GoOutJersey Features

Do you know your trusted websites as well as you think you do?

Updated 8/2/2007
When you want information about a subject — whether it be about syphilis or potential nuclear war in Iran — odds are you google it and click on the first link to pop up. Or you go to any number of already familiar sites — CNN, FOX, NJ.com, etc. But how do you know you’re getting the best information? How do you even determine what “best” is?

Well, James Broderick and Darren Miller have taken on this guessing game in their new book, Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to 100 Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web. In it — which you can buy and then discuss with the authors Wednesday, August 1, at their book signing at the Barnes & Noble in the Clifton Commons at 7:30PM— they assess 100 sites, and not just news sites. They look at AARP’s and National Geographic’s as well, and were sometimes surprised themselves by what they found.

And don’t start rolling your eyes — I know, we should all be glad you read news online, and now we’re asking you to read a book? But Broderick promised me this is not an eye-glazer. Think of it as a desktop tour guide to a city you thought you knew.

Broderick and Miller, who met at New Jersey City University where Broderick is a journalism professor and Miller was a student, came up with the idea for Consider the Source when confronting the very same questions we all do about not just what media to rely on, but how to tell the difference when there are overwhelming options online. Now we have access to international newspapers, political blogs, and opinion blogs belonging to authors and non-profits. The internet’s speed and the rapid growth of accessibility to these other sites can make for a dizzying — and sometimes fruitless — quest. So Broderick and Miller devised six criteria for rating a site:

Credibility (what’s their truth-telling track record? do they break significant news, and do they get their facts right?)
Reporting Protocol (do they do their own reporting? fact-checking? what’s the editing like?)
Speed (do they break news before anybody else?)
Correction policies (do the bury their mistakes?)
Quality of Writing (is it a site that takes pride in not just what, but how they write?)
Bias/Objectivity (does a site masquerade as unbiased and neutral when it isn’t? And if there’s a bias, in which direction does it lean?)

You’ll have to check out the book to see how your favorite sites rated, but if you’ve learned anything so far, your probably now thinking, “Ok, but why should I trust Broderick and Miller?”

Well, aside from their experience as journalists, they’re both Jerseyites! Broderick is a transplant-turned-passionate Jersey fan, and Miller is a Jersey native who somehow finds himself living in North Carolina. We won’t hold that against him, though, since Broderick’s devotion to Jersey culture more than makes up for it. In fact, Broderick has written a book, Paging New Jersey, about Jersey pop culture. So, of course, we had to ask him about five places in our dear garden state that he just can’t live without.

1. The Pine Barrens - for their history & mystery. A great place to go camping. And, yes, he says, the Jersey Devil does exist.
2. Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center - for baseball enthusiasts, this is a must. Located on the campus of Montclair State
3. Newark Public Library - a beautiful building
4. Walt Whitman Cultural Center in Camden — hosts poetry readings, slams, and other literary events
5. Rutt’s Hut - yes! Broderick says their hot dogs, aka rippers, are “unbelievable!” and they make their own mustard and relish!

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