Page 211 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Speaking of . . .

When Google Misfi res

An example of how a Google search can reveal mislead- king-bio.html)—but the racist site was still the second
ing sources occurs when Web sites are ranked by Google ranked hit.
based on factors that have nothing to do with credibility. For It’s also important to be familiar with “Google bombs.” By
example, we typed martinlutherking into the Google search manipulating various characteristics of a Web site, prank-
engine on January 8, 2007. The number one hit was a Web sters have been able to move the search results for par-
site (http://www.martinlutherking.org/) sponsored by a white ticular phrases to the number one result in some comical
supremacist organization. Among the recommended read- ways. In January 2007, for instance, if you typed miserable
ings on Dr. King was a book by former Ku Klux Klan leader failure in the search box, the fi rst site that comes up is the
David Duke—hardly a friend of the late civil rights leader. offi cial biography of the president, obviously the result of
One likely reason it is the number one result on Google is pranksters who dislike him. Not to be outdone by those on
that many librarians put this link on their own Web sites as the left, the next hit was the biography of fi lmmaker Michael
an example of a bogus site, thus causing it to rank very high Moore, probably a result of pranksters on the right. Prob-
in Google’s results list. When we typed martin luther king ably the most famous Google bomb was in 1999 when typ-
as separate words, rather than as a single string of charac- ing more evil than satan in Google’s search box took you to
ters, the number one hit was the Nobel Prize organization Microsoft’s home page. Today that phrase will lead you to
( http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/ several articles about Google bombing.

Googling Sources
Before we leave the topic of Google, we want to suggest one additional way it
can be a valuable research tool. Suppose you fi nd an interesting article or Web
site but there are no qualifi cations listed for the author. Sometimes a Google
search of the author’s name (or the name of the organization sponsoring the
Web site) will help out. For example, in the When Google Misfi res box, we men-
tioned the Martin Luther King Web site that was linked to a racist group that
specifi cally recommended a book by David Duke. What if you had never heard
of Duke? Well, Googling his name—in addition to leading you to his own Web
site—takes you to articles about his role in the Ku Klux Klan and his visit to Iran
for a conference on Holocaust deniers. If a person’s credentials are not known to
you, consider Googling the name. You may need to conduct an advanced search
(especially if it’s a common name), but being able to tell your audience your
source’s credentials is an important part of building your own credibility.

Wikis
secondary sources
Information sources that Early on in this chapter we introduced the potential abuses of wikis: Web sites
rely on other (primary) that allow users to add, delete, or edit content without providing verifi cation of
sources rather than
their contribution. One of the limitations of wikis, in addition to the ease with
gathering information
which they can be edited, is that they are at best a secondary source. When-
fi rsthand.
ever possible, speakers should try to locate primary sources of information
(i.e., the original source) rather than a source that presents information that its
primary sources
authors did not gather fi rsthand. Wikipedia insists upon being only a second-
Original sources of
ary source; in fact, moderators will remove any information that is presented as
information.
original research.
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