As of mid-2012, over 2.4 billion people were using the internet - 274 million people just in North America. They aren't all downloading torrents files and playing Candy Crush, so they must be receiving and exchanging information.

The The Poynter Institute, "The best and worst media errors and corrections in 2013." article gave you more than enough examples of both deliberate fraud and simple errors to illustrate you just can't trust the internet as a source of accurte information.

Even advertisers are aware of the dubiousness of information from the Internet.

Evaluating Different Types of Internet Resources

1) Electronic Journals

• Some of the questions an Internet Detective needs to ask:

  · what is the coverage and what information is available online - tables of contents, abstracts, full text of some articles, full text of every article...?

  · who has published the journal on the Internet and how reputable is this publisher?

  · are articles peer reviewed or filtered by editors and proof readers?

  · will some users be able to access more information than others? For example, is there a charge, a need for a site license?

  · is special software/hardware required?

  · are archives of previous editions of the journal available?

  · is the site kept up to date?

2) Mailing Lists

• An Internet Detective might ask:

  · What is the purpose of the list - who is the target audience of the list and what type of messages are acceptable to send?

  · is the list moderated? (i.e. do messages have to pass the scrutiny of the list owner before they are posted to the list). If so what is the level of knowledge of the moderator?

  · how many members does the list have and what is their status?

  · how much traffic is there on the list? (i.e. how many messages are posted a month?)

  · is the list open (anyone can join) or closed?

  · does the list have a home page?

  · are archives of the list messages available? If so how far back do they go? Can they be keyword searched?

3) Organizational Sites

• Some of the issues an Internet Detective might concentrate on:

  · who is the author or publisher of the site? Are they reputable?

  · can cross checks be made to verify that the author and publishers stated are genuine?

  · is the purpose of the site stated?

  · are the sources of factual information clearly stated?

  · are there contact details for the authors of the site?

  · how current is the site and the information it points to - is it well maintained?

  · who pays for the site and are they an objective source or do they have an agenda to advance?

4) Subject-based Sites

• An Internet Detective might ask:

  · is the site just a list of external links or is there some unique content or added value?

  · how good is the subject coverage?

  · who has created the site and how authoritative are they on this subject?

  · how current is the site and the information it points to - is it well maintained?

  · who pays for the site and are they an objective source or do they have an agenda to advance?

Click here to read "Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet" "a checklist for discovering quality in Web-based information, commentary on technical trickery, examples of bogus Web sites, and resources for learning more.

Click here for a printable version of the checklist "Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet".

Finally, go to the Assignments page and complete the Module 7 Assignment.