Evaluation of Internet Resources

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In order to practice evaluating the quality of internet resources, I chose a topic and began researching online. 

Although I have been tossing around a few topic ideas in my mind for my next argumentative essay, the topic I chose for this exercise is child beauty pageants. Specifically, the negative effects of beauty pageants on children and why they should not be entered in such pageants. First, through Google Search, I found a collection of articles on this topic on huffingtonpost.com.


Website Impression:
The first thing I noticed was the variety of information that is available on the site; news, entertainment, media, politics, business, healthy living, and even comedy. I also noticed that, although The Huffington Post is a well-known news publication and provides quite an impressive array of information, it seems a bit lacking. I'll explain. I was looking around the site for some sort of "About Us" page, and found a link to such a page at the very bottom. When I clicked the link, it took me to a page with all of the names of everyone involved in making the website run, but there was nothing written about how, when, or why The Huffington Post was created, which disappointed me. Personally, I think it would help me care more about the website if I was able to learn a bit more about the history of it via the website itself. That said, the information on the site seems to be credible and relevant, and is presented well with images and catchy titles.

Unfortunately, most of the articles on the website are very short, but I did find one post that went more in-depth on the topic of child beauty pageants. One thing the author, Deborah Cruz, wrote really stood out to me, "I am trying to raise my girls to value themselves for who they are on the inside. I want them to value others for who they are on the inside. I don't want superficial, shallow children." (Cruz)

Evaluation of Website based on General Criteria Guidelines:

• The organization name, The Huffington Post, is clearly visible at the top of the website, and most articles on the website have the authors' names shown under the titles. Since there is so much information and news stories on the site, I would say there are a combination of experts and non-experts who write articles that are featured on the site. The information on the site is appropriate for the commercial nature of the organization.
• The purpose of the site is to inform the reader of newsworthy information, for educational purposes and for entertainment. It is not a biased website because it includes articles with differing opinions on the same topic.
• The site does have the presence of ads. There were advertisements for Yellow Tail wine and Audible.com, which implies that the site is mainly targeted towards adults and generally not suitable for children.
• The articles I read included some in-text citations, but there was no other citations to be seen anywhere. These citations do give me a good idea of the sources of the information used, but are not fully cited. Many of the articles are simply informing the reader and not necessarily making an argument. Some articles are about someone's opinion, and are backed up mostly with personal experiences. The site does not seem to be backed up by academic research.
• The website is updated almost constantly, due to the constant stream of newsworthy information to be shared every moment. The links seem to be relevant and appropriate for each topic. Most of the articles are rather short and only cover each topic on a superficial level. Some of the content is appropriate for printed publication, while some content is probably meant only to be posted on the site.

Database Article Evaluation:

The article I chose to evaluate from the database is, Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered Eating and Mental Health. The authors seem to really know a lot about the topic. They are very logical and include a lot of statistics and references, which are cited properly. Although the article is a bit impersonal, it is well-written. It includes information from several sources, one of them being the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. With all the medical and psychological statistics and studies included in this article, it seems properly backed up with accurate information.

Comparison of Website and Database Article:

Personally, I enjoy being able to gain information through a more personal, conversational read, which is what the Huffington Post website gives. On the other hand, the database article gives more fact based information drawn from studies, which did not seem to be included in the articles on the website. I think both are beneficial to read in their own way and are written well.

Works Cited:

    Cruz, Deborah. "The French Government Bans Child Beauty Pageants and I Hope it Catches On." huffingtonpost.com. 12 October 2015. Web. 12 October 2015.

Wonderlich, Anna. Ackard, Diann. Henderson, Judith. "Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations With Adult Disordered Eating And Mental Health." Eating Disorders 13.3 (2005): 291-301. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.