How can you tell if your website is VALID, CREDIBLE or LEGITIMATE?
Don’t just take their word for it! Look! Research! Discover for yourself!
Use the hand-outs from the sites below to help you consider the site you use:
Pacific Lutheran University Library (this one is the MOST user-friendly)
University of California Berkeley
( a bit more advanced and very thorough)
Find out more about the webpage you are looking at by going to the following sites and entering the URL (www.domain name.com) of the webpage in question:
Alexa
WayBackMachine
Google Directory
AllWhois
Keep in mind that a webpage can LOOK credible, but be an INTENDED hoax. It can also look credible but be INCREDIBLY inaccurate or from a point-of-view known for extreme bias.
FactCheck -- focuses on political
spin, the sources of political facts and fiction
Snopes -- explores the truth or falsehood of
a wide range of pop culture and urban legends
Politifact -- focuses on
revealing what is true, false or misleading about political statements
Media Matters -- this site is
dedicated to exposing and correcting conservative bias
Newsbusters -- this site is dedicated
to exposing and correcting liberal bias
Let’s look at some sites. Go through the questions and decide which are most credible and authoritative and which are likely to be biased, questionable or hoaxes. You should be able to give a reasonable assessment as to why some sites might be more reliable than others.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Need to create a bibliography? Click HERE.