Reliability of Sources

How can you tell if a source is going to be reliable?

Primary sources

A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand information.

Eye witness accounts are also a primary source, but are less reliable than a document.

A primary source is an original object or document

-- the raw material or first-hand information. historical and legal

documents results of an

experiment statistical data pieces of creative

writing art objects eye witness

accounts

Secondary sources

A secondary source is something written about a primary source.

You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondhand source.

Secondary sources Secondary

sources include: comments on interpretations of discussions about

the original material

Secondary sources

Secondary source materials can be:

articles in newspapers popular magazines book or movie reviews articles found in scholarly

journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research

What is the source of the information being considered?

Publication Date - is the information current, or does it need to be current?

Reputation of publication - is the source well known and trustworthy?Kind of publication - is it a scientific report,   eye-witness account, a work of fiction?

Author or Speaker

Qualifications - is she/he an expert in her/his field?

Bias - is she/he one-sided in her/his point-of-view?

Values - what does the author value in regards to the topic?

Chance for personal gain - does the author stand to benefit from his position?

Means of getting the Information

Witness or researcher - was the author or speaker a first-hand witness to the information or did he gather it from some other source? 

Equipment - what kind of equipment was used to record information?          

How Reliable?

How Reliable?

How Reliable?

How Reliable?

How Reliable?

Let’s rank some sources! If you were looking for information on

Hurricane Katrina which source would be the most reliable?

A. victim blog B. novel C. newspaper report D. eyewitness account

Which one is the least reliable?

If you were doing a report on Barak Obama, rank these sources from most reliability to least reliability.

1. A recent Time magazine article 2. An encyclopedia article dated

1/30/05 3. An article in the National Enquirer 4. A blog by Obama’s campaign

manager

1,2,4,3

Rank the following resources from greatest reliability to least realiability for an essay titled “War in Iraq.”

1. Newspaper article “War in Iraq” by a war correspondent

2. Tabloid article “What They Don’t Let Us Know”

3. Internet site on Iraq and the postwar period

4. Journal of a soldier serving in Iraq

1, 4, 3, 2

Perhaps the best way to think of the reliability of information is to think of it as existing on a scale, rather than falling into the categories of reliable or unreliable. Information can range from very unreliable to highly reliable and also anywhere in between.

Time to show what you know!

You may use your notes

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