Evaluating Internet Sources

Are The Sources Credible?

 

 Part One: 

   My Impressions: The topic I decided to explore was makeup. Or, to be more precise, if makeup is bad for the skin. The first result was a photo gallery which was irritating and I immediately disregarded. Luckily the second option was a formed like a proper website with, most importantly, a paragraph that expressed or informed certain views. It is by no means the perfect site. It had a lot of advertisements at the bottom of the paragraph, including a 35 second video which didn't really fit in with the title (How Does Makeup Affect Your Skin) as it just showed a makeup artist explaining how he was making a woman look younger. It had some interesting points like the fact that some women have allergic reactions from minor skin irritation to actual blisters.

  Gather Information:

• The authors name is below the article's title making it easy to find and clearly states who wrote it. However, when searching for the author's credentials, it became clear that she was not a professional and was most likely stating or re-posting facts from other, more credible sources without going too deep into the subject. The information on this site was not appropriate for the purpose of this page (.com).
• The information on this site wasn't necessarily biased. It seemed to be on the neutral side as it stated minor discrepancies and how to fix them without pointing out how poorly regulated makeup production generally is. The purpose of this site was probably to sell.
• This site is backed up with a lot of advertisement on makeup, especially the cheap kind which almost undoubtedly influenced the content of the site.
•  The site has some very good references that go into deeper detail and seem more inclined to educate it's reader. However there were two other references which were not as informative but was still more educational than the actual site that referenced them.
• The site has not been updated recently. Not since August 20, 2009.
•  The links are not relevant or appropriate to the topic.

Summary:While I have bashed this website considerably, I did learn new terminology as well as their definitions like "products that are labeled hypoallergenic (they're less likely to cause allergic reactions), noncomedogenic (they won't block pores) and nonacnegenic (they won't cause acne)". (Siddons, "How Does Makeup Affect Your Skin?") These terms are quite helpful to know since many products tend to have such words printed all over them. It is important to note that, according to HowStuffWorks.com, those terms aren't necessarily regulated by the U.S Food and Drug Administration. A disturbing fact to say the least.

Part Two:

  Article Name: "Cosmetics, diet, and the future"

This article provide an outstanding overload of information! It was far more impressive and informative on the progress of makeup products and how it can affect the human skin. It had a considerable amount of citations, referenced ten sources, and (of course) had no adds that cluttered the screen. As opposed to the previous article with an author who lacked credibility, Zoe Diana Draelos comes from the Department of Dermatology, Duke University of Medicine. Her style of writing was far more formal instead of conversational, and she had a lot more to say on the subject. Six pages to be exact.

One of the sources the essay refereed to:

Chen JH, Hales CN, Ozanne SE. DNA damage, cellular sen-excence and organismal ageing: causal or correlative? Nucleic Acids Res 2007: 35 : 7417–7428.

Sources:

-Siddons, Sarah.  "How does makeup affect your skin?"  20 August 2009.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/beauty/skin-and-makeup/makeup-affect-your-skin.htm>
 11 October 2015.

- Draelos, Zoe Diana. "Cosmetics, Diet, And The Future." Dermatologic Therapy 25.3 (2012): 267-272. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.