Week+9

Using the criteria of Transparency and Functionality in slides 8 and 9, do a media analysis of two major information sources (i.e. About.com, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, MSN.ca etc).

When looking at two different information sources such as Yahoo Answers and Wikipedia, we can see that the relevant information is being posted and edited by the general public which has interest in that related topic. There may be professionals who may contribute towards the discussion or facts of the related material, but as a person seeking for information on these sites we do not know who they are. The information could be faulty, personal thoughts and feelings or people just trying to mess up the system of posting information. If there is someone who is looking for the correct related information which is coming from a trusted source, normally you would seek sites or journals which are published by professional, in magazines, or in a trusted and known site. The reason this exist and most people tend to use it, is that the information is quickly accessible, and easy to use. For example on Yahoo Answers, a user posts a question to the general public, and replies come back to the posting as multiuser style conversation allowing input by anyone interested in that conversation. This is not a trustful means of acquiring successful information as it is setup blog style of comments, where anyone can leave comments. Meanwhile on Wikipedia information is posted which is relevant to the context, but the content can be easily changed and modified to the user’s needs. This shows us that even thought there may be relevant information according to the needs of the user`s, the material which is being posted it can be constantly changed in accordance to the input of the public.