Just Crow

Evaluation August 19, 2009

Evaluating Information Resources

This pattern of disinformation has certainly become the norm on the internet – whispers from PR firms calculated to incite are repeated over and over again and presented as fact. The disinformation practices promulgated by both the ‘left’ and ‘right’ are a tragic disservice to the democratic process. Disinformation is most effective with segments of the population who have not been trained to use critical thinking skills and effectively evaluate information resources.

William Sumner defines critical thinking skills as:

The critical habit of thought, if usual in society, will pervade all its mores, because it is a way of taking up the problems of life. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators … They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other. They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens.

Political spin certainly existed long before the internet, radio, newpapers and even television. Supressing information and spinning it is part of the political landscape. And, tactics used to hush dissenting opinions are often brutal.  However, the methods currently being employed to influence opinions have made it possible for disinformation to be spread and misinterpreted as fact at a speed and scope never before witnessed. The critical evaluations necessary to effectively separate factual information from disinformation – whether blog , broadcast media , or traditional print – test these qualities:

• Authorship and Affiliation
• Accuracy/Verifiability
• Objectivity
• Audience
• Currency
• Content/Purpose
• Comparison to Other Similar Resources

Just Crow will use these criteria to evaluate the political blogs of Rhode Island and cut through the disinformation. Perhaps in some small way, we can promote democracy through critical thinking skills and help weigh the evidence without being ‘stampeded by stump orators’.