Read
through the page and consider:
Publisher
Who is providing the information?
What do you know about the publisher?
Do they have a statement that explains their mission and goals?
What might their point of view be?
Is
there a sponsor behind the author? If yes:
Is it clear what organization is sponsoring the site?
Is there a link to the sponsoring organization?
Check the domain (see how to evaluate authority)
Ask
a reference librarian if information about the author/company/organization
is available.
Purpose
of the site
What goal does this site meet?
Why was the site written?
For whom was the site written?
How detailed is the information?
Advertising
Is the information free of advertising?
If there is any advertising on the site, is it clearly differentiated
from the informational content?
Links
If there are any links to related sites, what kind of sites are
they pointing to?
It
is always important to know something about the background of the
publisher of the web site to be able to estimate his/her/their point
of view.
Always be aware that there will probably be some kind of bias.
Consider different sources to compare your results.
Examples
1.1
Bullfight in Spain 1
1.2 Bullfight in Spain 2
Find out who the publishers are and what their goals may be.
Example 1 is a tourist information site about Andalusia.
Example 2 is an entry from the free web encyclopedia Wikipedia, which is written by volunteers and aims for the same objectivity as encyclopedias such as Britannica.
Be aware of the fact that information about the publisher is not always easy to detect, sometimes it is more hidden.
One of these sites represents a particular point of view while the other attempts to be neutral. It is important to consider the background and goal of the publisher to judge whether there is any bias.
2.1
China 1
2.2
China 2
Try to
find out more about the publisher by looking at the "about us"
information.
In case
you do not find "about us" information, you can try to find
more about the publisher through other sources and ask your reference
librarian for help.
The first
site is authorized by the Chinese government, so a certain amount
of bias can be expected.
The second
site is the online version of the "World Factbook" published
by the CIA. You can expect a more neutral point of view from this
source.
3.
Depression
This site has no "about us" or mission statement, but it
offers a link to the company that funded and developed the site.
Follow that link and try to find out more.
The site
also informs you in an introduction what their goal is.
4.
Human Rights
This
site provides under "About AI" concise information about
the organization.
They also have a "Frequently asked questions" section where
you can find more about their work.
This
is a good example of a web site that makes it easy to find more about
their point of view.
5.
Low Carb Diet
This
site offers broad information about the low carb diet and its products.
It clearly says that this site serves only for informational purposes,
not as medical advice.
It also
says that it is not the official Dr. Atkins site, and it gives you
the name of the publisher, but it does not give any more information
on who the publisher is.
You find a lot of advertisements on this site.
There is no unbiased information to be expected from this site, which
is clearly intended to sell products.
6.1 AnimalConcerns.org
6.2 American Meat Institute
These
two sites are both concerned with the eating of meat. Take a look
at them and try to decide how objective they are.
Take
a look at the publisher.
It is easier to know how biased a site is when you know who publishes
the site and what their bias might be.
In the AnimalConcerns.org example, the language and the links clearly show
their point of view.
The second site is published by a meat and poultry trade association.
The consumption of meat is part of their business.
