1. WEBSITES AND SEARCH ENGINES
Media Literacy
WEBSITES AND SEARCH ENGINES

2. Don’t Believe Everything You Read!
Not all websites are good. Some have a ton of pop-ups and scams promising you money...

3. Some are sites that look good but can infect your computer with a virus when you click on the link...
If this happens, exit out of the site immediately (ALT-F4 may work) and run a virus scan on your computer

4. ...and some sites are complete hoaxes or satirical publications
Check the “About” section of websites…
dailycurrant.com even admits their stories are not true.

5. So which sites are good?
Any website including or ending with “ .gov” . or “.ca”. The “gov” means it is a government site and the “ca” means it is a Canadian, government or government-sponsored site. Examples include: The official Government of Canada website: The official Province of Manitoba website: The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba: The official United States of America website:

6. Any website including or ending with “. edu”
Any website including or ending with “.edu”. This means it is an educational institution such as a university, generally in the United States. Example: University of Illinois: *Note: Canadian University websites end in “.ca”: University of Winnipeg: University of Manitoba:

7. Websites including or ending with “. org”
Websites including or ending with “.org”. This means it is an organization of some kind. Examples include: Turtle Island Native Network: Seven Oaks School Division: *Note: Some organization websites are good, some are not. You must decide, based on how consistent the information is, whether it looks official or has many pop-ups, etc. Wikipedia, the infamous “anyone can edit” dictionary, is an organization:

8. Can I use Wikipedia?
As a starting point / background information ONLY.
Never use Wikipedia as a cited source (unless your teacher says it’s ok)
Scroll down to check their sources and external links

9. Beware of:
Any website including or ending with “.com” indicates that it is a commercial website. Some might still be good, but many are useless. You must make that judgement call. Examples are:
Youtube:
Hotmail:
Facebook:
Amazon:

10. Some “reliable” websites are not actually reliable!
BUT...
Some “reliable” websites are not actually reliable!
This was a page created by a faculty member of the Northwestern University. Looks great, right? Turns out that this faculty member was actually a white-supremacist sympathizer and his site lead to holocaust denial material!
This was a page created by a faculty member of the Northwestern Univeristy. Looks great, right? Turns out that this faculty member was actually a white-supremacist sympathizer and his site lead to holocaust denial material!

11. So How Can I Tell?
Pay attention to details! Consider the URL, date published, and the position of the person posting. This professor had been a professor of Engineering, not of History. Why was he posting stuff about the holocaust?

12. Find out who owns / published the site: Internic.ca or Whois.Net
In this example, someone was wondering about a Martin Luther King Site:
It looked ok, but we found out that the site is owned by Stormfront Inc, a white supremacist group! Obviously, this webiste would have a ton of bias.
In this example, someone was wondering about a Martin Luther King Site:
It looked ok, but we found out that the site is owned by Stormfront Inc, a white supremacist group!

13. Still Not Sure? Cross-Reference!
The more sources the better!
Compare websites that you’re unsure of to official ones.
How does information on About.com compare to information posted by a government website?