Kim Thompson

Your Online Health: Finding Reliable Sources

Posted on by Kim Thompson

Our social media news feeds are designed to be a source of news, information, entertainment and other thoughts and ideas.

Many people share website links or infographics on a variety of topics on their personal social media pages to inform others and engage in conversation.

Add to the mix of content, the speed and the high volume of online shares, our news feeds can be overwhelming and confusing at times.

When online resources are shared, this can add even more challenges. It’s not always easy to tell what links and news sources are reliable and sound.

Here’s a simple guide that can help you feel more comfortable in determining reliable information sources. 

Let’s get started. 

Here are some things to consider and questions to ask yourself when looking at information online.

  1. In a website URL, how the website ends can give you clues where the information is coming from. Educational resources end in .edu. Websites with some sort of commercial association end in .com. Government-affiliated websites end in .gov. Advocacy or non-profit organizations end in .org.
  2. How does the website look and feel? Does it look professional to you?
  3. Is there an About Us page, or a way to contact the author or organization if you have questions or concerns about the information they are sharing?
  4. Are there links to other sources on the page, and are they trustworthy?
  5. Can the information you found be verified elsewhere?
  6. Does the website have a lot of advertisements or sponsored content? This can give clues that the information may be influenced.
  7. Is the information up-to-date and current?
  8. Is it information written by a trustworthy author or organization?

Now you have some tools to think about what a reliable source looks like!

The next thing to consider: to share or not to share? 

Find the answer to that question below. 

BEST Admin

What Nonprofit Communications Professionals Wish You Knew

Posted on by BEST Admin

(Editor’s note: BEST’s own Kim Thompson recently shared this article about a behind the scenes look at being a Nonprofit Communications Manager. This article originally appeared on Medium and it has been reprinted here with the author’s permission).  I have been a nonprofit communications professional for nearly a decade. What does my job entail? People (more…)

Isaac Peterson

Brain Injury and Gender

Posted on by Isaac Peterson

We’ve all heard the phrase, no two traumatic brain injuries are alike. 

Those of us with brain injuries have, anyway. 

It gets said all the time; I’ve said it myself. No two brains are injured in the same way, and no two brain injuries have identical effects.

But one of the biggest differences is that it also seems females have different brain injury-related life experiences than males. 

A lot is known about traumatic brain injury (TBI) because of ongoing health research, but only half the story is being told: there are huge differences in the ways females experience brain injuries compared to males. 

On the surface, the differences seem to break down primarily according to physiological and biochemical differences, possible genetic differences, and traditional gender roles in our society.Â