Civic Communication & Media: Starting Point

• How to Find News About People or Businesses in Local Media
• How to Find Polling Information

Italics indicates special criteria for Internet resources
 

1. Reason

• Who is the intended audience?
• Is scope or purpose specifically stated? Do the contents match the stated scope?
• Is the point of view stated? Is there a particular agenda that is being pushed?
• Does it have an established reputation? If so, consider what kind of reputation it represents?
• What is the host's motivation for providing the information on the Web?
  (Advertising for profit, part of agency's mission, educational purposes, reporting original research, publicizing a particular agenda)
• What information can be gained about the site domain code of the host address?
  • .com = commercial source
  • .gov = government agency
  • .org = non-profit organization
  • .net = consortium (profit or non-profit)
  • .edu = educational institution

2. Readability

• Is the text well written? Is it written in the language of the discipline or for a general audience?
• Does the source have features, such as charts, illustrations, or a bibliography, that will be helpful?
• Is the information needed to cite the material easily found?
• Is there a lot of information available or is the information it provides limited?
• Are links to other Web resources labeled clearly?

3. Reliability

• Is objectivity a factor?
• Who is the author?
• Does the author provide credentials demonstrating expertise or knowledge of the subject?
• Is the publisher reputable?
• Does the resource contain grammatical, spelling or typographical errors?
• Is there any contact information provided?
• Are facts, such as statistics, accurate, current, and verifiable? Are sources of information cited?
• What sources or methods did the author use to gather the information?
• Is the method of obtaining data accurate and dependable?
• Is it refereed/peer-reviewed or did just a staff editor review it? Peer-review means a scholar or researcher in the related field has reviewed it before publication.
• How frequently is the resource updated?
• Are the links to other resources current? And is the page finished or still under construction?

4. References

• Does the author list where they get their information from
  (e.g. footnotes, bibliography, or reference list)? 
• Are there many sources listed?
• Are the author's sources reliable?
• Can you follow their listed sources to obtain the original information sources?