Internet Reviews

Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, email: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, email: cdrost@willamette.edu

First Draft. Access: https://firstdraftnews.org/.

First Draft is dedicated to “identifying thematic topics of misinformation around the world.” The group formed in 2015 initially as a nonprofit organization but now is a sustainable and self-investing organization. First Draft identifies themselves as politically independent and has an overarching goal to preserve the integrity of the news media. In the “About” area of the page, government officials are encouraged to learn how they can halt the spread of fake news or ask First Draft to investigate misinformation in their own countries. The website functions as a meta-analysis of misinformative news on the Internet. Through the categories “Thinking,” “Tackling,” “Training,” and “Tracking,” readers can explore recent trajectories of misleading media, learn why people are quick to believe misinformation, and access supporting data.

The webpage provides a series of publicly accessible reports and materials, including training courses for journalists and media creators, guides, research, and articles. Each of these areas offers a deep discussion of current trending topics that are likely targets of “misinformation spread.” Current topics include vaccine myths, identifying AI and deepfake news, election disinformation, and patterns of social media misinformation. The reports and articles are a collection of cited data, background information, and how to recognize when lack of information is a problem. First Draft employs their own researchers and writers and relies on working journalists to assist with accuracy. This organization has offices in New York, London, and Sydney, and has an international focus. Some of the training materials are in multiple languages.

First Draft provides free online training modules for journalists, bloggers, and any information consumer interested in debunking or “prebunking” misinformation on the Internet. Ideally, First Draft wants to function as a tool for creators of online information to produce truthful and accurate information and not be fooled by deceptive media information. The free online training can test one’s skills at spotting fake information in a variety of news sources and online social media venues such as TikTok.

The content on First Draft may be overwhelming to an undergraduate student looking for coverage of current controversial topics such as election controversies or COVID-19 misinformation. However, this source would definitely be useful for college students conducting research on patterns of misinformation. It would also be of interest to any librarian who teaches “fake news” sessions to patrons.—Molly Susan Mathias, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, mathiasm@uwm.edu

The National Women’s History Museum. Access: https://www.womenshistory.org/.

The National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) has created a virtual museum experience with their website, allowing patrons to view exhibits, hear lectures and presentations, as well as access lesson plans and archival materials. In the wake of the pandemic, many museums have pivoted to online experiences, and the National Women’s History Museum is an excellent model. Educators will find an expansive page of digital resources to use in the classroom, including a topics page, which they may use to access biographies, oral histories, lesson plans, quizzes, and more on topics ranging from women in the Civil War to women in contemporary popular culture.

Under “Students and Educators,” users can locate an interesting report entitled “Where are the Women: A Report on the Status of Women in the United States Social Studies Standards,” which finds U.S. history standards have largely failed to integrate women’s history into the school curricula. The museum offers virtual field trips, which may be booked online, although as of September 2021, the virtual trips were fully booked. Students and educators will also appreciate the link to National History Day, where middle and high school students have an opportunity to present multimodal research on a theme in a competitive format.

Although the site provides links to the museum’s archival collection, the digitized collection is limited. Academic researchers seeking primary sources will want to arrange a visit to the physical archive in Alexandria, Virginia. The website’s content reflects the intersectionality of women’s history with a dedicated page of antiracism resources that goes beyond simply diverse representation by providing users with a range of resources to put to work in recognizing and combating overt and covert racism. Additionally, the site is an excellent source to plan a visit and learn about the museum generally, with links to current physical exhibits, a museum history, administrative and board biographies, and more.

Educators and students from middle school to the early undergraduate level will find the NWHM website a valuable resource for choosing topics, researching, and generally learning about women’s history in the United States.—Bart Everts, Rutgers University-Camden, bart.everts@rutgers.edu

The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Access: https://www.state.gov/pepfar/.

The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) website posts re-sources from the State Department’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Global Health Diplomacy, including press releases, stories, fact sheets, annual reports to Congress, and operational plan proposals. Established in 2003, PEPFAR and numerous federal agencies work together with nearly 50 countries across the world to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Most countries are located in Sub-Saharan and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, former Soviet states, and Central and South America. Other partners include the United Nations; the World Health Organization; and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, as well as local faith-based groups, civil society, and a Scientific Advisory Board, whose members and meeting minutes are online. PEPFAR’s public-private partnerships include DREAMS (De-termined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe), which focuses on adolescent girls and young women.

PEPFAR’s homepage provides a banner menu that includes “About Us,” “Our Priorities,” “Where We Work,” “Results and Impact,” “Partnerships,” “Remarks and Releases,” “Reports and Guidance,” and “PEPFAR COVID-19 Resources.” Scroll the mobile-first interface to view their mission, four recent headlines, a recent YouTube video, older headlines, and priorities. PEPFAR’s stated priorities focus on “Progress,” “Policies,” “Populations,” and “Partnerships.” “Policies,” for example, links to a decade of impact assessments available in PDF.

The site’s highlight is its granular data, available from the “PEPFAR Data Dashboards.” PEP-FAR Panorama Spotlight offers geographic analysis, program areas, financial management, data sources, dashboards, FAQs, a glossary, and a data calendar. The dashboards provide information on site monitoring, performance, recency, viral load, cervical cancer analysis, clinical cascade, geography, and medical circumcision.

“Additional Data” includes codebook features for repro-ducibility, especially the adoption of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting Indicators. The “Knowledge Center” hosts more than 290 documents on access and use.

Students interested in public health and public policy will find the PEPFAR site a useful re-source.—Jennifer Stubbs, New York University-Shanghai, jas58@nyu.edu