Personal accounts are more reliable than magazine/newspaper interviews as papers will most probably change the story and add other sentences to make the story more action packed, but talking to the people who experienced the tragedy may lie a little but it may still be more trustworthy.
Documentaries
Assessment of source:
Documentaries are programmes which usually last for 30minutes – 1 hour, these show victims and witnesses points of views on the events which have affected them.
For example; Soldiers in the IED Bomb squad were shown doing their jobs in harsh conditions, these include; patrolling an area whilst searching for the IEDs, defusing bombs.
The documentary was shown in a series to show how they coped with the conditions over time.
Strengths:
The positive impacts documentaries have is that people tell their stories from their point of view, which is first-hand information, this is seen as very reliable as they have said what they had undergone, for example: Soldiers in the series from IED bomb disposal Unit tell of incidents they have seen or been involved in, the documentaries show the camera footage of what they do and they also talk about things as they happen.
Weaknesses:
If the documentaries didn’t have any camera or photo evidence, then people could re-enact the scenes the soldiers have spoken about, they can then make the conditions and missions sound harder than what they actually are. This will provide false information to people that are researching or writing further reports or stories from the soldiers point of views.
Evaluation:
In conclusion, I think that documentaries are very strong sources to use to gather information and use for future preferences.
They show proof of the incidents that had happened and information given from someone who had experienced the event first hand, which allows people to update their own knowledge from these documentaries.
Photographs can be used to show evidence of an incident
happening, this can prove that an interview or story provided by someone can be
seen as reliable.
The four pictures I have picked are photographs taken
from World War 2, Falkland’s and Afghanistan, these show strong evidence what
is happening in those times and the uniform shows that it is our soldiers.
The pictures range from combat to patrolling the villages
and pictures of buildings which have had damage caused to them, with these, people
will believe that the war/battles actually happened.
The strong points about these photographs is that it
shows British troops in other countries performing their jobs, if these
pictures were not available, people would not know what conditions our soldiers
are dealing with and will not understand how physically and mentally
challenging it looks.
Weaknesses: Some of these photographs could have been recreated to
make it look like they were taken in a specific war dating back to World wars
to make it look worse or better conditions than what they really were.
This would lead people who have seen these to be lead
away from what really happened as they could be very unreliable, possibly making them write or take in knowledge which is incorrect which could lead to others believing also, instead of reading and seeing for themselves.
Evaluation: In conclusion, I think that photographs are a very useful source
of information to prove or show what wars and conditions were/are for soldiers
in times like this. Many photos could be faked or have a recreation of a photo
to force people into believing something that is not correct, but I think the
four photos I have picked are genuine and reliable to show what the times were
really like and what soldiers had went through.
Paintings and drawings were the way to let news and papers know about the Army instead of taking pictures (as cameras were not around back in the WW1 days). Drawing and then painting was the way these pictures were formed to back to countries, for family, friends or to be stored for the future to let people know what the war was like and to show the extreme conditions the soldiers had worked in. In the three paintings I have picked, they all trace back to the World War 1 days where camera were not around and painting was the only way to record the areas the soldiers were in, this also took pressure and produced relaxation time for soldiers who could paint as this is a hobby they could have taken up. The great thing about the drawings and photographs from War is that the paintings cannot be recreated and faked to produce false information for researchers and people who are interested.
They also shows the conditions that soldiers had worked in, meaning that, the artist who had drew and painted these would not have been working in warm weather but had then created a painting which shows it is cold and snowy, which means that the Painting can be very reliable to extract information from. The paintings could have been drawn (not genuine) again to show different types of scenery by current artists, they could add some interesting scenes with high action, but it is obvious that if there were high levels of action, the painter would not have been able to capture it all. The drawings could have been done after the war, which results in the Artist forgetting what everything looked like exactly and added false objects or more/less people to the scene.
Evaluation:
In conclusion, I think that drawings/paintings can be very reliable, but can also be misleading.
If people know which paintings are genuine and which are fake, they will be able to know which paintings to take information from and work from there meanwhile, the fakes can be used, but are not entirely correct. With both paintings compared, I would always choose the paintings which were completed by the artists themselves from their own point of view as they had known what had happened and drew from the scenes they remember.
Without Photographs of any incident, many people will not believe it due to the lack of reliability, for example, if there was a big fire that had caused plenty of damage to its surroundings yet there was no picture, a lot of people would think that it may not be true.
Human remains can consist of bones, teeth and skin, after the bodies decompose there is only bone and teeth remaining, this can be traced for DNA which can then be compared to dental records and recorded DNA. If these matches are made, this is how families and friends can then find out who it really was, if the body was unidentifiable.
There are many ways to find out what had happened to the people who had decomposed as coroners can check bruises, angles of hit, what time they were attacked etc, this can help determine what the persons strong hand was, whether they'd have some damage done to themselves.
The positive outcomes from finding human remains is that the bones and teeth can be traced down to the DNA to identify the deceased person even if the body is completely unrecognisable, the deceased person can also be identified as male or female through the teeth and bone by simply tracing the density/weight of the bone. With specialist analysis post mortem held by the coroners, they can determine how long ago the person was murdered or died, giving a clue into where and what time it had happened. Even in incidents such as; fires, car crashes and mutilation, bodies can still be identified through medical records and hair strands can also be tested for a match in DNA.
Weaknesses:
The negative outcomes from human remains, is that the main bones could be damaged so badly that the DNA is impossible to extract from them, resulting in a loss of morale for the team searching and working on them.
Evaluation:
In conclusion I think that the finding of human remains is a very positive outcome as it shows who it is, how long they have been decomposing for etc.
CD Rom
Assessment of source:A CD Rom is a disc that has information stored on it, the disc was created when computers were in construction and being built, the discs hold information which was help in Encyclopedias.
With this CD, information was easier to find and easy to read as you could type in the subject you want to look at and research instead of searching through a large book with thousands of words to look through just to find the word you are looking for.
Strengths:The CD Rom contains data which provides factual evidence and is easy to access and can be stored very easily without taking up much space, the CD allows people to search for the word they are looking for after finding it, the information is provided by a specialist giving a detailed and understandable definition and possibly an example (if needed).
WeaknessesThe main problem with a CD Rom, is that the disc cannot be updated which means that after being bought, events that happen after they have been created will not be available on the disc to research, also the information is very limited as the disc cannot hold all different kinds of views and opinions/facts from different people.
If someone relies on information from these discs, then they will have to buy the new ones when there is further more advanced facts and notes on the specific topics they are looking up on.
Evaluation:
I think that the CD Roms can be a very bad item to purchase unless people but them to search on a specific topic which is available on the disc, otherwise people should stick to TV documentaries, factual programmes etc to update their knowledge.
Internet
Assessment of source:
The Internet is used for a wide variety of things such as; Social networking sites, movies and video clips, but the main intention of the Internet, is for researching valuable information about topics that people are interested in, there are millions of different searches for each event, ranging from official statements and stories from the (news, newspapers) down to peoples opinions about a range of different topics.
Strengths:
The main positive impact of the Internet is that the information provided on all different range of events, news etc is updated regularly, some websites every minute to hours.
There are also websites which release records whihc are totally true, but some informatioj may not be released.
Weaknesses:
Poeple all over the world can write anything they want, their own opinions or 'facts' that they believe which is taken from others opinions and 'facts', this can take things out of proportion and mislead people from the truth.
When there is some official information, it is limited, governments prevent some details from being released to prevent upset or discomfort throughout the nation.
Evaluation:
Oveall, I think that the internet has more positive outocmes than negative, due to the fact that there is a large quantity of information out there, all the information provided in a search is not reliable, but websites that are government backed, 'Gov.uk', these websites can be very reliable.
The disadvantages of the Internet is that some information is provided by peoples opinions and facts they believe to be true.
Official records
Assessment of Sources:
Official records are copies by the Government or Public services to report on events, official records are kept for their full retention period.
after researching into incidents, conflict, events etc. These can be recorded by what happened, what time and when.
These can also be reports written by public services such as; Paramedics, Police force etc about what the incident was, who was there, who did what and how they dealt with it, these are then recorded in files and sent secured in a safe place to make sure that if they are questioned, they have written evidence.
Strengths:
Official copies about the events/surveys/people are held legally for a retention period, which means they are allowed to hold information from the public or some of the Government for a set period of time.
There are websites that show 'gov.uk' on the end of the link, this proves that they are Government backed sites, where all information provided is very reliable and can be used legally.
If there is a website that has been created with 'gov.uk' on the link, the website will automatically be taken down to prevent information being given out illegally or incorrect information.
Weaknesses:
All information that is held by the government is very limited as they do not seem to want to give too much away due to certain reasons, some information is checked and then release, but events such as violence or corruption within the Government is held back and is illegal to release.
Access is severely restricted for the population other than those dealing with the reports.
Evaluation:
In conclusion, I think that official records are very reliable as they are released by the Government, the records shown are very detailed analysis of the incident, but the only negative about these records is that the Government restrict some of the information from being publicised.
