Evaluating Websites

Anyone who uses the web for journalism research (or any other kind of research) must face the fact that not everything you find online is true. Today we will use some techniques to evaluate and learn more about online sources.

Tips for this process (following the UC Berkeley checklist below):

1. Look at URLs (Uniform Resource Locators, or web addresses) carefully and use search tools to discover more information about your source
2. Scan the page looking to see: Who wrote it? Is it current? Is there evidence of expertise?
3. Look at quality: Are sources well-documented? Complete? Is there indication of bias?
4. What do others say? Who links to the site? Is the page rated well in a directory? Look up the author in Google.
5. What are your overall impressions? Why was the page put on the Web? Could it be satire?
   

Some useful sources:

• UC Berkeley: Evaluating Web Pages
  
• UC Berkeley: Web Page Evaluation Checklist
  
• Domain Ownership Inquiry:WhoIs.Net
• UCLA College Library Tutorial: Hoax? You Decide

neweurasia.net
The Onion
Central Asia--Caucasus Analyst
History of Space Travel