A Word About Using Information on the Internet

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." [Mark Twain] ¹

When Mark Twain made this statement his point was, of course, that numbers can be manipulated by the unscrupulous to misrepresent facts, to justify a particular bias, or fulfill a particular agenda. This requires the researcher to carefully evaluate the information s/he collects.

Nowhere is this more true than when collecting data from the Internet. While the Internet contains many useful sources of data from legitimate sources, there are also many sites containing unreliable or misleading information. As you surf the Internet evaluate the information you locate carefully by keeping a few basic priniciples in mind:

• Know your source. Unless the person or organization who developed the page clearly identifies themselves, view the information as potentially suspect.
• Authority Look for the most "authoritative" source of information. Electronic information can be easily altered. If you want legal materials, go to the issuing government or organization if possible. If you want a particular country's position on an issue, try their sites. If you are looking for statistics look carefully at the data source. If you can, go to the original source — e.g. the government agency, international organization, research institute, etc. — rather than rely on data mounted by a private individual. Most data is compiled from just a few sources, largely governmental. For example, most U.S. demographic or economic data comes from a handful of government agencies. The data is then manipulated to produce various tabulations. Know the original source of the data files (if possible use that source) and understand how the data has been manipulated.
• Is this home page selling a particular point of view? Information is a propaganda tool. Information produced by governmental organizations and advocacy groups is, by its very nature, an attempt to convince readers of the validity of a particular point of view. A country may attempt to encourage foreign investment by putting only its "best foot" forward, by downplaying serious social and political issues, or it may simply omit information needed to make an informed decision.
• Check more than one source. Getting similar information from several independent sources doesn't mean you eliminate all bias, but it will help you sift out some of the more extreme views you might encounter.
• Do some background reading. Doing some background reading in scholarly literature can give you a solid basis for evaluating the information you find.

1. Twain attributes this quote to Benjamin Disraeli in The Autobiography of Mark Twain. Edited by Charles Neider. New York : Harper & Row, p.149.