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Current News Sources: CARS Part I: Credibility

Sources for newspapers and current event topics.

Credibility

Note: this guide's presentation of the CARS Framework of information evaluation is adapted from 
Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources." VirtualSalt. 21 January 2015. http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm​.

 

Website Credibility

A website's URL, or address, can provide clues as to its origin. You can look there for hints that a website is posing as a more trusted news source. Compare the following images:

        

The designation .com indicates a commercial organization based in the U.S.A. The designation .co indicates a domain registered in Colombia. One way organizations disguise themselves is to introduce .com, .org, or .gov before the final code that indicates the site's actual origin. For example, abcnews.com is owned by ABC, Inc., which is owned by a division of The Walt Disney Company and redirects to abcnews.go.com; however, abcnews.com.co appears to be registered to a private individual.

Services like ICANN's WHOIS and others can help you identify the registrant of a web domain. The folks at November Learning, an education-consulting service, have put together a handy guide to reading web addresses, and the ISO posts a complete list of country codes.

Further domain-code information:

  • .com = Commercial site. The information provided by commercial interests is generally going to shed a positive light on the product it promotes. While this information might not necessarily be false, you might be getting only part of the picture. Remember, there's a monetary incentive behind every commercial site in providing you with information, whether it is for good public relations or to sell you a product outright.
  • .edu = Educational institution. Sites using this domain name are schools ranging from kindergarten to higher education. If you take a look at your school's URL you'll notice that it ends with the domain .edu. Information from sites within this domain must be examined very carefully. If it is from a department or research center at an educational institution, it can generally be taken as credible. However, students' personal Web sites are not usually monitored by the school even though they are on the school's server and use the .edu domain.
  • .gov = Government. If you come across a site with this domain, then you're viewing a federal government site. All branches of the United States federal government use this domain. Information such as Census statistics, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court rulings would be included in sites with this domain. The information is considered to be from a credible source.
  • .org = Traditionally, a non-profit organization. Organizations such as the American Red Cross or PBS (Public Broadcasting System) use this domain suffix. Generally, the information in these types of sites is credible and unbiased, but there are examples of organizations that strongly advocate specific points of view over others, such as the National Right to Life Committee and Planned Parenthood. You want to give this domain scrutiny. Some commercial interests might be the ultimate sponsors of a site with this suffix.
  • .mil = Military. This domain suffix is used by the various branches of the Armed Forces of the United States.
  • .net = Network. You might find any kind of site under this domain suffix. It acts as a catch-all for sites that don't fit into any of the preceding domain suffixes. Information from these sites should be given careful scrutiny.
Upstate Library. "Domain Suffix." "Evaluating Information - STAAR Method: URL & What it can tell you," University of South Carolina Upstate. 13 Jul 2017. http://uscupstate.libguides.com/c.php?g=257977&p=1721715.

Author Credibility

What information should I consider?

  • Does the author really exist?
  • Does the author know more than you do about the subject?
  • What is the author's education background? Is it relevant to the topic they write on?
  • Is the creator affiliated with an organization, corporation, government agency, university, etc.?
  • Have they written on this topic in the past? Can you find their work in library article databases or only in internet searches?
  • Have other experts reviewed this person's work in the past? Do those reviews contest the facts cited in the author's work?

Where should I look for author info?

  • Is there an "About the Author" link on the page?
  • LinkedIn is a professional networking site where members can post their résumés and other information pertaining to their professional lives. However, not every writer is a member, and it is possible to create false accounts.
  • Author searches through an internet search service like Bing or Google often produce reviews or other relevant thoughts about their work. If you see claims contesting an author's report or an abundance of poor reviews, it is probably best to continue testing the article's claims.
  • Google Scholar operates like Google, but returns scholarly, peer-reviewed papers, and thus serves as a place one can verify claims of expertise.

Publisher Credibility

What information should I consider?

  • Is the publisher one that typically produces rigorous work?
  • What is the publisher's mission? Does the organization have an ideological leaning or agenda?
  • Is there an "About Us" page? If not, consider it a red flag.

Where should I look for information on a publisher?

  • ReferenceUSA is a directory of US and Canada people and businesses available to libraries and government agencies. If you can't access it, ask a librarian.
  • Internet search engines.
  • The organization's "About Us" page.
  • The organization's mission statement.

A word on the "About Us" page:

People who are confident in their work have reason to let people know who created it. Being open to feedback helps a creator improve their work's quality and can lead to more and better-paying work.

"About Us Analysis. I usually google every title/domain name/anyone listed in the 'About Us' section to see if anyone has previously reported on the website (Snopes, Hoax-Slayer, Politifact, Factcheck, etc.) or whether it has a Wikipedia page or something similar detailing its background. This is useful for identifying and correctly interpreting lesser known and/or new websites that may be on the up-and-up, such as satirical sources or websites that are explicit about their political orientation.
"Then I look for information about the credentials and backgrounds of affiliated writers (is it a content mill or do they pay their writers?), editors, publishers, and domain owners (who.is etc.). It’s also useful to see if the website has a 'Legal' or 'Disclaimer' section. Many satirical websites disclose this information in those sections.
"A total lack of About Us, Contact Us, or any other type of identifying information may mean that the website is not a legitimate source of information." (Melissa Zimdars).

Zimdars, Melissa. "False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical "News" Sources". 2016. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10eA5-mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/edit