E VA LU AT I O N O F W E BS I T E S

WEBSITE CRITERIA

SITE SUFFIX

• Government site?• www.whitehouse.gov www.state.gov

• Organizational?• http://www.peta.org/  

www.occupywallst.org

• A dotcom site?• www.disney.com www.microsoft.com

URL SUFFIX AND WEBSITE PURPOSE

• What does the URL says about the purpose of the web site?

• .edu = academic, colleges/universities:

Examples: www.ucla.edu www.harvard.edu www.csulb.edu www.calstate.edu

• .gov = U.S. government produced:

Examples: www.whitehouse.gov www.ca.gov www.usda.gov www.ed.gov

Org sites are usually organizational sites for charities, non-profit organizations and sometimes political advocacy groups:

• .org = organization, usually charitable, religious or a lobbying group:

Examples: www.peta.org www.occupywallst.org

http://englishfirst.org/d/ http://www.rootsofchange.org/

• .com = business/marketing, e-commerce•

Other URLs• .mil = military site .net = network

WEBSITE CRITERIA

• Objectivity• Advocacy [.org and organizational sites]• Emotional appeals

• Factual/Neutral• Government • educational

• Authority• Authorship• Sponsor/organization

• Appropriateness/revelance• Is the website relevant to your topic

• Currency• Updated regularly• Presents updated perspective on topic

OBJECTIVITY?

Animal Rights www.peta.org

• Organizations present specific perspectives on issues they represent

• Language Use [emotional versus factual]

ADVOCACY SITE

Food Movement www.rootsofchange.org

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

• Advocacy sites often have emotional appeal through weighted language

Examples of emotional appeal and weighted language from www.peta.org

ADVOCACY WITHOUT STRONG EMOTIONAL APPEAL

Or, sometimes they do not! You must still evaluate the information on advocacy websites carefully

www.englishfirst.org

BIASED PERSPECTIVE [EVEN IF YOU AGREE WITH CAUSE]

www.occupywallstr.org

GOVERNMENT SITE [WILL PROBABLY CONTAINS STATISTICS AND FACTS]

USDA federal government website www.usda.gov

HOW TO FIND OUT ABOUT A WEBSITE

Go to About Us. Also try Home page

AUTHORITY [UNIQUE TO WEB – CELEBRITIES AND CAUSES]

Celebrity endorsementwww.peta.org http://water.org/

ROLE OF CELEBRITY [ANOTHER LAYER OF EVALUATION YOU MUST CONSIDER]

MAY BE ADVOCACY BUT NOT .ORG

www.civileats.com Alternative news source

.com suffix

still presents advocacy perspective

AUTHORITY IS OFTEN MORE DEFINED IN PUBLISHED SOURCES

Writer• Editor• Board Audience

Writer Audience

Published Sources

Web Resources:

• Website author

• Website Publisher

• Or it can be -- No one!

VALUE OF ADVOCACY WEBSITES

Reasons to use advocacy websites:

•Questions existing information [even factual] •Presents alternative perspectives on topics• Examines conflicting/opposing viewpoints on topics

EXAMPLES

• Cigarette smoking: although an issue before websites, 20 years ago official government sources supported smoking as a non harmful, or neutral activity [supported by cigarette manufacturers]

• Food safety/GMOs: although government websites maintain the safety of GMOs, independent websites may question this stance

CorporationsGovernment

Public

Where advocacy meets conflicting motives

ACADEMIC/NONACADEMIC?

Sources for scholarly information include govt and educational websites:

ACCURACYIs this information found and verified in other sources?

APPROPRIATENESS, RELEVANCY

• How relevant is the information to your topic?

• How would you use www.occupywallst.org in a research paper?

• How does this compare to other sources of verified information: books, reference sources,

reports

CURRENCY

Look at bottom for date. This usually indicates last updated version of site.