Bias
Here you are looking to see if only one side of an argument is given. Many websites by their very nature present information from only one viewpoint and are thus biased. It is worth examining the URL and whois information. A commercial site is not going to criticise its products negatively. If the site is a personal one, you may be looking at the one-sided views of a 'crank'. If the site is sponsored by a dubious organisation, you may only be able to find this out by looking at the whois data. Of course even well known experts can be biased in their opinions.
While such information need not necessarily be excluded from the results presented to the client, you must indicate any identifiedbias and, if possible, provide information from another sources which present opposing points of view. This is particularly important when the client is seeking information on potentially contentious matters such as politics, religion, race or issues related to pressure groups.
One of the most obvious areas where bias is shown is health information. Some sites are simply promoting dubious or unproven therapies with a view to selling their own "medicinal" products. You must make doubly sure that any sites found as a result of a search on a medical topic are reputable.
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As an exercise in looking for bias in websites, search for a pair of websites giving opposing points of view on the following topics:
Have a close look at the arguments. Note how convincing some of these one-sided views can be. You may be lucky when searching for information in a contentious area in that your initial search results in several sites giving the different viewpoints. However, if not, you must be prepared to actively seek out websites giving alternative views. |
Let's look now at Emphasis ...
