Knowing a publisher or author’s mission tells you the kind of bias you are
dealing with. In our example, the AMA’s mission is to relay factual medical
information to the public, the Russian government may make excellent
recommendations on pharmaceuticals which may or may not be approved for use in
this country, and APC will try to sell their pharmaceuticals to anyone visiting
their website since they are a commercial business. When you are not sure about
bias, look for appeals to your emotions, over simplification of concepts, or
limited perspective. Does it seem you are only receiving one side of an
argument or one view of a situation? Bias is not necessarily bad; you may want
biased support for both sides of an argument you are discussing. The key is to
use biased information consciously.
Date
A simple way to evaluate online content is to check the publication date. Or
one would think, so until you go searching for the actual date an article was
posted. Many websites use automatic updating so that the date shown on the page
is always the current date. Others will only display the copyright year at the
bottom of the screen. When looking for historical information, dates don’t
usually matter, but current events require recent updating. Try not to get
caught quoting pharmaceutical information you found on a page that is three
years old. Internet browsers have a helpful tool for checking the date, if the
creator completed the properties information. When using Internet Explorer,
under the File drop-down menu click on Properties; the date created and last
modified should be listed. When using Netscape or Mozilla, under your Tools
drop-down menu click on Page Info, under Meta it should
tell you the creation date and last modified date for that page. If this
information is not provided, double-check your information elsewhere.
Evidence
Probably the easiest and most important way to be certain you have accurate
information is to check the evidence. Do the facts support the hypothesis,
opinion, or topic? Find out where the author got his data. Follow any links the
page makes to other web pages. Run a search for the author to find out what
other experts are saying about him. Run a search for the same topic to see if
other reputable sources confirm his facts or link back to your original site.
Many websites offer contact information; can you contact the author to ask
questions? Only stable, reputable people are confident and efficient enough to
handle web-referred questions. Rule of thumb, “You can only trust a fact if you
can find the same information in at least three reputable locations on the
Internet.” (21CIF, 2000)