Information counterfeits Home > Research Help > General Research Help Topics > Evaluating Internet Information > Information counterfeits Information and Its Counterfeits: Propaganda, Misinformation and Disinformation If counterfeiters put pictures of their family members on their handiwork, nobody would be fooled. Information This is probably what you're looking for when you use the Internet for academic purposes. For example, "8,000,000" and "9%" are not information; they are bits of data. Information should always be accurate and either free of bias or making note of its own bias. Propaganda Propaganda is a commonly misused term. Political campaign speeches and party political statements are often, in reality, a form of propaganda. When you read documents or listen to audio or video files that characterize opinions or positions in terms of their integrity or moral content, you may well be in the presence of propaganda. Misinformation Urban legends, unlike Mr. Disinformation ©2001 Elizabeth Kirk
Web Literacy - Reading a Web Address The goal is to make judgments about website information based upon what the URL tells you. Here are three guiding questions that can help. 1. Do you recognize the domain name? The domain name is found after the and www. to the first forward slash /. For example in the URL www.novemberlearning.com, novemberlearning.com is the domain name. A domain name can sometimes provide clues about the quality of information of a site or tell you what a site is about. 2. .com and .net are examples of extensions. .edu Educational organization (most US universities) .k12 US school site (not all US schools use this) .ac Academic institution (outside of US) .sch School site (some schools outside of the US use this) .com Company (usually .co in the UK) .org Any organization .gov Government agency .net Network .mil Military institution New extensions to look for are .biz, .name, .pro, .info. Extensions can also include country codes, such as .uk, .ca, .za, etc. 3. Notice the second half of this URL.
News aggregator Client software that aggregates syndicated web content The User interface of the feed reader Tiny Tiny RSS In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, RSS reader, or simply an aggregator is client software or a web application that aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, podcasts, and video blogs (vlogs) in one location for easy viewing. The updates distributed may include journal tables of contents, podcasts, videos, and news items.[1] Function[edit] History[edit] RSS began in 1999 "when it was first introduced by Internet browser pioneer Netscape".[2] In the beginning, RSS was not a user-friendly gadget and it took some years to spread. "...RDF-based data model that people inside Netscape felt was too complicated for end users Types[edit] Web aggregators gather material from a variety of sources for display in one location. News aggregation websites[edit] Web-based feed readers[edit] Feed reader applications[edit]
Evaluating Information Found on the World Wide Web Topics Activities Reasons to Evaluate We use the information we've found on the Internet or Web for a variety of purposes. Sometimes we use it for entertainment, recreation, or casual conversation. When we use the information for research, we have to be sure the information is reliable and authoritative. In some situations, we don't have to do that work on our own. Here are some of those virtual libraries: Thinking critically about information and its sources means being able to separate facts from opinions. Goal When we access or retrieve something on the World Wide Web we need to be able to decide whether the information is useful, reliable, or appropriate for our purposes. Guidelines Who is the author or institution? If the author is a person, does the resource give biographical information about him or her, including any of the following: educational and other credentials, position, institutional affiliation, and street address? How current is the information? Who is the audience?
Mainstream media Mainstream media (MSM) is mass media reflective of prevailing currents of thought, influence, or activity.[1] It may be contrasted with alternative media which may contain content discordant with prevailing views. Large news conglomerates, including newspapers and broadcast media, which underwent successive mergers in the U.S. and elsewhere at an increasing rate beginning in the 1990s, are often referenced by the term. This concentration of media ownership has raised concerns of a homogenization of viewpoints presented to news consumers. Consequently, the term mainstream media has been widely used in conversation and the blogosphere, often in oppositional, pejorative, or dismissive senses, in discussion of the mass media and media bias. Alternative terms[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit]
How To Teach Kids How To Search The Internet is the New Reality: if you can't Google it it didn't happen, isn't true. Here are some of the essentials you have to know in order to navigate such a moldable reality. Google Doesn't Understand Questions When you type in something like "who won the war of 1914?" It doesn't understand that you are asking a question. Instead, it tries to find all pages on the Internet that have the words "who won the war of 1914" on them. Google Doesn't Know Best When you search something in Google they don't give the best pages or the most true ones. The results you see when you do a search are arranged by popularity: the more people like a website, the higher Google puts it in its list. google sorts by pages by how popular they are, not how good they areSometimes the most popular results are right, sometimes they're not. Sometimes the pages with the best information are not so popular. Advertisement On The Web A lot of things on the Internet are paid for with advertisement. 1. 2. Re-search
News Fact Checking.. Ten Tips for Teaching Students how to Research and Filter Information Posted by Mrs Kathleen Morris on Tuesday, May 29th 2012 I was recently involved in a conversation about how difficult it now is to filter what is on the internet and research effectively. In the past, students would primarily use books to research; being overloaded with possibly unreliable information wasn’t really an issue. Teaching students research skills is becoming increasingly important. Unfortunately, many teachers don’t feel confident with their own skills to be able to assist their students with this. Some schools get around this issue by heavily blocking the sites children have access too. I’m no expert in this area but I have compiled a list of ten tips that I try to give my students to help them with internet research and filtering. Search: Start with some general key words. Image: 'not quite clear on the concept' What tips can you add? How do you teach ‘web literacy’? Do you use custom search engines designed for children?
News Literacy by Michelle Luhtala and Jacquelyn Whiting - Libraries Unlimited - ABC-CLIO May 2018 Libraries Unlimited New! Paperback 978-1-4408-6152-9 $45.00 Add to Cart eBook 978-1-4408-6153-6 eBook Available from ABC-CLIOEmail ABC-CLIOorCall Your Preferred eBook Vendor for Pricing International Pricing Paperback: £35.00/38,00€/A$58.00 At a time when misinformation in the media is abundant, this book explains the difficulty in nurturing students to become critical researchers and offers practical lessons that empower students to excavate information that will help them learn. This guide to teaching news literacy explores a wealth of resources and classroom-tested lessons that educators in grades 7–12 can use in their own libraries and classrooms. Lesson plans corresponding to each stage of the process are coordinated to relevant standards from the CCSS and ISTE and are accompanied by rubrics for providing students feedback on their progress as well as samples of student work as it evolved through the stages. Features Author Info Reviews/Endorsements Reviews Look Inside
Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask 1. What can the URL tell you? Techniques for Web Evaluation : 1. Before you leave the list of search results -- before you click and get interested in anything written on the page -- glean all you can from the URLs of each page. 2. 2. 1. INSTRUCTIONS for Truncating back a URL: In the top Location Box, delete the end characters of the URL stopping just before each / (leave the slash). Continue this process, one slash (/) at a time, until you reach the first single / which is preceded by the domain name portion. 3. Check the date on all the pages on the site. 3. 1. What kinds of publications or sites are they? Are they real? 3. Expect a journal article, newspaper article, and some other publications that are recent to come from the original publisher IF the publication is available on the web. Look at the bottom of such articles for copyright information or permissions to reproduce. 4. 1. a. Type or paste the URL into alexa.com's search box. b. 1. 2. 5. 1. 2. WHY?
Web Literacy: 21 Slides to 21st Century Learners by Naomi Bates on Prezi Evaluating Information - How to Evaluate Information - Library Home / LibGuides at Gwinnett Tech Library Many websites contain reliable information, but anyone can publish a website, so be especially cautious and critical when using Internet information. Is there a copyright date? When was the site last updated? Who is authoring the information? Is it clear who sponsors the site and what the sponsor’s purpose is? Is this a recognized organization or individual? Does the information appear to be accurate (spelling, format, etc.)? What goals do the pages meet? Is the Web site still under construction? Is the site relevant to my topic? Thanks to Anne Arunduel Community College for this checklist.