With all of these web site news articles, you want to ask yourself:
What are the credentials of the authors?
Are there corrections linked with these sites?
Is the piece an opinion piece or commentary?
- Web Site #1 from the Huff Post has a correction at the end that makes you question the whole article. The author also works exclusively for Huff Post.
- Web Site #2 from Voice of America has the author, Ken Bredemeier, who has also written for the Washington Post. So he has more credentials than our previous author. When you look at "about VOA" you will see that they have certain standards for their news production. Interestingly enough this report then validates the previous Huff Post report. So as you progress through the web, you may find sources that validate previous sources.
- Web Site #3 from the Guardian, is an opinion piece. The author's credentials are given at the end of the piece and it is up to you to decide whether you would use it or not. The author's credentials are good. Publication in the Guardian is respectable though the newspaper is known to have a left-wing bias. However, opinion pieces will have a personal bias which might skew the presentation of the facts.
A few more things to consider:
- Huff Post is basically an aggregator. It collects news stories from around the web and its content is aimed at popular consumption.
- The Guardian is a respected UK newspaper and coming from the UK may offer a different perspective than an American one.
- The Voice of America is funded by the U.S. congress and therefore could represent a certain bias.
