Who Are You & Why Should We Believe What You Say?

Once again, I have found a questionable website that a student has used as a major source for her term paper.

Marijuana Legalization Organization.

As far as I can see – there is nothing on the site about the authors or sponsoring organization. Why should we believe anything written there? Yes – there are complicated ways that I can search out the domain and find out who is responsible for the site. But why should I, the reader, have to go to such lengths? Isn’t it the author’s responsibility to show me why I should listen to what he/she/they have to say?

I may well be only a “voice crying in the wilderness” – but whenever I see shoddy documentation on a website – I send off an email. Replies are rare. We’ll see if this one gets anywhere:

I am a high school librarian and I support and assist student research on all aspects of issues. I try to provide a balance of opinions in my print collection and train my students to examine the credentials/reliability of all sources – both print and web sites. I teach them that they cannot accept information from web sites that do not contain information about the author or sponsoring organization. I therefore respectfully suggest that you place an “about us” link somewhere on your site. This link should tell us who you are as an organization, what expertise you bring to the topic, what sources you have used for your information, and who is responsible for vetting the content for accuracy.Thank you for considering my opinion. Please be assured that it is in no way influenced by my personal opinions. I send these requests/comments to web sites on all sides of many issues. I feel very strongly that writers owe their readers some insight into their credentials and information sources.

Perhaps the information is there somewhere and I am overlooking it. If so – please let me know. Thank you again for your consideration.

NOTE: To their credit – I did find a link to their sources after I sent the email. While it is great that they included that – it is not enough. The authors need to be transparent about their credentials.

I suspect that student use of such sites is epidemic. I correct the works cited lists for major papers in the 9th and 10th grade – but I am only involved with the AP American History papers in the upper grades. I really need to spread my influence further. Having just read The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30) by Mark Bauerlein, I feel that librarians and classroom teachers have a “Mission from God” to insist that our students learn to discern quality information and then actually READ it! Note: Every time I go to Amazon the rating on this book goes down. Could it be the NetGens feeling burned by the author’s premise? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover – or it’s title. This is not a polemic from an old curmudgeon who hates young people. It is a thoughtful, well argued treatise on what “screen time” as opposed to “book time” might be doing to our ability to think – starting with the net generation who have largely abandoned books and deep thinking for the instant gratification of the screen in its many forms.

Additional links to look at showing an opposite trend:

One thought on “Who Are You & Why Should We Believe What You Say?

  1. I love this letter you are sending. Nice to know we have a conscientious person out there trying to make an impact.

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