Internet Search. Media & Propaganda
checking for websites reliability
Definitions
The main means of mass communication (television, radio and newspapers)
Propaganda:
A message designed to persuade its intended audience to think an behave in a certain manner. It is the spreading of information, to promote a narrow political or religious viewpoint.
Bias:
A particular tendency or inclination, specifically one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question.
Propaganda Techniques
Badwagon
being influenced to follow the crowd in order to fit in, because everyone else is doing it
Scapegoating
blaming a problem on one person/group of people , even though there could be other factors involved
Lesser of two evils
convincing you to make a bad choice by comparing it to something worse when there could be another option
Down with the kids
acting differently in order to be accepted by a group so they will listen to you
Assertion
saying something like it's a fact, but really its just a statement, that may or may not be true
Omission
missing out small facts which radically change the meaning of the message
Internet Search Techniques
Operators
this that thing
returns all pages containing the terms "this", "that", and "thing"
this OR that
returns all pages containing either the term "this" or "that"
"this that and the other thing"
returns all pages containing the exact phrase "this that and the other thing"
this -that
returns all pages containing the term "this" but not the term "that"
this +that
returns all pages containing the terms "this" and "that"
define:this
returns a definition of the term "this"
Other Operators:
link: The link: used to search all the indexed pages that link to the specified domain, directory, or document.
info: The info: used to display the information possessed by Google concerning the site in question.
related: The related: used to find all indexed pages that are "similar" to your site, according to Google.
How to check a page for reliability
Checking the URL
to see if its an organization. governmental page or other type
Checking the date it was updated
to make sure the info is up to date. Depending on the topic if the site was updated may not be important
Checking the author
to see who he is, and whether his point of view is extremist or not
Unreliability
pages which contain ".org" can be owned by anybody, meaning the organization may not be real even
Author
we can check if the author seems knowledgeable about the topic imposed, and shared in the page or if its any random info.
Information
the site may offer incorrect information