SOC 3319: NGOs, Society, and Climate Change

There is a lot of data out there, some of it easily findable and freely available via search engines, such as Google.  Does that mean you can't use it?  Not necessarily.  Ask yourself a few questions to evaluate the data.

• Who?  Who is supplying the data? Is the data producer considered an authority on the matter?
• Why? Why is the data being collected?  What is the purpose?  Is there incentive for bias (politics, influencing public opinion, lobbying)?
• When was the data collected?  Is it current?
• How were the data collected?

Below are some categories of who and why. 

• A Government Agency that collects the data as part of its mission (e.g. Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, United Nations, etc.)
• A Non Profit or Non Government Organization whose mission includes information and data about a topic or issue 
• An Educational Institution, such as a research lab or institute
• A Researcher who collects data for scholarly research, as part of a lab, etc.  (Data sources often described in the "methods" section of scholarly articles)
• A Private Firm?  (Data like this often found in paid databases, such as Statista)

If the data you find helps answer your question, make a point and it meets one of the criteria above, it should be OK to use.  When in doubt, ask your professor!

These strategies will help you look beyond less important surface features of an information source (for example, how professional it looks or if it's a .org), and think more carefully about who is behind the source, what their purpose is, and how trustworthy and credible they are. The SIFT model (from Mike Caulfield) provides a framework for thinking critically about information:

Stop
Pause and ask yourself if you recognize the information source and if you know anything about the website or the claim's reputation.
If not, use the four moves (below) to learn more. If you start getting too overwhelmed during the other moves, pause and remember your original purpose.

Investigate

Take a minute to identify where this information comes from and to consider the creator's expertise and agenda. Is this source worth your time? Look at what others have said about the source to help with you these questions. (For example, a company that sells health food products is not the best source for information about health benefits/risks of consuming coconut oil. A research study funded by a pharmaceutical company is also suspect.)

 Find Better Coverage

Sometimes it's less important to know about the source and more importance to assess their claim. Look for credible sources; compare information across sources and determine whether there appears to be a consensus.

Trace Claims to Original Source

Sometimes online information has been removed from its original context (for example, a news story is reported on in another online publication or an image is shared on Twitter). If needed trace the information back to the original source in order to recontextualize it. 

modified from this source (Andrea Baer and Dan Kipnis, Rown University)