Scholarly vs. Biased Web Sources
1 06 2009Ok, so first of all I want to admit that I was confused with the mini bibliography assignment and I actually used a non-scholarly and COMPLETELY biased source as one of my web sources. I was embarrassed to say the least and even more embarrassing was the fact that I didn’t even notice because I have never used a website in a paper (unless JSTOR counts). For this blog post I am introducing two web sources -one scholarly and one biased- and I’m going to explain why they are what they are.
The Scholarly Source
Here is the link: https://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/63xx/doc6362…
The first way you can tell that it is a legitimate source is that it ends in .gov meaning it is a governmental website. This website in particular is a thesis entitled “Social Effects, Household Time Allocation, and the Decline in Union Formation.” It provides graphs, explanations, resources and research about why women enter marriages, the work force, and complete household chores. It was written by Almudena Sevilla-Sanz for the Congressional Budget Office. The article on this website was also featured in the Journal of Economic Literature, meaning that it was peer reviewed in order to be published. It was submitted in 2005 so it is currently relevant. It also provides a complete list of footnotes and references throughout the whole paper.
The Biased Web Source
Here is the link: http://www.halfchangedworld.com/2005/08/…
Upon first glance, this website appears to be related to a nonprofit organization because of the url “halfchangedworld.” To me, it sounds like an organization trying to change the world. But once you click enter and start reading, it is clear that it is just some ordinary person’s opinion on the topic of the division of household labor. There is no author, citations or anything that would make this website appear to be a legitimate source to cite in a paper. It is basically just a person’s blog offering some examples about household labor and leaving room for others to share their stories and opinions by leaving comments to the author. Plus, anyone can have a website with .com at the end. It isn’t as legitimate as a website ending in .gov.
This exercise showed me how easy it is to go to a website that is completely biased and illegitimate. The internet is HUGE and it takes a lot of searching and digging to even find one scholarly, legitimate source out there. And even then, how can we be 100% sure that this source is legitimate?! It’s extremely exhausting and confusing, but I think through these exercises we are getting a little closer to figuring out a way to weed through the illegitimate web sources out there.
You did a good job explaining the reasons the above sites were scholarly/reliable or not scholarly/not reliable. However, don’t be fooled into believing that all .gov sites are scholarly. Whitehouse.gov for example (by the way don’t accidently type whitehouse.com unless you want to be dazzled by porn; I found that out the hard way one time helping a child with homework–imagine our surprise!) is a very biased source; it is a site that promotes the presidential agenda (whoever the president is at the time). Other .gov sites often have political agendas. On the other hand, some of the most reliable national statistics can be found at government web sites, like the CDC, Census Bureau, or NIJ sites. This is where information literacy is crucial. We all need to know what kinds of information to look for on web sites to determine reliability of information.