University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Credibility of the Web: Why We Need Dialectical Reading

Bruce, Bertram C.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13425

Description

Title
Credibility of the Web: Why We Need Dialectical Reading
Author(s)
Bruce, Bertram C.
Issue Date
2000-02
Keyword(s)
  • credibility
  • World Wide Web
  • Dialectic
  • Exegetical
  • Dogmatic
  • Agnostic
  • Jorge Luis Borges
Abstract
The World Wide web is growing rapidly, unpredictably, unevenly, and without the familiar guideposts of established publishers and vetting procedures. As the web assumes ever greater importance in education, research, and daily life, these phenomena deserve more critical examination. Is the web a bountiful source of information and resources on every conceivable topic, as some claim? Or, is it unreliable, ephemeral, and overcommercialized as others warn? Do we need to develop criteria for evaluating web pages to separate the good from the bad? Is the web a fundamentally different medium that requires new modes of critique? This essay explores how characteristics of the web lead to it being simultaneously a great and a questionable source of information. The issue then becomes how we should read such a complex and contradictory text.
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13425

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