3-2 Blog: Unrestricted Web Publishing

The article I have chosen to look further look into is 5 Surprising Health Benefits of Yoga in the Huffington Post by Kristen Domonell (2014). The sources listed within this article all seem credible based upon Virginia Montecino’s “Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources” (2014). Although there was no reference section at the bottom of the article, the author uses several interactive hyperlinks throughout the text to cite seven sources.

• Does the author have any authority in the field?

Although we don’t know it Domonell herself is a yoga expert, she refers to Mitchel Bleier, an established yoga professional in the industry for 18 years.

• Are there any clues that the author is biased? Are they selling a product?

The author is not trying to sell a yoga mat, a yoga ball, etc. She is promoting health and stress management techniques, but is not referring readers to any specific studio or instructor. She does not sound ‘sale-sy’.

• Is the web information current?

The article was only published a little over a year ago. Readers can count on this information being up-to-date.

• Does the author have a complete list of works cited?

Although the author does not have a completed works cited list, all of her sources hyperlinked throughout the body of the article.

• Can the subject be fully covered with WWW resources or should print sources provide balance?

This subject is fully covered with WWW resources, some of which are online versions of printed literature. Some sources include works of researchers from Harvard & Washington University.

• How are the URLs deconstructed?

Six out of seven of Domonell’s sources come from PubMed, an online source of biomedical literature. This is a government site, and we can trust the information coming from this source. Government websites are generally well-kept and not open to just anyone.

Unrestricted web publishing through mass media can certainly have negative consequences, but not in this case. For health-conscious people who don’t have a lot of time on their hands, this article is available online via smartphone for someone to scroll through on their lunch break. Just as we did in this exercise, however, it’s important for people so know the credibility of an article’s sources. Who published the article and how much do they know? Unrestricted publishing through mass media can become especially dangerous when an article with false sources is widely interpreted as true. This is usually when you see a lot of ‘crisis-management’ take place.

References

Domonell, K. (2014, February 12). 5 surprising health benefits of yoga. The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/yoga-health-benefits_n_4768746.html

Virginia Montecino. "Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources."Education and Technology Resources. GMU, Aug. 1998. Web. Apr. 2014.

2-3 Blog: Social Media and Truth

Everything that I know up to this point in my life, I’ve learned through several different avenues. At a very young age (even before I was able to read or write), I learned mainly through observation. My knowledge base was built by observing my environment first-hand. As I grew up (but before I was able to read on my own), I mainly obtained information through word of mouth. What I knew to be true, I had heard from my parents, siblings, teachers, and friends. When I became old enough to seek out information on my own, I learned through books, newspapers, magazines, and many new media sources. We are “consum-nivores” because we thrive of off consuming information from these many new media channels. Once we consume it, we feel the need to regurgitate the story not just to one person, but to many people through channels like social media (NPR 2010).

People from all over the world use social media sites every second of every day. While social media sites are always buzzing with the latest top story, we must remember that everything we hear is not always 100% true. Anyone has the right to post something on Facebook, real or fake.

One thing that I learned from Facebook today is that April is National Poetry Month. Because this information is very light-hearted and doesn’t affect my life much, I believe it to be true. Generally, I use a second (if not, third) source of information to verify the information I come across on Facebook. Because this fact is harmless, I didn’t’ feel the need to confirm it. On certain occasions, social media sites are a reliable source of information. On the other hand, if I read on Facebook that we were supposed to get a huge storm next week, I would check the weather channel. Facebook is a public site and many people post even their briefest whims. These posts are then left open for interpretation by users. By the time information hits your newsfeed, it may have been twisted and manipulated several times.

Reference

NPR ombudsman / new media [Interview by A. Shepard & N. Bilton]. (2010, September 15). Retrieved April 6, 2014, from http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/npr-ombudsman-new-media/