Research Guides: GCS 105: Introduction to Global Cultural Studies (Zheng): Evaluating Resources

Tools and Resources to Help Spot False Information or Biases

AllSides
"AllSides strengthens our democratic society with balanced news, diverse perspectives, and real conversation." This site displays "the day’s top news stories from the Left, Center and Right of the political spectrum — side-by-side so you can see the full picture."
Factcheck.org
"We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."
Media Bias
A resource that identifies the biases of over 950 news media sources: Left News; Left-Center News; Center News; Right-Center News; Right News; Breaking News; Pro-science; Conspiracy-Pseudoscience; Satire/Fake News.
PolitiFact
PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, an independent newspaper in Florida, as is PunditFact, a site devoted to fact-checking pundits. The PolitiFact state sites are run by news organizations that have partnered with the Times. The state sites and PunditFact follow the same principles as the national site. This site provides more variability into the "verdict" of statements made by politicians, such as half-true, compromise, mostly false, promise broken or kept, pants on fire, mostly true, and true.
RationalWiki
This is a non-profit organization with the following goals:
"Analyzing and refuting pseudoscience and the anti-science movement.
Documenting the full range of crank ideas.
Explorations of authoritarianism and fundamentalism.
Analysis and criticism of how these subjects are handled in the media."
Snopes.com
One of the more prominent Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. The snopes.com website was founded by David Mikkelson, who lives and works in the Los Angeles area. What he began in 1995 as an expression of his interest in researching urban legends has since grown into what is widely regarded by folklorists, journalists, and laypersons alike as one of the World Wide Web's essential resources. Snopes.com is routinely included in annual "Best of the Web" lists and has been the recipient of two Webby awards. Each item investigated includes the claim and verdict at the beginning (false, unproven, true) as well as the origin of the claim.
Washington Post Fact Checker
In an award-winning journalism career spanning more than three decades, Glenn Kessler has covered foreign policy, economic policy, the White House, Congress, politics, airline safety and Wall Street. He was The Washington Post’s chief State Department reporter for nine years, traveling around the world with three different Secretaries of State. Before that, he covered tax and budget policy for The Washington Post and also served as the newspaper’s national business editor. This site uses Pinocchio symbols to indicate levels of false information.

Evaluating Resources

How to Evaluate Resources

How we view the world is based on the information that we encounter. We all use the Internet to gather information for all sorts of different reasons such as medical, financial, political, etc. and it is crucial to evaluate the information that we find. Evaluating information is also important for your assignments; it will help you decide what is reliable, strengthen your arguments, and perhaps earn you a better grade. But what are some good strategies for evaluating information? A great place to start is to ask these four main questions:

Who wrote it?
Are there potential motivations or biases?
Is evidence provided and how reliable is the info?
Is the info current or out of date?

1. Who Wrote it?

Knowing about the author will help you to analyze the information that you've found, and use it more effectively.

Is the author an expert on this topic?
Are credentials provided to demonstrate expertise or knowledge of the subject?
What can you gather about the author’s background?
Is the author affiliated with any institutions or organizations?
Is the publisher well established and reputable?
Is there any contact information provided about the author or publisher?

2. Motivation and Biases

When you know about potential motivations or biases associated with a resource, ask how these might affect the information that you're viewing.

Is the information source supported by a group, organization or company?
What kind of reputation do they have?
What does the author or group stand to gain by convincing others of its points?
Is the author very opinionated, biased or neutral on the topic?
Is the information likely to have been reviewed by others before being published?
Who is the intended audience?

3. Evidence and Reliability

Ask what sort of evidence the author provides for the points that he or she is trying to make. The more verifiable evidence that a resource uses, the more likely that the information is accurate.

Does the resource indicate where they get their information from, such as a list of citations?
Does it rely on evidence from different and multiple sources or just a couple?
Is first-hand research included?
If so, what sources or methods did the author use to gather the information or data?
Were the methods 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.)
Is it cited by other researchers? (Check this by using Scopus, Google Scholar, or some other citation resource).
Is the text well-written, or does it contain grammatical, spelling or typographical errors?
Is it written in the language of the discipline or for a general audience?
Are links to other resources current or broken?
Are pages finished or still under construction?

4. Timeliness

People view different topics differently and talk about them in different ways at different times. Make sure that the resource you're viewing is either up-to-date or published at a time that is relevant to the topic that you're studying.

Are the facts, such as statistics, current or out-of-date?
Is there a historical perspective that would be beneficial from using older facts?

5. Tips

Here are some more tips to consider when evaluating resources:

Be skeptical and cautious about new sources of information and their origins.
A homepage may provide useful information. Shorten the URL to the homepage: https://hyperreal.org/~mpesce/ctnsinterview.html --> https://hyperreal.org
Who funds the website? Is there a parent website?
Search for the co-authors or the organization to see what others have said about them and to gain a broader sense of an author's or organization's reputation and background.
Domains do not determine reliability
Most domains can be bought by anyone, and many hate/disinformation groups use the .org domain to appear more legitimate. Their information is often biased and inaccurate. At the same time, reliable sources such as the five U.S. major dailies use .com domains: NYT, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Washington Post. In short, be skeptical and inquisitive about where your information comes from
Educational (.edu) or governmental sites (.gov) tend to provide more objective information.
Here is further reading on How to Evaluate Trustworthiness in Science (and most disciplines)

GCS 105: Introduction to Global Cultural Studies (Zheng): Evaluating Resources

Tools and Resources to Help Spot False Information or Biases

Evaluating Resources

How to Evaluate Resources

How to Evaluate Resources

1. Who Wrote it?

2. Motivation and Biases

3. Evidence and Reliability

4. Timeliness

5. Tips

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