Journalism 225: Response to Credible Sources Article

Finding credible resources is a challenge for writers in this age of information. As a new student in journalism, I am learning to find reliable sources in short periods of time to support the content I write. Just as I was looking for advice on how to do this, I was shown an article with several practical tips for finding credible research, and three techniques in particular gave me new proofs to use for upcoming research projects.

First, sometimes online authors reference the links of organizations they are associated with; but while this may appear credible, it does not always guarantee that the material is organization-approved. If the author’s credibility is uncertain, especially on informal or personal websites, his or her expertise of the topic should be investigated along with the material’s consistency with the associated organization’s values.

The second tip I collected from the article asks the question of bias: how can I tell if an author’s bias is appropriate or misleading? Information doesn’t always need to be objective to be reliable, but it should present clear, logically-sound information so that readers can distinguish fact from opinion. Additionally, if biases are supported by or consistent with associated sources, they can be viewed as credible.

Finally, the type of website visited can say a lot about its credibility. Personal sites, special interest sites, professional sites, news and journalistic sites, and commercial sites all have clues to look out for, such as biases, links to outside sources, ISSNs (International Standard Serial Numbers) on news reports, the reputation of businesses hosting the websites, etc.

As I research, these three pieces of advice — the author’s associations, biases, and website types — will strengthen the credibility of my work as I learn to write for the mass media.