Information Evaluation Researching over the years has become much more manageable than in the past. A simple Google search nowadays will provide thousands of hits depending on the topic. This allows for an individual to have an infinite amount of knowledge at their fingertips. Whether or not that knowledge is credible is highly debatable. Credible research can’t simply be pulled from thin air-or in this case by a simple tap on a keyboard. In order to decide whether or not an article is actually credible calls for some work, which means the first hit on a Google search might not be the best option. In this paper, I will examine two articles intended for different audiences to decide whether or not they are credible. I will be considering …show more content…
On page one under the headline Walsh writes, “Human Beings will be able to adapt-or at least the richer ones will.” This has very little to do with what the article’s title states and isn’t drawn back until page two of the article. “Human beings-especially relatively rich ones- will muddle through, adapting to a warmer, more parasite ridden world.” (Infectious Disease) I believe that these statements try to attract those with middle class backgrounds, essentially the majority of the general public, to the facts he is presenting. He briefly touches on how impoverished areas will be more affected but adding this narrative doesn’t add validity to his argument. Walsh includes several statistics and facts but provides little to no evidence as to where the data originated from. On page one of the article, he claims that malaria kills about 650,000 people a year. (Infectious Disease) That’s a very large number not to have any source tied to it. Did he do the math himself? Did he hop onto Wikipedia and snatch the first set of data he could find? I don’t know. There is no doubt that this article presents information that is relevant to the topic, but the validity of such information is heavily questioned when the author-who lacks scientific background-presents facts without backing. The second article I read was written by five authors, Sonia Altizer, Richard S Ostfeld,
Apon revisiting the web site NewsComAu.com, I realised that I had overlooked certain criteria while compiling our online presentation, and although the website’s coverage and currency are good, and the information I used is ratified by other sources, I now notice that the article I used is not referenced and the website is full of advertisements and sensational stories, which although not wrong in itself, would tend to question the objectivity and in turn the authority of the site, and I would hesitate to use it again, NewsComAu, (2014). Eelink.net (1999) inform us that although it is wise to evaluate a website, that ‘good information can be found on bad sites’, and re affirms the need to evaluate the information found on a website as well as the website itself. This becomes particularly applicable if we cannot find information on our subject of research on so called ‘good sites’, which may in fact turn out to have a bias regarding even reporting certain information. This leads us to consider our personal bias, which according to Eelink.net (1999) we all have. Our bias needs to be taken into consideration, because if unchecked this could cause us to dismiss information while researching a subject simply because we personally disagree with it,
In the article, Domonoske begins with explaining studies founded by the Stanford researchers, and how they evaluated and their ideas concluded that, “students” ability to assess information sources are described to be as "dismaying," "bleak" and "[a] threat to democracy." The tone in the statement is crucial and gives a strong feel which makes it more appealing and more attention-
When looking at each of the articles presented, there are defining factors that allow researchers to determine whether or not it is a scholarly or popular resource. Of the two articles, one can assert that the USA Today Article is a popular source and the article by Baker and Algorta (2016) is a scholarly source. Each of these sources has their advantages and disadvantages due to the stylistic devices employed by the writers. With the help of each article, knowledge of readers and viewers is expanded, and while there are some facets that detract from the quality of the knowledge gained, the readers benefits from the time spent reading.
The authors of this article are, Laura Hedin and Gregory Conderman. They actually write and have written a lot of
question the reliability of these sources, the nature of the inconsistency between these two articles has
During college, students should be able to research and analyze their sources. It is an important life skill. By using the ability to research, they can find articles with credible, reliable, and relevant information to get the best and dependable research. People who use these techniques will find each of these components essential to the authenticity of an article. These skills would be able to help students and researchers discover trustworthy and reliable sources. Each of the different components in a quality research makes it solid and dependable. Credibility is how believable or truthful the research, and whether the researchers have the credentials to do research in that area. Reliability is the reputation of the article’s source, and if the authors considered any biases. Relevancy is how current the article is or how important it is now. Students conducting research in college need to be able to critically analyze sources for credibility, relevancy, and reliability in order to determine their usefulness in a research paper.
Nicholas Carr, Harvard alumni and member of Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors, questioned the effects of search engines on our minds in his article to The Atlantic entitled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” claiming that the use of search engines causes a loss of the ability to deeply read and as therefore causes our minds to lose the ability to process information. He used personal stories to depict the apparent change in his and others ' minds from having the ability to "read deeply," to habitually skimming over the text in an effort to hastily extract information. Specifically targeting the leaders of the Google search engine - whom he said believe that, "Ambiguity is not an opening for insight but a bug to be fixed," - he related several causal reasons as to why the engines affect our minds negatively. He used a study on online research habits from the University College London to stress the point that people conducting research tend to read "no more than one or two pages of an article or book
While advances in technology can be beneficial, the growing need to have answers at our fingertips has contributed to issues with the credibility of websites. The internet is bursting with information that can be obtained through search engines or databases. However, problems arise when it comes to determining the accuracy behind the content obtained because some of
1. List the title of the article , author (s) , and the name of the journal of the peer - reviewed journal
Everyone has their own ways of obtaining information about every topic imaginable. There is not one set way of accumulating information, but there are some ways that allow better quality of information to be obtained. For example, some people use the media to find information on the Affordable Care Act and others use reputable academic sources to do the same. The media’s main focus for covering the Affordable care Act is for political reasons, where academia uses information about the Affordable Care Act in order to understand various cultural assumptions.
Information is data that has been processed so that it has meaning and value to a recipient,
Reliability and credibility of a website is extremely important when we seek information. A good method to corroborate if the source is trustworthy is to identify the authors credentials, who is sponsoring the page, and if the information could be verified. Judgments emitted by experts in any field can give the notion that those arguments are valid. An error committed by Renee Schoof on his article was to not include the sources from which preceded the information he present. The process of verifying facts involves identifying these sources of information; this in turn helps to assess whether the information is reliable.
Data comprises of factual information. Data are the facts from which information is derived. Data is not necessarily informative on its own but needs to be structured, interpreted, analysed and contextualised. Once data undergoes this process, it transforms in to information. Information should be accessible and understood by the reader without needing to be interpreted or manipulated in any way.
Doctoral learners/researchers must become information-literate individuals that are able to identify, locate, evaluate, organize, and communicate regarding research sources and materials. The evaluation component of information literacy includes considering the article's accuracy, objectivity, currency, authority, and relevance. Why is the skill of evaluation important for doctoral learners/researchers?
Going straight to the source is the best way to check if the information in the article is reliable and credible.