Critical Approaches to Internet Research

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Critical Approaches to Internet Research

• Paul Aitken
• info_at_paulaitken.com

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Wikipedia

• Reliable or not?
• Best practices.
• Using the discussion and history pages

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Technorati

• Blog search
• Authority v Popularity

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Google

• Effective searching
• Using Google Scholar
• Barriers to access

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Google PageRank

• PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic
  nature of the web by using its vast link
  structure as an indicator of an individual page's
  value. In essence, Google interprets a link from
  page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page
  B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer
  volume of votes, or links a page receives it
  also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes
  cast by pages that are themselves "important"
  weigh more heavily and help to make other pages
  "important".

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FUTON Bias

• Full Text on Net
• Journals that offer free access to users are
  likely to attract an even wider audience
• Our study reveals that, although free FUTON
  journals comprise less than 10 of all journals,
  they all have statistically higher impact factors
  compared with subscription FUTON journals
• Financial resources perhaps limit the ability of
  individual journals to be available free
  immediately after publication. Journals with
  higher impact factors are likely more reputable,
  have more funds, and are able to provide free
  FUTON and therefore improve their impact factor
  further
• Murali, Narayana S., et al. (2004) Impact of
  FUTON and NAA Bias on Visibility of Research
  Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 79(8)1001-1006

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Accuracy

• Is there documentation to indicate the source of
  the information? There may be a link to the
  original source of the information.
• Can you tell how well researched the information
  is?
• Are criteria for including information offered?
• Is there a bibliography or links to other useful
  sites? Has the author considered information on
  those sites or considered viewpoints represented
  there?
• Is the information current? When was it updated?
  (You can check at the bottom for a "last revised"
  date and/or notice if there are numerous dead
  links on the site.)
• Is there any indication of bias on the site? how
  do we determine this?
• Does the site have any credentials such as being
  rated by a reputable rating group? If you see a
  high rating, is that because of the soundness of
  the content or the quality of the design? ( An
  attractive page is not a reason for accepting its
  information as reliable.)

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Site Goals

• What is the purpose of the site? To provide
  information? Advertise? Persuade?
• Are the goals of the site clearly indicated?
• Who is the intended audience? What are the
  things we look for in order to establish this?
• Is there a lot of flash and colour and gimmicks
  to attract attention? Is that masking a lack of
  sound information or a blatant attempt to get you
  to do or buy something?

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Access

• How did you find the site? Were there links from
  reputable sites? From ads?
• If you found the site through a search engine,
  that means only that the site has the words in
  the topic you are researching prominently placed
  or used with great frequency.
• If you found the site by browsing through a
  subject directory, that may mean only that
  someone at that site registered it with that
  directory.

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Internet as The Object of Research
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Major Areas of Study

• Privacy/Security
• Authorship/Intellectual Property
• Communities
• Access
• these are all interrelated for instance, you
  cant claim intellectual property over an online
  creation if you dont have access to the web.

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Community

• All communities larger than primordial villages
  of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these)
  are imagined, these communities are to be
  distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness,
  but by the style in which they are imagined.
• -Benedict Anderson (1991)

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Amy Jo Kim (2000) Membership cycle in online
communities

• Peripheral (Lurker) Observing the community and
  viewing content.
• Inbound (Novice) Just beginning to engage the
  community. Starts to provide content.
• Insider (Regular) Consistently adds to the
  community discussion and content. Interacts with
  other users.
• Boundary (Leader) Recognized as a veteran
  participant. Connects with regulars to make
  higher concepts ideas. Community grants their
  opinion greater consideration. The user has
  become recognized as a contributor to watch.
• Outbound (Elder) Leaves the community for a
  variety of reasons. Interests have changed.
  Community has moved in a direction that doesnt
  agree with. Lack of time. User got a new job that
  takes up too much time to maintain a constant
  presence in the community.

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Bridging/Bonding

• Pippa Norris, building on Robert Putnam
• Bridging a community oriented outwards, forges
  new connections.
• Bonding focussed inwards, on common interest,
  fosters bonds in already existing community (can
  have negative external effects)
• Norris must view these as being on a continuum
  online.

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Net Neutrality

• For government regulation of the Internet
  infrastructure to prevent exploitation for
  profit. Access is a public good.
• Against Free market is the only way to ensure
  technological advancement regulation will hinder
  improvements in the infrastructure Internet
  companies will profit from an infrastructure they
  dont maintain

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Authorship

• Is there an author or organization clearly
  indicated?
• If there's an author, go back to the questions
  listed above about authors and ask yourself how
  reputable this person is.
• Can the author be contacted? Can you find an
  email address, institutional affiliation?
• What can you find out about the author?
• Use a search engine to search for an author's
  name. Also, search for phrases found in the work
  to see if the work has been published elsewhere
  on the web.

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The Institution

• If there is an organization sponsoring the page,
  what can you learn about the organization and who
  they are?
• Does the organization take responsibility for
  what's on the site?
• Does it monitor or review what's on the site?
• Look at the address for the site. Does it end in
  .edu, indicating that it's an educational
  institution? If it has .gov, it should be fairly
  objective government-sponsored material.
  Addresses with .org are usually nonprofit
  organizations that are advocacy groups.
• If the site has a .com address, it's most likely
  promoting or selling something.