How can you tell if a Website is offering information that is reliable?

On a table next to the PC's at the IWK Health Centre's Family Resource Library is a stack of pamphlets which aim to provide patients, families, and the general public with a guide for evaluating health information offered online.    Though some of their recommendations, which follow, may have become second nature to savvy web users I think they speak directly and plainly to the merits of media literacy in general.  They help us to spell out some of the key elements of responsible communication in this virtual age.  If we were to subsitute "television" for website here, for example, we would all see how ridiculous it is to believe, to base our society on, what we see and hear on the boob tube.

How can you tell if a website is reliable?

1. The website says who wrote the information.
2. The writers include qualified experts on the topic (such as accredited doctors, dentists, or phamacists - not people treated for an illness).  One and two imply disintermediation - the direct flow of information from the close and qualified to the end user.
3. The website says why it was made.  It tells you the real purpose of the information.  And it says how the information is chosen and reviewed.   
4. The website says when the information was written.  There are dates on all the articles.  Information is current.
5. The website is balanced.  It is not selling anything or pushing a personal opinion (even if it is written by an expert.  Counter points supplement recommendations to provide a fuller context.
6. The information is backed up by facts.  The writers list any books or articles that they used as research.
7. The website has a disclaimer.  This tells  you what else you should know to appreciate the topic and context.  Is there another agenda at work?  Who is making money from this?
8. Smart links. If the website has links to other websites, the links should work.   The linked websites should be authored by qualified experts as well.
9. You can contact the people behind the site.  Mailing address, phone number, and email is given.
10. The website design makes it easy to find what you need.  The information is useful, easy to read, and understand.

We might also add where is the information based and to which audience is it being addressed.  Regional differences often matter greatly. 

Sure not all "information" is of such grave significance as healthcare advice.  But when you really think about it....an awful lot is just as important.   If we grounded our media extensions in the kind of checks and balances we take for granted in our everyday physical interactions the world would be a lot less confused.

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