Web Credibility Assignment
Objective: Select one online journalism Web site and review and
analyze for credibility based on Web site evaluation lesson.
Requirements:
- Pick one online journalism site to review for credibility. This
can be a mainstream site with a print counterpart, a purely online
publication, an alternative site, or any site that purports to
provide current and changing information to the public.
- Use the Web Evaluation
Checklist from the exercise in class to assess for credibility.
Make sure you cover all three areas, content, authority, and presentation.
Focus on the positive as well as the negative aspects of the site's
credibility and make recommendations for improvement.
- Do an analysis of the site as a short paper (1-2 pages). Write in paragraph
format (as opposed to simply answering the questions in bullet
manner). You should have an introductory paragraph, then a paragraph on each of the 3 criteria (content, authority, presentation), then a closing paragraph with your assessment (so a total of 5 paragraphs).
Some of the items on the checklist may not be applicable to this site.
Sites examples to accompany handout:
Drudge Report
- early example of citizen journalism; could be considered one of the first "blogs," wrote about DC Beltway gossip, was instrumental in the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. Example of anyone being able to publish.
Greek Civilization
- unnecessary animation, weird typography, background, lots of unexplained links. Consider how you feel about this page. Does the url reflect anything about the author? Tripod sites were very common in the 90s, anyone could get one.
The
Onion
- humorous, but easy to be confused by it. Not everyone gets the satire. Could enter a page from a search engine and not realize it's fake news.
Greening Earth Society
- no longer on the Web, but when it was, was deemed as misleading. The design makes it look very green and environmentally conscious. But it was really the site for the Western Fuels Association lobby, refuting the dangers of client change and carbon dioxide levels. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greening_Earth_Society
)
Son of Bush
- What do you think of this page? What are some of the elements that make you question credibility? How can you find out more about the author? Look at the Other Links. Can you backtrack in the url to find out about him.
Mark Perkel home page
- So, this is what you get when you backtrack in the url. Does he seem like someone whose opinion you'd want to accept?
World's Worst
- just for fun ;-)
14 Websites We Don't Even... - CNN
