[Due Date]
The first analyzed webpage in this paper is the article “19 Natural Remedies for Anxiety” by Robert A. Barnett published in 2013 on the Fox News website, which is a part of the Fox News Network. The second webpage is the article “Anxiety Disorders” on the official website of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which is a part of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of this essay is to critically evaluate the two webpages and gain understanding of their credibility and if any of the websites can be used as a source for a speech or academic research papers. I would recommend all students to use the website of the NIMH to write on the topic of anxiety and anxiety disorders, as well as for other academic purposes because it is a leading federal agency that studies mental disorders. Moreover, it is sponsored and supervised by a government agency that focuses on the issues of health, and, for this reason, the website is more likely to have been created by a medical professional specializing in the topic. Moreover, the article has also been recently revised, which means that the administration of the website strives for providing up-to-date information to the users. Finally, the webpage provides more in-depth and comprehensive information that the article published on Fox News.
The Fox News webpage that contains the article “19 natural remedies for anxiety” provides a brief overview of several non-medical methods to treat the symptoms of anxiety, including various herbs available in different forms, as well as exercise, yoga breathing, eating food that will provide quick intake of sugar, sauna and hot tubs, taking a walk in a forest, mastering mindful meditation, as well as changing perception and attitude towards events that cause anxiety (Barnett, 2013). The website refrains from advising a person to ask for professional treatment, but mentions several anxiolytic drugs that can be substituted with herbs. It also does not differentiate between anxiety and anxiety disorders and suggest in the introduction that the described methods can be used for both conditions. The NIMH webpage, in turn, addresses anxiety disorders, emphasizing that anxiety in general is absolutely normal, and draws the line between the two conditions (National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 2016). The page provides information about signs and symptoms of different anxiety disorders, risk factors, and possible ways of treatment, including cognitive behavioral therapy, self-help groups, stress-management methods, and medication (NIMH, 2016). It also suggests the readers with anxiety disorders to consider participating in clinical trials, which can increase knowledge about the group of disorders and potential treatments (NIMH, 2016).
The purpose of the first article, which is a Website-only page, is to share information with the audience about non-medical remedies for symptoms of anxiety, as well as advertising because the article contains several links to similar topics on a different informational website Health.com (Barnett, 2013). The webpage also mentions several popular medications as alternatives to herbs, which may be done for advertising purposes, as well. The sponsor and owner of the website is the Fox News Network that provides news and entertainment for its audience. The text is well-organized, has sections and is easy to navigate, while all links are accessible and lead to other articles on anxiety. However, the author uses colloquial language in order to get closer to the audience, but this measure undermines the credibility of the article, since it addresses anxiety and anxiety disorder as a very ordinary condition. The webpage does not sound biased or reflecting the views of any political group, but it does contain information that can be considered as advertisement, such as links to a different website and brand names of drugs. The webpage was published on November 9, 2013, and no revision is mentioned in the text. The author of the article is never mentioned on the webpage and can be obtain only if a reader accesses a different website, where the article was originally published. The website does not provide any information about the author, and his biography or list of works cannot be found through search engines, except for the information that he is an award-winning journalist specializing in food and nutrition. For this reason, there is no sufficient information to evaluate the author’s credentials or to contact him for more information via e-mail or a phone call. The webpage provides only an overview of remedies, without diving deep into the topic of anxiety and its causes or symptoms. The webpage that speaks to the general audience also fails to provide any information about professional treatment of the disorder or any indication that a person should consult a physician prior to using any of the remedies. The numerical data provided in the article is taken from various researches, although it never provides links to them for further reading. No other illustrations, apart from the cover photo featuring a tired man on a couch, are present in the article.
The second article is published by a government agency specializing on mental health and aims at informing the reader about anxiety disorders in an in-depth overview of the condition. The website is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and for this reason can be trusted more than the previous article, since it was written and revised by the professional staff of the agency. The webpage is well-organized and divided into sections, which makes it easier to navigate the article for general audience, which is a target audience of the webpage. The article is aimed at people, who are interested in the disorders, but do not have professional medical education, and those, who have any type of anxiety disorders. It can be also used by students, as it provides in-depth overview of the topic. The authors did not use complex phrases or professional terms that would be hard to comprehend for the general audience. All links provided in the text are relevant to the topic and are still accessible. The website does not sound biased and does not advertise any particular product. Although there is no concrete date of creation of the article, it was revised in March 2016. The article does not have any specific author, but rather belongs to the authorship of the professional staff of NIMH, and most possibly the authors of the article are experts in the field of mental disorders and anxiety disorders in particular. Contact information, such as phone numbers and e-mails can be found on the website. Given that the article is published by a government agency, it is considered a government source. Although the article does not provide very extensive information about the disorders, the overview is quite comprehensive, and links can help find more information on the topic. No data in form of numbers, figures or illustrations in provided in the article, and no outside research is cited in it.
This essay has critically evaluated two webpages, one published by a news company and another by a government agency, and the essay shows how a student can distinguish between a website that can be used for academic purposes and a website that should not be considered trustworthy. The website of the NIMH is more credible and useful as a source in academic setting because it is supervised by the government, written by professionals in the field of mental disorders, provides more in-depth information, does not advertise products and has been recently revised in March 2016 by the staff of the agency. The information learned from this analysis can be actively used in writing speeches and scientific researches. However, it is also very useful in everyday life, since it shows that most online sources cannot be trusted on faith simply because they are published on a popular website. This information about how to evaluate websites should be shared with friends, relatives and other students because it can help eradicate false knowledge and popular, but wrong and harmful beliefs.
References
Barnett, R. A. (2013, November 9). 19 natural remedies for anxiety. Retrieved May 21, 2016, from http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/11/09/1-natural-remedies-for-anxiety.html
Lederer, N. (2013, July 23). How to evaluate a web page. Retrieved May 19, 2016, from http://lib.colostate.edu/howto/evalweb2.html
National Institute of Mental Health. (2016, March) Anxiety disorders. Retrieved May 19, 2016, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml
