This Tangled Web

Here are some resources for understanding how to evaluate information on the web.

1. "Internet Site Evaluation Worksheet" from Jim Burke's excellent teaching website. This file is a .PDF so you must have Adobe Acrobat to open it.
2. "A Student's Guide to Research on the World Wide Web" from Saint Louis University (found here on the Texas Tech University website). A valuable resource with lots of links to other sites.
3. "Criteria for Evaluating Resources" from Keith Stanger of Easter Michigan University. This web page is a list of criteria to help you evaluate the validity of information found on the internet.
4. "Evaluating Internet Resources: Site Examples" from Keith Stanger of Eastern Michigan University. This website provides a huge list of internet pages that are of varying levels of dubiousness.
5. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources" by Robert Harris, a professor at the University of Southern California. This article is off of the website Virtual Salt, and I recommend the article highly.
6. "Evaluation of Information Sources" is a site from New Zealand, a compilation of links to many, many sites offering articles, tips, and pages dedicated to the thoughtful evaluation of information on the web (and other sources). It's quite comprehensive.
7. "Applying Writing Guidelines to Web Pages" from Jakob Nielson's website www.useit.com, dedicated to "usability" guidelines on the internet. These criteria distinguish writing for the web from other types of writing, establishing web content as a kind of genre in its own right.

Narrative Essays Online

Find links below to some narrative essays:

1. George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant," "A Hanging," and "Why I Write" (in MS Word document)
2. Virginia Woolf's "Death of the Moth"
3. Langston Hughes' "Salvation"
4. Annie Dillard's "The Chase" (PDF)
5. Russell Baker's "Gumption"
6. Dick Gregory's "Shame"
7. Martin Gansberg's "38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call Police" (MS Word)
8. Roger Hoffman's "The Dare"
9. Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue"'
10. Richard Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire" (PDF)
11. Joan Didion's "On Going Home"
12. Maxine Hong Kingston's "No Name Woman"
13. M. Scott Momaday's "The Way to Rainy Mountain" (Google Books)
14. Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" (MS Word)
15. Eudora Welty's "The Little Store" (PDF)
16. Tony Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" (MS Word)
17. Maya Angelou's "Graduation" (Scribd excerpt)
18. David Mamet's "The Rake and My Childhood"
19. Judy Ruiz's "Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy"
20. Pete Hamill's "Crack and the Box"
21. Susan Orlean's "The American Male at Age 10"

Comparisons

Here are some online reference sites.

Think critically as you compare (see critical thinking checklist below).

The following checklist of typical critical-thinking skills is reproduced from Robert Ennis, "A Concept of Critical Thinking," Harvard Educational Review, Winter 1962: 38.

Critical-Thinking Checklist distinguishing between verifiable facts and value claims determining the reliability of a claim or source determining the accuracy of a statement distinguishing between warranted and unwarranted claims detecting bias identifying stated and unstated assumptions recognizing logical inconsistencies determining the strength of an argument

Also keep in mind the Five Core Concepts and corresponding Five Key Questions for Media Literacy:

Five Core Concepts

1. All media messages are constructed.
2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
3. Different people experience the same messages differently.
4. Media have embedded values and points of view.
5. Media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.

Five Key Questions

1. Who created this message?
2. What techniques are used to attract my attention?
3. How might different people understand this message differently from me?
4. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message?
5. Why was this message sent?

Source: Center for Media Literacy (CML).

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/key_concept.cfm

Accessed May 13, 2009

Okay, here are the sites:

1. Conservapedia
2. Encyberpedia
   
3. Encyclopedia Brittanica
4. Encyclopedia.com
   
5. Encyclopedia Dramatica
6. Encyclopedia Metallum
7. Encyclopedia Popcornica
   
8. Metapedia
9. Rationalwiki
   
10. Wikipedia

Media Bias Resources (IB A2)

Below, find a list of resources dedicated to bias in the media:

1. Wikipedia's Article on Media Bias (has many links to explore)
2. UCLA Findings on Media Bias (in brief, 2005)
3. UCLA Full Study of Media Bias (Dec, 2004)
4. Concise Explanations of Media Bias (Rhetorica)
5. News Bias Explored (University of Michigan)
6. Article on the rise of Conservative Media Outlets (Texas A&M University, 2003)
7. SourceWatch Homepage--a wiki designed for "documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy."
8. SourceWatch's list of "Conservative News Outlets"
9. SourceWatch's list of "Liberal News Outlets"
10. The Columbia Journalism Review's Homepage (an insider resource for journalists)
11. Self-Censorship in the Media (University of Indiana School of Journalism)
12. FAIR's Media Bias Page, breaking down media bias into its components
13. Outfoxed Documentary's Homepage
14. Report: "Striking the Balance--Audience Interests, Business Pressures, and Journalists' Values" (Pew Research Center)
15. Study of how Sources Presented on a Single TV News Program Shape Our Perspective on the News Itself
16. Committee of Concerned Journalists Homepage (website designed to combat media bias)
17. Article Exploring the Assertion that Mainstream US News Has a Liberal Bias
18. Journalistic Codes of Ethics from Different Media Outlets
19. Principles of Journalism (published by Pew Research)
20. Columbia Journalism Review's Guide of "Who Owns What" Media Outlets
21. The Federal Communications Commission's Strategic Goals For Media
22. Angelfire.com: A conservative-leaning website recommending other conservative news sources
23. Polls on Media Coverage (up to date)
24. Slate Magazine (affiliated with MSNBC) covers how various media outlets cover the news
25. Create Your Own Newspaper!
26. Wikipedia's Article on the Media Representation of Hugo Chavez (with many primary source documents linked)