Evaluating information found on websites

Evaluating information found on websites

By Jamile Sale

Objectives for this unit

In this unit you will learn:

•Techniques for evaluating information on websites

•How to work out whether a website is reliable

How to tell the difference between a fact and an opinion

Who owns websites?

The address of the websites (known as a URL) gives you a clue about who owns it.

For example, what do these codes mean?:

–.gov

–.com

–.co.uk

–.org

What other codes have you seen and what do they mean?

Trusting the information

Different people and organizations have different reasons for putting information on websites:

–To persuade

–To inform

–To entertain

Can you think of examples of each?

You can make a judgment about how reliable information is depending on the purpose.

For example:

–Information on a government or charity website is likely to be reliable as it is there to inform people.

–Information on a .com website could be put there by anyone, anywhere in the world.

Facts and opinions

A fact is a statement that can be checked to see if it is true.

An opinion is a statement of what someone believes to be true.

Information on websites might be a mixture of fact and opinion.

For example:

–“Everyone aged between 5 and 16 should be at school according to the law” is a fact.

–“Everyone should stay on and do more education after the age of 16” is an opinion.

Making a judgement

It is not always easy to tell the difference between fact and opinion.

It is possible for facts to be wrong.

You should check facts from more than one source to test whether it is true.

Some text here about the topic of discussion