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Investigating the Website / Publication
Investigating the Website / Publication
Who owns or funds the website / publication?
Who reads, shares, and cites the source?
What concerns have been raised about the source, by whom, and why?
What is this publication’s record with concern to accuracy?
See below for some strategies for investigating websites.
1) Search Bias Ratings
1) Search Bias Ratings
See if the website / publication has been reviewed and rated by the sites below.
See if the website / publication has been reviewed and rated by the sites below.
Search for the name of the media source in the top-right corner.
What information is provided about the source?
If the media source is listed, click on the hyperlink to read more.
Hint: Use CTRL+F and search for the name of the media source.
Example:
I found this article (https://www.thoughtco.com/slime-science-how-it-works-608232) but had never heard of ThoughtCo.
When searching Media Bias/Fact Check, I found this information about ThoughtCo that suggests it has a good record of accuracy.
If there are no matches for your website / publication, move on to the next strategy.
2) Search Wikipedia
2) Search Wikipedia
Search for the website domain and/or name of the publication.
If there is an article about the website / publication, see what it has to say!
HINT: If you have the website already up, delete everything in the URL after the domain name, add a space, add the word wikipedia, and then press Enter. Example: Change https://www.thoughtco.com/slime-science-how-it-works-608232 to https://www.thoughtco.com wikipedia
Example:
Continuing to use ThoughtCo as an example, I searched Wikipedia for ThoughtCo found this result, learning that it is part of the Dotdash media company formerly known as About.com (a site I have known about in the past - I never knew it)!
If there is no match for your website / publication, move on to the next strategy.
3) Search Google to Find Out More
3) Search Google to Find Out More
Try the Google searches with the name of the website / publication filling in the blank:
Try the Google searches with the name of the website / publication filling in the blank:
who owns __________
__________ shareholders
__________ target audience
__________ viewership statistics
__________ viewership demographics
__________ readership statistics
__________ readership demographics
__________ distribution
__________ circulation
__________ subscribers
__________ revenue
__________ funding
__________ credibility
__________ controversy
Remember:
Remember:
When you do these searches, you also need to evaluate the sources you find about the website.
Is the information about the website trustworthy?
Be particularly careful if there is strong support for or against the website.
What is the evidence provided for assessments?
4) What Are Others Writing About the Website?
4) What Are Others Writing About the Website?
In Google, search for the website's domain and add: -site:domain
Example:
I found this article (https://nexter.org/new-victims-of-momo-challenge-dedliest-game-takes-lives-of-children-worlwide-death-toll-rises-to-3-already) but I have never heard of Nexter.
In this case, the domain is nexter.org so I searched for nexter.org -site:nexter.org
No major outlets have written about Nexter. I only found a couple of press releases also on unknown sites about it being a viral site. I would probably look for another source of information.
5) Do a WHOIS Search for the Website's Domain
5) Do a WHOIS Search for the Website's Domain
This may be a little confusing to make sense of and possibly not always helpful, but try it out for fun!
This may be a little confusing to make sense of and possibly not always helpful, but try it out for fun!
After opening the button link above, search for the domain. There may not be a lot of information, but at least see if you can find any registrant information and the Created Date.
If you find out the organization that it is registered to, search for more information about that organization.
If the created date is very recent, this might be a possible red flag.
Example:
I found this article (https://www.revelist.com/celebrity/mariah-carey-10-year-challenge/14494) and searched for search for revelist.com
The search results indicate that revelist.com is registered to RockYou, Inc. I searched RockYou, Inc. on Google and found out that it is media company that is mostly focused video advertising. This informs me that their agenda is around selling and this may make me wary about using it as a pure news source.
6) Search the Website Domain Rating
6) Search the Website Domain Rating
After opening the button link above, search for the domain.
Try other website analysis and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools like Woorank, SimilarWeb . Rankwatch, Keep in mind that these are business tools and so some may have limits on the number of searches that you can do for free. Do not sign in to or create accounts for any of these services.
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