Information Evaluation: What Makes a 'Good' Source?
Any resource can be a 'good' resource if it fits your information need.
Dr. Phil is a perfect resource in your psychology paper if you are using his publications as an example of pop psychology, and media personalities who give mental health advice.
If you want to help a friend struggling with poor sleep, a scholarly article is a less appropriate resource than a link to The Mayo Clinic or The Cleveland Clinic who make their information and advice simple, clear, and quick to read through.
Most often you will be doing research in order to evaluate the available information on a topic (literature review), take a stand (persuasive essay), or attempt to determine the best or most effective answer to a question (research paper or systematic review)
In order to tell the difference between fact and opinion, we need to know their definitions:
Fact: Something that can easily be confirmed through trusted sources, and is confirmable across many sources; facts are objectively true. Objective means it doesn't matter who you are or how you feel about the information: the reality of the fact doesn't change
A molecule of water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom
>>We know this is a fact because we could open any chemistry textbook and confirm it, or if we asked around, we would receive the same answer from almost everyone (not everyone remembers high school chemistry!). If you can only find 'proof' of something in one location -- one news site, blog, talk show, podcast -- it is much more likely to be misinformation or opinion
>>Facts are also significantly less likely to use colorful language that express emotion
Opinion: Something that cannot be formally 'confirmed' through any resource because it is linked to individual feelings, thoughts, and experiences; put another way, opinions are subjective; when you attempt to 'confirm' an opinion, you will get many differing responses!
Cats are much better than dogs
>>This statement isn't confirmable, because everyone I ask will have a different opinion, and no two information resources will give the same response either
>>Instead of simply stating something, there is biased, subjective language: "much better". What makes one pet "much better" than another? What is "much better" to one person might be a nightmare to another, making this statement unconfirmable
>>This statement also contains cultural bias: This statement assumes a culture where animals are brought into our homes and treated as part of our family. The concept of keeping pets is not universal, so this statement cannot be universally true
There are three main types of publication or 'periodical', referred to as such because they are published periodically on an established schedule (this can vary widely -- some publications come out weekly, some monthly, some quarterly (every three months), annually, etc.).
The three types of periodicals are: scholarly (also referred to as academic or peer-reviewed journals), trade publications, and popular publications. The chart below discusses the key differences between each type to help researchers understand when it might be appropriate to utilize them.
In news media (podcasts, blogs, news shows on TV or streaming, articles, etc) is most often biased in a particular political direction. This means that the information can be worded to create a desired response from the audience, key contextual information can be left out of coverage, content may be presented by hosts showing intense emotion or with evocative visuals/audio, or resource creators may present their opinions or the opinions of political candidates as facts.
How can you tell if you can trust a news source?
- Look for a code of ethics or journalistic standards statement that commits that source to delivering news in a timely, objective, and clear manner
- See if the headlines are evocative and sensational, or merely communicate what the article will be about; an objective news source strives to simply present information without 'spin'
- Can you find a news event presented the same way across several news agencies? If your preferred news source presents a story very differently from most other news sources, the chances are good they are presenting the information in a biased (subjective) manner
- Are articles clearly credited? Trustworthy journalists have a readily visible byline attached to their work - their name, degrees, affiliations, awards, or certifications they may hold, and links to other work
- Trustworthy sources may include bias statements where applicable; such statements acknowledge that the resource was created with as much objectivity as possible, under compromising circumstances such as being affiliated with the entity being reported on
