1
INFORMATIONEN BESCHAFFEN 7 – Recherche III Erkennen seriöser Internetquellen
I. Credible versus non-credible sources
Credible sources are ones the reader can trust. We trust that the author’s ideas are his or her own and can be backed up with evidence. When doing research or reading for back- ground information, you should always use a credible source.
credible non-credible
- The more information available on a website, the more credible it is.
- There is a specific author, the audience is clear and the purpose is informative not biased.
- The information is regularly updated.
- Websites from credible institutions like the Federal Agency For Civic Education (German: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) and U.S. Government Depat- ments.
- Also look for websites ending in .edu and .gov
- Blogs, Facebook posts, tweets on Twit- ter, or other self-authored sites.
- Research articles without citations.
- Websites with information not from an author or governmental department.
- Materials published over 15 years ago or have theories that are clearly out-of- date.
- The site contains many misspellings or broken links.
- The main purpose of this site is to sell a product or service.
II. Questions to take into consideration
ü What is the purpose of this source? When we find sources, we want to find clear and unbiased sources that give the facts. We don’t want opinions that aim to alter and per- suade people’s views.
Exercise: Evaluate these newspapers and magazines according to their credibility.
2 ü Is this website from an organization or author I can trust? Websites from governmental
agencies or institutions are most likely better resources than a website anyone can post to or edit, like Wikipedia.
Exercise: Find out what “Project Gutenberg”
and “TED” is about. Discuss if you can trust these websites.
III. Using Wikipedia
There are a few facts you should know about before using Wikipedia. Click on these links and you will find out more about Wikipedia’s authors, current issues and the way it is fi- nanced.
a) http://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2016-01/wikipedia-15-jahre-zustand-probleme-wikidata
b) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/11539958/How-much-can-we-trust-Wikipedia.html
IV. Faking reviews
The idea that ordinary people can rate a video, blog, article, podcast, hotel or any commer- cial product on a scale (usually one to five stars) may help you to faster find what you are looking for without wasting too much time. However, you need to take into consideration that professional editors are sometimes paid to write and edit on a
comments page (e.g. TripAdvisor), thus helping a product to be sold or an opinion to be formed.
Exercise: Have you ever noticed a fake review on the Internet?
How did you find out that it was a lie or very biased? Describe your experience.
V. Checklist
If you are still unsure about the credibility of a webpage you can follow the link below and fill in a checklist. This reflection process will help you to find the right website with information you can trust.
http://www.lib.umd.edu/binaries/content/assets/public/usereducation/evaluating-web-sites- checklist-form.pdf
