Evaluating websites for credibility - Research Paper Example

With regards to the website which was leveraged for this particular assignment, http www.unaids.org was chosen. In short, the purpose of the website is clearly denoted as a nation to reduce and ultimately rid the world of HIV/AIDs. As a means of coming to this particular article, and web search with regards to HIV/AIDs was performed on Google. It also rationale for selecting such a unit of discussion is with regards to the fact that even though HIV/AIDs has been affecting the world for over three decades, it has yet to be fully understood and continues to be extraordinarily costly, both in terms of economic figures and the overall number of deaths that it causes around the globe.

With respect to providing a thorough analysis of this particular website, it is necessary to focus upon the five following criteria: authority, information, objectivity, ease of navigation, and privacy and security policies. Firstly, with regards to authority, it can categorically be understood that the authority that this website project is perhaps the highest of any that might be engaged with. Due to the fact that contributions and direction for UNAIDS is provided by each member nation of the United Nations, the presentation of a skewed or biased viewpoint is unlikely to be presented (Sridhar, 2013).

Likewise, with regards to the information and objectivity of this information, it can equally be said that a team of international stakeholders have come together in order to put forward the information that is presented to the reader so that it can have the greatest level of benefit with regards to reducing the overall prevalence of HIV/AIDs within the current environment. Similarly, with regards to easily navigation and the privacy and security features of the website, these are also exceptional.

This does not come as much of a surprise; once again due to the fact that a consortia of different nations and subject matter experts from around the world had come together in order to make the resource provided within the website as useful and helpful to the individuals that might integrate with as possible. As a result of the way in which the preceding five determinants were measured, it can definitively be stated that the website, www.UNAIDS.org, is both a credible and reliable resource that a nurse or medical professional could rely upon.

Naturally, the overall focus of this particular website is with regards to impacting a level of change on an international level with regards to HIV/AIDs. However, notwithstanding such an international focus, the reduction plans and means of remediation for HIV/AIDs that are provided on the website, help the individual, regardless of geographic location, to understand the disease to a more full and complete degree (Harman, 2011). Ultimately, the information that is thus far been presented is useful in helping to delineate whether or not the resource above can be helpful and credible.

The importance of credibility with regards information found on the Internet is a fundamental question that a nurse or medical professional of any variety must necessarily consider. This is due to the fact that the position of being a medical healthcare professional demands the practitioner to continually integrate with new information. As a result of the technological changes that are occurring to a greater and more rapid degree within the world, more and more of this new information will be a web enabled format.

As such, rather than the traditional print journals, that the healthcare professional could take a degree of comfort in, with respect to the fact that they were be peer-reviewed and published by reputable journals, Web-enabled information does not have the same level of checks and balances as the traditional print media which was engaged previously. As a direct function of this, it is therefore incumbent upon the medical healthcare professional to deeply consider the factors that have been discussed above and contemplate whether or not the information provided resonates with previous information that have already integrated with and/or is free from bias.

Although it is impossible to find a resource that is perfect with regards to each and every determinant, it is possible to determine whether or not the information provided is merely anecdotal or is ultimately derived from a rigorous level of scientific measurement, data analysis, and research. In such a way, rather than merely basing opinions upon broadly understood concepts, UNAIDS.org has presented the reader with a concrete level of information concerning a litany of different ways that stakeholders throughout the world have found useful and helping to ameliorate and lessen the prevalence of HIV/AIDs within the world as we know it.

References Harman, S. (2011). Searching for an Executive Head? Leadership and UNAIDS. Global Governance, 17(4), 429-446. Sridhar, D. (2013). Coordinating the UN System: Lessons from UNAIDS: A commentary on Mackey. Social Science & Medicine,7621-23. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.038