Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to 100 Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web

Citation

Turner, R. (2008), "Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to 100 Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web", New Library World, Vol. 109 No. 1/2, pp. 98-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800810846074

I approached this book with a mixture of excitement at the concept of a review of leading news and information websites, and wariness about an American publication including global Internet news sites. The authors aim to have written an A‐Z of the best and worst news and information sites, critically reviewing and rating each of the 100 sites. It was with some relief that, scanning the contents, it included at least one non‐English site (Agence France‐Presse), several non‐US and European sites (e.g. Sydney Morning Herald) and had the bravery to include Al‐Jazeera. However, and this is a very big however, there is heavy emphasis on North American sites, of which many are eclectic and prone to very heavy bias, consciously or not. Where on earth are the Chinese, Russian and non‐English European news agencies?

I grew up in 1970s suburban England and was fascinated by current affairs, not an ideal combination for instant news gratification, but this expectation did not exist then. News came from the BBC at 6pm or in the morning newspapers, with radio bulletins and the very occasional news flash on the television for breaking stories. The radio BBC World Service was a window on the world, but as a nation the English were very inward looking (and, some may argue, still are). The old story of the English weather forecast stating that Europe was cut off by fog epitomises this. News media, England and the global community have changed astonishingly fast in the last 30 years, and a significant reason for this is the advent of the Internet. Having been fortunate enough to meet people from remote locations in the world, it has been notable how many had relied heavily on the BBC World Service and BBC News websites both for their news and to learn English.

The authors of this book have their own web site at www.TheReportersWell.com to update and critique any changes in this work. With such a constantly shifting topic of the internet any book needs to have this commendable facility. The authors have both been newspaper journalists. In the section about the authors, there is a sentence that says, “Miller and Broderick are currently working on a book about conspiracy theories … ” which put me on my guard as I read this work and made me question the authors' neutrality.

For each of the 100 sites, the review includes an “Overview”, which relates the origins of the web site; “What you'll find there”; “Why you should visit”; “Keep this in mind”; “Off the record”, featuring stories about the site. The criteria for choosing the 100 sites are “those sites that had achieved a certain prominence or reputation”, and concentrates on sites that have free access. However, there is little explanation of how they are prominent and who defines the reputation they may have.

The reviewers have obviously spent hours on the sites, reviewing ease of use, considering its biases and searching for wider reviews, before making their own star rating (based from 1 to 5 “newspapers”). The American stance is often wryly amusing, especially their perceptions of institutions such as the BBC. In their review of the non‐English speaking world the authors can also be faintly bewildered, such as in the review of www.allafrica.com where “Much of what you'll find on the site will likely strike you as new” – perhaps it will not if you are African or live in those African countries! The paucity of Asian and particularly Chinese sites hints at a blinkered approach to the role China is playing in the global economy.

The inclusion of the likes of Rolling Stone, the National Rifle Association and Vanity Fair in a list of the most prominent 100 news and information sites almost made me completely dismiss this book.

While criticising the United Nations website for being dull and thus rating it only 1.5 “newspapers”, the politically biased Village Voice, TomPaine.com and MichaelMoore.com gets four “newspapers” – can this really be accurate and a useful ranking? However, the fact that the Christian Science Monitor, BBC and others get full marks restores a little faith in the work.

The authors have aimed to save the reader time by reviewing the web sites, but anyone with an ounce of intelligence could decimate the 100 web sites listed and be left with ten useful sources of news and information, jettisoning the rest and thus saving even more time.

In general, the basis for this book as a review of the 100 most prominent news and information web sites is admirable. Broderick and Miller have identified many of the world's leading sites and have obviously spent a lot of time reviewing each of the sites. For the North American reader this is possibly a useful aid for anyone who is trying to access news sources. However, the internet is a global phenomenon and news and information is both created and reported globally. Token non‐American web sites cannot cover the deeply flawed nature of this work for the international reader. The minimal coverage of non‐English language sites is also a serious setback that greatly devalues this work. This work is a great idea that has fundamental failures.