Africa Growth Pilot/Online self-paced course/Module 4/Exercise - Is this a reliable source part 3

One more: What about a TV segment on YouTube to establish the number of casualties in a disaster? Can I cite that? Yes, yes I can. TV news on YouTube is news. Doesn't matter that it's on YouTube. YouTube in general -- YouTube is not a reliable source. Saying, "oh, I saw it on YouTube", that is not a reliable source. But if it's a YouTube recording of a TV news station that is generally a reliable TV news station and they put a video on YouTube, it doesn't make it unreliable just because it's on YouTube. Again, context matters! This is news reporting that is available to us on YouTube, and the news reporting tells us the number of casualties is this and that. We can use it and cite it like we cite news.

What about citing the National Bureau of Statistics or whatever it's called in your country for the incidence, which is a fancy word for frequency, of infant mortality in the country? Out of every 1000 babies, how many babies die during infancy? Can we cite the National Bureau of Statistics? Absolutely, yes we can. In fact, that is probably one of the only sources we would have for that sort of information.

(In response to another question about YouTube) -- It's not about YouTube, yes or no. It's about the particular source, yes or no. And that depends on the type of information we're looking to establish. If we want to establish that this "YouTube influencer" has more than 15 million views on YouTube, there is no other source than YouTube; YouTube is what we're going to cite for the viewership of this YouTube influencer. Does that make sense now? It really depends on the information we're trying to establish.

What about a professional website of a plastic surgeon talking about the beneficial effects of plastic surgery? Can we cite that? No? but this person is a doctor! this person is a man of science, right? what's the problem? The problem is that this is a business. This person is offering plastic surgery. That's a service that he's selling. So it is in his interest to promote the benefits of plastic surgery. It is in his interest to underplay the risks of plastic surgery. And in general, a man's being a man of science doesn't mean everything he says is scientifically proven, right? A man of science needs to be respected when he is communicating in a scientific way -- when he's publishing a scientific article, and that article has been reviewed by scientific peers. That's when we accept his writing as scientific truth. But when he's promoting his plastic surgery clinic, he's just a business owner like anyone else. That's the distinction I wanted to make with this point. It's not that "oh, he's a doctor, so anything he says is definitely true." That is absolutely not the case.