Exercise 4.2: Evaluating Web Sites

This exercise is designed to encourage you to learn how to use search engines to locate useful information about politics and to evaluate critically what you find. Remember that material found on the web should be evaluated in terms of: 1) accuracy, 2) authority (or credibility), 3) objectivity (lack of bias), 4) currency (up to date), 5) coverage and 6) depth.

Part A

Choose a search engine and conduct a search about the politics of labor unions by entering the term "labor union voters." Examine the first four sites listed. Provide the names of the sites and their addresses (URLs), and evaluate their usefulness in terms of the five criteria listed above.

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Part B

Choose another search engine and conduct another search using the term "labor union voters" Did the same four sites appear first in the listing? Using the same format, evaluate the first four sites:

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Name: Address: Evaluation:

Name: Address: Evaluation: