Monday, May 24, 2010

The Reliability Characteristic

I've always been concerned about the reliability of websites, especially considering anyone can access it. I found it interesting looking at each of the three links and comparing and contrasting their content. The first of the three, the Monsanto site, is a company whose sites purpose is to inform workers and consumers of their products and convince its readers that Biotechnology is a benefit. Their site is easy to navigate, and has a great form to contact different departments, for different reasons from job opportunities to customer or student inquiries. It was updated this year, thus has reliable information, but considering their bias is for Biotechnology with hardly, if any, information of its faults, it made me a little weary.
The second of the three links was the one that I considered most reliable and authoritative mainly because the author, Theresa Phillips who is a Ph.D. is non-biased and her purpose is to inform about the controversies and facts surrounding GMO’s to any readers, in this case most likely students considering her article is on a learning site with specific links for teachers and students. The article is easy to read and was published in 2008 so has relatively fresh information, however there is no direct way to contact the author, but the site does have an "ask an expert" box.
The third link I disliked the most. The site seemed more difficult to navigate to me, no distinct author or corporation, and their audience seems to be "Texas and beyond," so anyone who runs into their site in other words. It was updated this year, and does have a decent contact form (to who it is unsure), so seems to have informative information, but the fact that it is biased again does not give the whole picture of the debate on GMOs.
I think there is some good to GMOs, but it makes me nervous that they are not labeled on packaging. I would like to be informed about what I am consuming, and if it is something I don't want in my body, I should know before I ingest it.

Haugen, David, and Susan Musser, (eds.). Genetic engineering. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print.

No comments:

Post a Comment