and page.

On the other hand, the American Psychological Association (APA) format is as follows:

1. All authors are listed and uses last name, and then the first initial.

2. Only the first word in a title is capitalized.

3. Full names are used for publishers.

4. Includes state abbreviations for the place of publication.

5. Dates are placed after the author's name.

6. The first line of the citation is indented while subsequent aligned to the left margin

7. In-text citations use author's name, date of publication, and page number.

Always remember that citation is done because you have the responsibility to give credit to the author of your source material. You would not want to steal other people's work. Also, you would not want other people from passing of your work as their own so you must also do the same for the work of others.

The MLA Style Center is the best and most interactive guide you can check out for your research. Aside from a citation guide, they also have a research format guide for your paper and a FAQ section.

Meanwhile, to see how APA citations are usually written in reference lists, visit this guide made by The University of Western Australia. It's already updated to the 6th edition. Here you can check how different resources are cited, such as Books and eBooks, Journal articles, Newspapers & Magazines and Web sources (pages, blogs, social media, etc).

Content Issues: Plagiarism, Copyright and Accessibility

Plagiarism, copyright infringement, and problems with accessibility are some of the issues that you may stumble upon when dealing with online content. Let's discuss in detail the implications of each of these content issues.

Plagiarism: Problems of Duplicity

One of the biggest sins you can commit while writing online materials is plagiarizing, which is the omission of reference to the original source of information, which gives an impression that it is the writer of the material at hand who originally said a statement even if that is not the case. This can be done on purpose or as a result of neglect. Even if it is by mere neglect that the citation was not made, plagiarism is still inexcusable. Plagiarism can be committed against written or spoken texts, and even against graphical content such as photos, drawing, sketches, paintings, and the like.

As an evaluator of online materials, your goal is to identify whether the author of the material you are assessing committed plagiarism, may it be partial or total in nature. Plagiarism should never be tolerated, and it is the responsibility of the evaluator to ensure whether or not plagiarism was committed in any piece of material that he handles, especially those that the general public can see.

Plagiarism is really unfair to the original owner of the unduly cited content. It takes credit away from him and awards it to the plagiarizer. All the hard work, creativity, and that the original owner of the content is put into waste, while the plagiarizer is praised for creating outstanding content - of course, why would anyone copy something that he does not consider as at least a good write-up, statement, or photo?

DMCA and Copyright Issues

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines copyright as the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work). With a copyright, you can sue others who try to reproduce your work without your permission or consent. It is a protection given to the original creator, or to whom he grants the said protection, to benefit from his work.

In essence, violation of copyright (or more commonly referred to as copyright infringement) and plagiarism are similar. However, copyright infringement backed up by a legal construct while plagiarism is more of an ethical issue for academic, journalistic, or corporate institutions. Both of these promote originality and creativity as they protect the original creator of the work.

Copyright infringement and plagiarism do not go hand-in-hand. Not all cases of copyright infringement are cases of plagiarism as well, and vice versa. You can plagiarize content that do not qualify for copyright, and you can also commit infringement even if you have provided the necessary citation.

When talking about copyright, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) almost always follows. The DMCA is a copyright law of the United States which was made to implement two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as well as to heighten the penalties given to those who commit copyright infringement. The provisions of the DMCA will be discussed in detail on future write-ups focused on the topic. For now, it must just be fully understood that copyright infringement is a serious matter and there are strong laws against it.

As an evaluator, you must deal with copyright infringement issues before matters get worse. It is your duty to uphold the observance of applicable laws and ethical standards.

Content Accessibility

One billion people, or 15 % of the world's population, experience some form of disability, and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. One-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experience significant disabilities. - WorldBank.org

One billion people. A significant amount of this population have access to the Internet, but sadly, not all can access content found on the Internet. With the increasing demands for website accessibility, several countries have already pushed for accessibility legislation to support the disabled users' rights to information.

Disabled users commonly addressed by these efforts are those with visual, mobility, auditory, seizures and cognitive disabilities. Those with visual disabilities include low vision and color blindness. Motor disabilities include those who lack muscle control due to tremors or neurological conditions. Hearing impairments such as deafness are included in auditory disabilities. Meanwhile, people with seizures are a special case; those triggered by visual strobes or flashing effects are mainly affected in this category. Last but not the least, cognitive disabilities range from developmental to learning disabilities.

How does website accessibility help these users?

Website accessibility helps users to understand and access a website's information with the help of certain tools that aims to assist them in browsing a website. But, if a website is not optimized for accessibility, disabled users will have a hard time browsing a website.

There are available tools for the auditory and visually challenged to interact and use the Internet. Text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware help blind users to access a website. For poor-sighted users, having a function to make the texts enlargeable would be helpful especially those without prescription glasses. Highlighting linked texts through underlines or contrast highlights will aid visually impaired users, especially those who are color blind.

Those with disabled motor abilities will benefit from large clickable areas like buttons on a website since they will lack precision in clicking small buttons. Moreover, coding a website that will let users navigate the website easily via keyboard or a single switch device can help them browse through the website even without using a mouse or a standard keyboard.

Today, playing videos has been less complicated as well. Those with hearing complications can now watch and understand the context of these videos through closed-captioning or via sign language. Meanwhile, flashing effects on websites are known to trigger seizure attacks. Minimizing or fully avoiding these effects will not be put those who are prone to seizure at risk.

Developmental or cognitive disabilities perhaps is the biggest challenge of them all. With various content available in different formats and in different contexts or degrees of reading difficulty, those who have a difficult time comprehending these content will shy away from a resource. Ideally, a resource content should be easy to understand, written in plain language, and equipped with instructional diagrams and even audio-visual aids.

To know more about website accessibility, Hosting Facts has another resource guide for web designers and developers on how to make your website accessible to all. This includes a brief history of web accessibility, steps on how to make your website accessible, and tools you can use to assess your website for accessibility in accordance to the guidelines set by WCAG 2.0.

With online content made accessible for everyone, even people with disabilities can understand and learn more information from the website.

Further Readings and References

APA citation style: Introduction. (n.d.) Retrieved July 21, 2016, from http://guides.is.uwa.edu.au/apa

Disability Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2016, from http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability/overview

Evaluating Information. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2016, from http://guides.library.jhu.edu/c.php?g=202581

Evaluating Internet Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2016, from http://www.library.georgetown.edu/tutorials/research-guides/evaluating-internet-content

How to Make Websites User Friendly and Accessible for Everybody. (n.d.) Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://hostingfacts.com/website-accessibility-guide/

Loshin, D. (2011). The Practitioner's Guide to Data Quality Improvement. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.

The MLA Style Center. (n.d.) Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://style.mla.org/

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The Complete Guide to Evaluating Online Resources - HostingFacts.com

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Table of Contents Part 1: The Need to Evaluate Internet Resources Part 2: Evaluating Online Resources Part 3: Checklist on Evaluating Online Resources Part 4: Improve Your Evaluation Skills Part 5: Content Issues: Plagiarism, Copyright and Accessibility Why Do We Need to Evaluate Online Resources? Everyone and anyone can create content online.

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Free Search Better Tutorial at GCFLearnFree

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In this free Search Better tutorial, you'll learn all about online search using the best tips for searching online.

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Determining what makes a reliable Web resource for a research paper is an important student skill. Here are three tutorials that propose criteria to establish resource suitability, in some cases using fewer or slightly different terms, each with useful advice and tips:

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Determining what makes a reliable Web resource for a research paper is an important student skill. Here are three tutorials that propose criteria to establish resource suitability, in some cases using fewer or slightly different terms, each with useful advice and tips:

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How does the credibility of sources impact the way students learn about and respond to news, media, and information?

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Learners A. 4. 3  Learners follow ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by:
3. Evaluating information for accuracy, validity, social and cultural context, and appropriateness for need.

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Topic: Credible and Non-credible Sources of Information

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Topic: Credible and Non-credible Sources of Information

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Grade Level: 9th grade