Unrestricted Web Publishing

On April 16, 2014, Time.com published the article “Heart Attacks, Strokes Related to Type 2 Diabetes Drop Dramatically.”  The author, Alexandra Sifferlin, cites a 20 year study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found a sharp decline in diabetes-related complications.  

Using the “Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources,” one can interpret the reliability and trustworthiness of this article.  This reference document asks such questions as:

• Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field about which she or he is providing information?

• With what organization or institution is the author associated?

• On what kind of Web site doe the information appear?

First, the author can be examined.  Time.com lists Alexandra a health writer who graduated from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism and has written over 79 page results of articles since February 2012.  She also has a Twitter account that boasts 5,473 followers.  However, I’m not sure if Alexandra has a background in a health-related field or not.  And although she has written many articles, I did not see any before 2012, which would make me believe she is still relatively new to the field (or just the Time publication).

Next, we can examine The New England Journal of Medicine, the publishers of the study.  This journal is 202 years old.  It claims to be the “oldest continuously published medical periodical” (The New England Journal of Medicine) with over 600,000 readers in 177 countries.  The New England Journal of Medicine also received the Polk Award for journalism merit in 1978.  This seems to be respectable source of information.  However, in reviewing the journal’s website, I did notice that this study was published on their website on April 17, 2014, yet a story was written about it on Time.com one day earlier.

Lastly, we can review the study’s lead author, Edward W. Gregg, senior epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Edward has earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., and has over 12 years of work experience relating directly to diabetes.  He has received over a dozen recognition awards and written 187 papers and publications.  I would say that Edward is an expert regarding the diabetes disease.

Overall, all the sources provided in this article appear to reliable and creditable sources for the topic of diabetes.

In reviewing this article and researching the sources used, it makes you consider what would happen if there had been unrestricted publishing of this article through mass media.  If Alexandra Sifferlin had not backed up her reporting by citing the publisher of the study and the lead study author, her account of the reduction of diabetes-related complications could be inaccurate and not dependable.  Readers would wonder how she was drawing her conclusions.   Her unsupported information, once released, could quickly spread across mass media, leading to many inaccurate reports in no time.  Instead, Alexandra decided to go right to the source for the accurate information.  

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Montecino, V.  (1998).  Criteria to evaluate the credibility of WWW resources.  Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm.

Sifferlin, A.  (2014, April 16).  Heart attacks, strokes related to type 2 diabetes drop dramatically.  Time.  Retrieved from http://time.com/65830/heart-attacks-strokes-related-to-type-2-diabetes-drop-dramatically/.

The New England Journal of Medicine.  (2014).  About NEJM - Past and Present.  Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/page/about-nejm/history-and-mission.