Web Wisdom

How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web, Third Edition

Marsha Ann Tate

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138501584
• eBook ISBN: 9781351385671
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The World Wide Web has undergone tremendous growth since the first edition of Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web was conceived and written in the mid to late 1990s. The phenomenal global expansion of the internet, together with the increasing sophistication of online technologies and software applications, requires us to be more savvy Web users, especially given the growing complexity of Web-based information. This new edition of Web Wisdom covers key issues that users and creators of Web resources need to know regarding reliable and useful information on the Web, including social media content. Written in a straightforward and accessible format, the book also provides critical evaluation techniques and tools to enhance Web-based research and the creation of high quality content.

Features

• Includes checklists comprised of basic questions to ask when evaluating or creating web resources
• Provides an expanded discussion of copyright, trademark, and other related issues with specific reference to web authoring
• Contains a chapter devoted exclusively to social media applications and their unique evaluation challenges
• Presents a new section that addresses the evaluation challenges that are related to combining traditional and social media content
• Offers a new section focused on computer-generated text and its allied evaluation challenges
• Introduces a revised and expanded companion website that provides a variety of supplemental materials related to the evaluation and creation of web content as well as links to additional examples

This book demonstrates how to adapt and apply the five core traditional evaluation criteria (authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage) originally introduced in the first edition, to the modern-day Web environment.

1

Web Wisdom

Introduction and Overview

Introduction

The World Wide Web offers us unprecedented communicative powers. It enables us to read breaking stories from news sources around the world, track population estimates on a second-by-second basis, and locate medical information on nearly every disease imaginable. In fact, the Web makes possible the instant retrieval of information on virtually any topic we care to explore.

It is also revolutionizing our buying habits. We can make online plane and hotel reservations and browse through countless virtual stores, purchasing merchandise from our laptops and smartphones. Moreover, a myriad of other Internet and mobile-based networking tools are transforming our social lives. In fact, our unprecedented access to information and the ability to communicate with others on a global scale has fundamentally changed our society. But how, among this extraordinary abundance of resources, do we know what to believe? How can we determine what information is authoritative and reliable, and therefore trustworthy? Although the challenge of evaluating resources is as old as information itself, the Web brings new and sometimes complicated twists to the process. This book provides tools and techniques to help meet the sometimes straightforward and sometimes convoluted evaluation challenges posed by the Web.

Nonetheless, the book is not just directed toward Web users. It also provides important guidance for creators of Web-based resources who have information that they want to be recognized as reliable, accurate, and trustworthy. For example, how can a Web user know whether to trust information from a page or site if the creator does not include such basic facts as who is responsible for the contents of the page or provide a way of verifying that person’s credentials for offering information on the topic? How can a Web user know whether to trust information if there is no viable way to determine what influences an advertiser may have on the integrity of that information? How can a Web user know whether to order products from a company if there is no way of verifying that company’s legitimacy?

This book discusses these issues and more. It also describes the basic elements that all Web resource creators, new or experienced, need to address when developing online content. By following the suggestions outlined in this book, there is an increased likelihood that a Web author’s message will be more successfully conveyed to the Web user.

The Need for Web-Specific Evaluation Criteria

Today’s media send out a steady stream of messages intended to inform and influence the public’s actions and opinions. Understandably, the World Wide Web adds yet another dimension to this daily barrage of messages. Based on a lifetime’s exposure to media messages, we develop a set of criteria that we use to evaluate the messages received. Fortunately, the evaluative criteria that we apply to traditional media messages can also serve as a useful starting point for developing methods for evaluating Internet-based resources. Five specific universal criteria—accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage—play an essential role in the evaluation process of media content regardless of how it is conveyed.

In addition, several other factors help guide the evaluation process. These include standards and guidelines, regulations, and our own sensory perception. Many information providers adhere to a well-established set of industry standards and conventions regarding the contents and presentation of their materials. Information providers are also obliged to comply with various governmental regulations that affect the content and format of their messages. Using visual and textual cues, an individual can usually differentiate between advertising and informational content in a magazine or newspaper. Similar distinctions occur in radio and television as well. For example, a television commercial is ordinarily distinguishable from the program itself owing to a variety of audio and visual cues. Even an infomercial, a program-length advertisement, is by law accompanied by a disclaimer proclaiming it as a “paid program.”

Of course, all these waters can, and frequently do, get muddied. Whenever a company or organization advertises in a print or broadcast medium, for example, the potential always exists for the contents to be influenced in some manner by the advertiser. Most savvy consumers understand this situation and judge the trustworthiness of the information accordingly.

However, since the Web is a relatively new medium, many standards, conventions, and regulations commonly found in traditional media are largely absent. Lacking many of these traditional formalities, numerous resources have been developed to help Web users locate quality Web information, such as the following:

•Individuals and organizations provide qualitative reviews of Web resources or list resources they have found valuable.

•Experts in various subjects often share lists of quality websites relevant to their areas of expertise.

•Academic departments of universities and librarians create pages of authoritative links on topics of interest to their students or patrons.

•News organizations often supply links to websites that provide more in-depth information about subjects that they cover.

•A number of health organizations evaluate medical-related sites.

Nonetheless, as valuable as these efforts to review individual sites are, they cannot begin to cover more than a small fraction of the resources available on the Web. Moreover, although individuals and review services may purport to suggest Web resources based on quality, a site may be listed merely because it has paid money or provided some other type of reward to the reviewer. Therefore, it is still imperative that Web users know how to independently judge the quality of information they find on the Web.

What This Book Includes

Web resource evaluation strategies are introduced in Chapter 2, with an overview of five traditional evaluation criteria: (1) authority, (2) accuracy, (3) currency, (4) coverage, and (5) objectivity. Chapter 3 discusses the more complex evaluation questions necessitated by characteristics unique to the Web—features such as the use of hypertext links and frames as well as the need for specific software to access certain materials. Chapter 4 examines several popular Web-based social media tools and addresses the unique evaluation challenges associated with these tools.

Chapter 5 explores advertising and sponsorship on the Web. It addresses such issues as determining the sponsorship of information content on a Web page and the possible influence an advertiser or sponsor may have on the objectivity of any information provided on the page. It also looks at several common online tracking mechanisms used by advertisers to deliver personalized marketing messages to Web users.

Chapter 6 explores the concepts and issues introduced in the preceding chapters in more detail. It also presents a checklist of basic questions to ask when evaluating or creating any type of Web resource. The chapter also includes annotated screen captures of actual Web pages that illustrate many of the concepts discussed.

Chapters 7 through 12 present an analysis of different types of Web pages based on the framework established in the first section of the book. However, no “one-size-fits-all” approach is adequate for analyzing the diverse array of Web pages. Therefore, Web pages are categorized into the following six types based on their purpose: advocacy, business, informational, news, personal, and entertainment. For example, a business Web page that advertises a company and its products has somewhat different goals from an advocacy Web page cre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• Related Website
• Chapter 1: Web Wisdom: Introduction and Overview
• Chapter 2: Information Quality Criteria for Web Resources
• Chapter 3: Additional Challenges Presented by Web Resources
• Chapter 4: Social Media Content
• Chapter 5: Advertising and Sponsorship on the Web
• Chapter 6: Applying Basic Evaluation Criteria to a Web Page
• Chapter 7: Keys to Information Quality in Advocacy Web Pages
• Chapter 8: Keys to Information Quality in Business Web Pages
• Chapter 9: Keys to Information Quality in Informational Web Pages
• Chapter 10: Keys to Information Quality in News Web Pages
• Chapter 11: Keys to Information Quality in Personal Web Pages
• Chapter 12: Keys to Information Quality in Entertainment Web Pages
• Chapter 13: Creating Effective Web Pages and Sites
• Appendix A: Checklist Compilation
• Appendix B: Information Quality Questions Compilation
• Appendix C: Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index