Tag Archives: hopkins

Internet Credibility

RachaelS_DTC

“Locative art” searched in three different websites provides a list of possibilities. Wikipedia sent me to a page about locative media where locative art was a topic, Leonardo Electronic Almanac showed a list of blogs about the topic, and WorldCat showed a list of books about art. As the document “Evaluating Information Found on the internet” states, the information I was given on each cite can be useful “when we view it critically” (Hopkins). Wikipedia provided a list of references and I read through them to investigate their credibility. One reference was from the Leonardo cite, and the link provided an article published by two people from (supposedly) two different universities. Unfortunately most of their sources, like Wikipedia’s, were from internet sites which weakened the credibility. Like most information from the internet, information “becomes misinformation when they are repeated by sincerely misguided people” (Hopkins). The books from WorldCat are credible because you can find information about the authors to investigate their knowledge of the subject. Unfortunately they were not always relevant to locative art because the database searched for all text with those two words in the abstract. I can understand why people prefer searching for information on websites like Wikipedia because it gives you quick information. People do not check the sources or use credible sites because it is easier to use a site that is easier to use and gives more relevant information. “If you don’t know who wrote what you read or why they wrote it, you don’t know if it’s trustworthy” (Hopkins).