Credibility of WWW Resources

The article that I chose to evaluate for this week’s assignment relating to credibile sources was “Olivia Culpo, Miss Universe, Could Face 2 Years In Jail For Taj Mahal Photo Shoot,” from The Huffington Post.

First and foremost, The Huffington Post is described as a news aggregator and a blog. The definition of an aggregator is a “Web-based or installed application that [collects] frequently updated content from various Internet sources and consolidates it in one place for viewing” (Dictionary.com). Based on that definition alone, readers should be critical about what they read because it isn’t necessarily coming from the original source.

Next, bi-line given about HuffPost writer’ Cavan Sieczkowski is not terribly enlightening. According to HuffPost Sieczkowski, “is an Associate Trends Editor with the Traffic and Trends section…she is a graduate of Fairfield University, where she majored in Communication” (The Huffington Post, 2013). So, she’s qualified to write, but is she qualified to write about what she’s writing about? There is room for speculation since the “Traffic and Trends section” isn’t clearly defined anywhere on the site, and there is no indication whether or not she has anything peer-reviewed in her portfolio. Doubtful.

Based on the remaining Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources, the article is iffy in terms of credibility. Although the HuffPost has several links to emails to get in touch with a variety of departments, there is no link for just general questions to confirm the validity of a post. The article is current and the links it references are also current. Sieczkowski shows no signs of bias. It’s actually a bit difficult to discern any sort of writer’s voice from her.

Finally, the article has no sort of works cited page to verify the information she provided, other than the other links that were cited throughout the work.

Overall, The Huffington Post is not a source I would use when researching for a term paper. Like Wikipedia, it’s great for cursory information to gain a sense of direction of where continued research should lead, but not a great academic source on it’s own.

Works Citied

Aggregator. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved October 13, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aggregator

Sieczkowski, C. (2013). “Olivia Culpo, Miss Universe, Could Face 2 Years In Jail For Taj Mahal Photo Shoot.” The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 13, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/11/olivia-culpo-miss-universe-taj-mahal-_n_4083919.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular.