• Question: Do you think the internet is a reliable source of information? EXPLAN YOUR ANSWER

    Asked by sirajmaz to Emma, Jen, Joseph, Michael, Mona on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mona Gharaie

      Mona Gharaie answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      There are lots of information you can find on the internet, not all information available on internet are reliable, but if you can find a real source of information it will be great. These days, you can find soft copies of books and journals, so yes it can be reliable.

    • Photo: Jen Gupta

      Jen Gupta answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think that the internet is a wonderful tool and that it can be a reliable source of information. The thing is that you have to be careful about it. For example, if you want to find something out about astronomy or astrophysics, I would recommend that you go to the NASA website. University websites in the UK will end with ‘.ac.uk’ (like the Jodrell Bank website is http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/). In the US I think they end in ‘.edu’. These website are likely to be reliable sources of information. However if you find a website that is something like http://www.iknoweverythingaboutspaceandthisisawesomelol.com (I don’t think this actually exists) then you need to be a bit careful about trusting anything on that website!

      I know that schools, colleges and universities often have a problem with wikipedia. It again is wise to be cautious when using wikipedia. However, there is a lot of good information on wikipedia and if it has a citation then you can follow that to check whether the information is correct. One of my friends who works with me as an astronomer is involved with wikipedia a lot and is trying to get more academic people involved with editing pages on wikipedia so that the information is reliable. A lot of academics don’t like wikipedia but I think we have to accept that it is here to stay and work with wikipedia to make sure that the information on wikipedia is correct!

    • Photo: Michael Taggart

      Michael Taggart answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      It depends. If you access a webpage of a professional organisation with accreditation, for example a government department, a national charity, a professional society, a university, or a learned journal then I think you can have a fair expectation that the information you see should be accurate – with the caveat that a scientist will generally question everything though.
      If you access a homepage, Wikipedia, or newspapers then that level of expectation should diminish slightly.

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