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.
The World Wide Web allows for a multitude of possibilities for all individuals with Internet access to publish, distribute and observe information. This information may or may not be credible or reliable but it is available. Social media has a huge grip on the modern generation. Many young people are highly influenced by whatever the newest trends and updates are on these sites. This can be a very manipulative form of communication since profiles, opinions and false advertising can become rampant within the social media world. It’s up to each individual to determine how credible each source is and how we are to critically gain information for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that for the article that you used the information was published a year ago but is still relevant. Many other articles posted a year ago would no longer have up-to-date or relevant information because information changes quickly (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010; Montecino, 1998). That is a concept that has not really been covered this week in regards to checking the credibility of sources, but it is an important part of the process (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010; Montecino, 1998). Part of a source being credible is its ability to contain information that is relevant and up-to-date (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010; Montecino, 1998). That is why when doing research it is so important to use articles and other sources that have been published more recently because older articles may not actually help to explain information that is relevant today (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010; Montecino, 1998).
ReplyDeleteReference:
Kovach, B. & Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: How to know what’s true in the age of information overload. New York: Bloomsbury, USA.
Montecino, V. (1998, August). Criteria to evaluate the credibility of WWW resources. Education & Technology Resources. Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm