Source #1: Reliable Website http://www.apa.org/topics/kids-media/food.aspx

This is a website posted by the American Psychological Association I found discussing child-

hood obesity as well as the impact fast food advertising has on obesity. The main points of this

article were that childhood obesity has been on a steady increase, it has become a serious

problem, and there are a variety of factors people need to consider when deciding the causes of

obesity. This article briefly discusses the effects television ads, internet media, and in school

ads have on obesity and the correlation between those ads and the rise in childhood obesity

over the years. As the author discusses the topic, he is non biased to a degree. He uses a lot of

different facts that support his argument rather than just stating what he believes to be true. In

addition, he provides charts and stats that further back up his research. It is clear that the author

does lean towards the argument that advertising does have an impact on obesity, but he does a

good job of sticking strictly to the information rather than emphasizing his own personal opinion.

In addition, I also though there was good organization throughout. The website was easy to nav-

igate, including tabs showing what each tab includes. Also, under each tab the author included

a list of bullet points with the information he found. I think this is a smart way of listing informa-

tion because a lot of times it is easy to wander off when information is just shown in large para-

graphs. Although I thought the author did a good job of portraying factual information, I do be-

lieve he could have added more information. It took me a total of two minutes to read through

the entire length of the whole article. I know that this is a topic that has been well talked about

and researched so I do believe it would be possible for the author to have included more infor-

mation. This could potentially make his argument stronger. I do believe this was a useful web-

site. Despite the things I thought it lacked, I do think it had a lot of credible information. The

graphs helped to visually understand what the author was talking about and the overall organi-

zation kept me interested in learning what the author had to say. This website strengthened my

opinion on this topic and helped me learn more about what I have been researching.

Source #2: Developed Article from a Popular Source

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123973489

This is a developed article from a popular source. The popular source is National Public Radio

which is very reliable and usually has very informative information. This article is a point-of-view

article, NPR has a doctor and a teacher contributing to the topic. The main points they cover

are: childhood obesity has become a large issue and fast food advertising for children is the

next thing to be eliminated, schools need to work on school lunches and taking unhealthy foods

out of vending machines, fast food restaurants need to work on what they are selling and the

nutritional value of their food, and obesity is costing America over $150 billion dollars so the

smallest thing to do is to eliminate these advertisements for children. The source also covers

what Michelle Obama is doing with her new program “Lets Move” in order to eliminate childhood

obesity. I would say that the overall feel of this news cast is not biased. The interviewer asks a

doctor and a teacher a variety of questions that are unbiased and allows them to answer based

on what they believe. Although their responses are biased, the information they provide is infor-

mative. Having a doctor involved in the discussion makes this source even more credible. This

source is definitely reliable. NPR is known for informative discussions and knowledgable people

speaking on their radio station. Their intended audience is young to older adults but is made

available to anyone on 90.7 FM. This is one of the more credible sources I have found since

conducting research. Although the other articles I’ve found have also been informative, this one

had a lengthy discussion, as well as a variety of sources to back up the argument. The inter-

viewer asked many questions which also helped me expand my knowledge on the topic. Now I

feel as though I have other inquiry questions that I could add to my research. This is a very use-

ful article and I am definitely going to use as a source for my project. Not only does it have a

large amount of information, but it also has credible people contributing to it which is very helpful

in finding unbiased, informative information. As I was reading it, I started to feel more and more

strongly about the topic I originally chose and now I have many more reasons why I feel the way

I do about my topic.

Source #3: The Opposing View Point

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/a-ban-on-junk-food-advertising-will-not-help-reduce-obesity-in-

kids-20120205-1qwcg.html

This is an article from a known website that goes against the idea that fast food advertising

needs to be eliminated for children. This article focuses on banning fast food advertising will not

eliminate the issue of obesity. The author talks about instead of banning these ads, start coming

up with other ads that focus on encouraging children to exercise. In addition, he says that there

also need to be websites teaching parents how to make right eating choices for their children.

His main point is that parents have the overall responsibility when it comes to grocery shopping.

They allow their children to consume what they purchase, therefore, they should be taught how

to make healthy decisions for their children as well as become educated on how to do so. Ban-

ning fast food advertisements will only “promote economic inequalities” and cause more prob-

lems between manufacturers and suppliers. The author is definitely biased when speaking on

this topic. Very rarely does he use factual information to back up his argument. Instead, the ma-

jority of this article is him speaking on what he believes to be true. Although I do agree that he

has some important points that people should be taking into consideration, I do not find his re-

search reliable. The pro side of the argument backs up their findings with charts, graphs, data,

etc. and this author is unable to do so. The author focuses his argument on the fact that parents

and adults need to be changing instead of the media. This makes me think that the intended au-

dience is adults and parents who have children. I do not find this source reliable and useful. I

think the author has some valid points, but no information to back up his argument. It would be

difficult to include this in my project because I would be writing based on his point of view rather

than credible information. This article did, however, open my mind up to other solutions to child-

hood obesity. I do agree that parents should play a bigger role in the issue since they are the

ones allowing their children to consume the food they are consuming. After reading this article, I

am still firm on my belief that childhood obesity is linked to fast food advertising and that it does

still need to be eliminated.

Source #4: Academic Journal

http://uncc.worldcat.org/title/receptivity-to-television-fast-food-restaurant-marketing-and-obesity-

among-us-youth/oclc/5167988126&referer=brief_results

This article is a peer reviewed journal. The author’s point of view is for the same argument as

mine. He agrees that fast food advertisements need to be banned in order to combat childhood

obesity. This article is loaded with information from statistics to charts to different graphic orga-

nizers. The author focuses on the information part of the topic rather than his opinion. He

speaks about the television advertisements and the correlation they have with obesity. The au-

thor also touches on BMI and what the CDC characterizes as obese. Overall, the main point of

this article is that there is a lot data which shows that with the increased amount of television

and television advertisements comes a noticeable increase in the amount of obese children in

America. The author is surprisingly unbiased in this article. Rather than expressing his beliefs

throughout, I found that it is more based on information. Following the lengthy article is a list of a

variety of sources that also seem very reliable which tells me this source is credible. I found the

information located in the various charts very helpful. These charts are for the most part easy to

understand and quality information can be found from them. On the other hand, I thought the

actually written part was very confusing and very hard to keep up with. The author uses a lot of

words I am unfamiliar with and writes the article strictly with just information. This makes it very

difficult to keep up with and stay entertained by. I found myself dozing off, unable to remember

what I was actually learning about throughout the article. The purpose of this article was aca-

demic and I believe the author did I good job of sticking to that and leaving the bias out of it. I do

think I could use parts of this for my project. I would not necessarily use the written part of it to

contribute but I do find the charts and statistics to be very helpful to my research. I do think this

source was helpful overall. It strengthened my view on the topic in a different way than all my

other sources. I found that from this source I was learning a lot about the facts behind it all

rather than just the authors bias.