Helmi Noman
Internet users’ assessment of Web credibility is affected by the navigational context and who links to what. Users tend to consider links as some sort of “endorsement”, especially if they are from .edu sites.
Web credibility is more than just the issue of "web of lies", the issue of "links of lies" is as important. Think about this: what do you call a lie when a "credible" site links to it thinking it is credible? I call it a "credible lie".
Here is an example, tass.net is a hoax site that “pretends” to be the web site of the Russian News agency ITAR-TASS. The site tass.net features a fake political story, supported with a photo and a video clip.
The problem is that credible sites such as cnn.com, link to the site thinking it is credible. Check this story from cnn.com and see the "Related Sites" at the bottom of the page! Many universities link to the very same site. Take the University of Pennsylvania as an example.
Here is another dilemma that makes the issue of web credibility more complex. Some sites are developed to actually look like they are the sites of well known sites. In the case of tass.net, a smart surfer can easily tell that the site is fake because there are some clues such as the fact that the site was last updated July 1, 1997. There is also an invisible disclaimer at the bottom of the page stating that the site is not affiliated with the Russian News Agency Itar-Tass But it takes more than a smart surfer to tell that aljazeera.com is not the web site of the famous Arabic TV channel Al-Jazeera, whose site is english.aljazeera.net BBC is one of the sites that link to aljazeera.com instead of english.aljazeera.net. Check this story and see the “Internet Links” on the right hand side bar. Well, there is a disclaimer on the same page that says “The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites”. The key word in the disclaimer is “content”; BBC is not responsible for the “content” only! The recommendations of Stanford University Web Credibility Research Lab on how to boost a web site’s credibility are available and useful for both aljazeera.net, the real site, and aljazeera.com, the hoax site! No wonder Reuters reported that the South Koreans flooded the wrong site, aljazeera.com to urge the kidnappers of the South Korean hostage in Iraq not to behead him. So next time you arrive at a Web site via a link from a “credible” site make sure you are actually where you think you are, even if your point of departure was CNN or BBC.
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