I'm a graduate student doing a research paper on verifying online information: How do you know its creditable? Does anyone have any suggestions for places or sources to get information on this topic? give me your feedback.
safitch@uwm.edu wrote:
I'm a graduate student doing a research paper on verifying online information: How do you know its creditable? Does anyone have any suggestions for places or sources to get information on this topic? give me your feedback.
_______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
I gotta admit, what makes us believe information collected via the web is any more or less truthful than that collected via paper and pencil? Or even personal interview? JW -- ========================================================================= John White, Ph.D. | O: 270.745.5867 Associate Professor | F: 270.745.4437 Dept. of Public Health | W: http://www.wku.edu/~whitejb Western Kentucky University | E: john.white@wku.edu =========================================================================
safitch@uwm.edu wrote:
I'm a graduate student doing a research paper on verifying online information: How do you know its creditable? Does anyone have any suggestions for places or sources to get information on this topic? give me your feedback.
Here's a useful recent textbook on the subject: Radford, M. L., Barnes, S. B., & Barr, L. R. (2002). Web research: Selecting, evaluating, & citing. Boston: Allyn & Bacon [ISBN 0205332498]. There are also plenty of resources online about criteria for evaluating Web sites, many of them from libraries (institutions with a long tradition of evaluating all sorts of information). http://www.ala.org/acrl/undwebev.html http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/reference/webcriteria.html http://library.rwu.edu/evaluat.html http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html Regards, Janet Sternberg, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor, New/Digital Media Department of Communication and Media Studies Fordham University 441 E. Fordham Rd. Bronx, NY 10458-9993 718-817-4855 voice 718-817-4868 fax jsternberg@fordham.edu netberg@compuserve.com
safitch@uwm.edu wrote:
I'm a graduate student doing a research paper on verifying online information: How do you know its creditable? Does anyone have any suggestions for places or sources to get information on this topic? give me your feedback.
This seems to be an increasingly important question to ask. I presented a paper on online credibility at a National Communication Association conference a few years back which I would be happy to send. A number of people responded afterwards who appeared to be working on similar projects. Currently I am continuing the project by framing the question in rhetorical terms: How is ethos conveyed on the Web? Examining the problems has led me to consider the relationship between credibility and the Web in three different ways: 1) rhetoric ABOUT the Web that contributes to its ethos as a medium, such as cyberconspiracy themes and Wild West metaphors 2) rhetoric mediated THROUGH the Web, where the medium seems to constrain or enhance the credibility of a message, such as the ability to describe in detail the trustworthiness of your organization with optional links or the difficulty of verifying the sheer volume of information made possible through online publication 3) rhetoric OF the Web, which suggests that ethos can be embodied in Web site design itself, in the same way that usability engineers suggest good design can embody the function and navigability of a site. This view of Web rhetoric also includes the notion that communication emanates from the Web in Weiner's cybernetic sense, or the sense of perceived agency described by Nass and Reeves in __Media Equation__. I would be happy to describe the project to you in more detail. Mike T. Hubler The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Re: the recent discussion on verification: I am actually working on this problem right now, not so much in terms of verifiable content, but how the process of locating information on the Web seems to "be exempt" from scientific processes of falsification. See the abstract to my paper on my website (posted below). I found the following (older) paper very useful: Clever Project (1999). "Hypersearching the Web." Scientific American(June): 54-59. I have another paper which I can't locate, a metastudy of evaluative factors in web site useage which I will post soon. Denise ===== "it's easier to use your mouse than your brain" Denise Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & PhD student, School of Education, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.html __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! News - Today's headlines http://news.yahoo.com
Two thoughts. This question is exactly the motivating force behind the theories of the man who first popularized the concept of hypertext, Ted Nelson, who foresaw the problems of data integrity and copyright in a networked world. The web went a long way, but it hasn't yet been completely solved: http://livinginternet.com/w/wi_nelson.htm E-commerce sites that take credit cards over the web and many other sites increasingly use Public Key Cryptography to provide digital signatures to verify user, site, and document validity: http://livinginternet.com/i/is_crypt_pkc.htm All the best, Bill At 12:56 PM 9/16/02 -0500, safitch@uwm.edu wrote:
I'm a graduate student doing a research paper on verifying online information: How do you know its creditable? Does anyone have any suggestions for places or sources to get information on this topic? give me your feedback.
_______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
Dear Aoir's - I include this citation, the metastudy I mentioned because there seemed to be some interest in the topic: Klein, B. D. (2001). "User perceptions of data quality: Internet and traditional text sources." Journal of Computer Information Systems Summer(2001): 9-15. She has summarized in this paper an analysis of "fifteen dimensions of data quality." However, I don't see the real problems coming forth in this discussion - 1) user perceptions of quality - but what's that - users could have some cr*p idea of what is quality; yet the website (information source) in question serves their needs 2) problems of validating and securing "real" online information - credit card no's, etc. as mentioned here vs. 3) search engine algorithms & data mining techniques to ensure that what users request is what the SE delivers - BUT - if users ask an uninformed question - are there checks and balances? 4) ensuring that web-based data falls into the same types of rigorous enquiry as information from other sources. 5) testing of the hypothesis - is this good data or not? that seems to escape most users as an important part of the process . . . . Denise ===== "it's easier to use your mouse than your brain" Denise Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & PhD student, School of Education, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.html __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com
participants (6)
-
Denise N. Rall -
Janet Sternberg -
John B. White -
Mike T. Hubler -
safitch＠uwm.edu -
William Stewart