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Title:

Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to the 100 Most Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web

Review:

News is ideally suited to an environment that thrives on frequent updates and the ability to cross-reference sources and stories. The problem faced by an audience hungry for news is not a lack of sources, but how to select meaningful voices among the clamour and throng of the Internet.

Broderick and Miller believe their book, "Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to the 100 Most Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web", is just the filter that we need. For a book that is some 450 pages long and whose purpose is to list and review 100 online news sites, it works surprisingly well.

The authors are both experienced reporters, and their guiding principle for the book is that, regardless of the medium, news is judged by the quality of its content. The tricky part is then to apply a consistent set of criteria across a range of sites that differ in political outlook and target audience. To a large degree, Broderick and Miller pull this off.

Each of the 100 sites gets about four pages of analysis, divided according to a straightforward template. After an overview that introduces the company behind the site, we get a description of the site's contents ('What You'll Find There'), reasons you might want to use the site ('Why You Should Visit'), a brief look at any hidden - or explicit - bias or agenda ('Keep This in Mind'), and a final judgment and rating.

Ratings run from one newspaper - 'Disappointing, definitely look elsewhere' - through to five newspapers - 'Superior sites worth checking in with every day'. Given the inevitable US weighting of the book and its authors, it is gratifying to note that of the five sites that merit five newspapers, two of them are British - the BBC and Guardian Unlimited.

Equally gratifying is the fact that Fox News cannot even muster one newspaper, and is paired with Rush Limbaugh at the bottom of the pile with a rating of only one half of a newspaper. When rating the Fox site, the authors say, 'unless you want neo-con spin and Republican- driven opinion, FoxNews.com belongs in the no-visit zone'.

This is obviously a book to dip into rather than read from cover to cover, but the opinions expressed on the sites I know are fair and balanced - not something that can be said of Fox News - and encouraged me to look at other sites, such as First Amendment Center and TomPaine.com, which were unfamiliar to me.

There is a decent index, and, better still, an associated website at TheReportersWell.com <http://www.thereporterswell.com>, with additional resources and updated information. I was dubious about the potential usefulness of a book as a guide to websites, but I find I refer to it now more than I expected.

So, I give it four newspapers - 'Very good information'.

FreePint Reviewer:

Graham Stewart is a freelance writer. His website is at <http://www.grahamdstewart.com>.

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