The importance of EVALUATING YOUR SOURCES!

Last night (3/3/12) a documentary, 'McDonalds Gets Grilled', was aired on Channel 7 where six Australians are invited to spend a week touring farms and factories where McDonald's produce is sourced and made.

However did it give us a RELIABLE view of what things are really like overall?


Knowing the details behind your source of information is important.
-WHEN was the data collected? (currency)?
-WHO collected the data - what are their own perspectives or vested interests? (Bias)?
-HOW was the data collected? Is it a reliable and accurate method? (Accuracy and reliabililty)?
-WHO or WHERE was the information based on/taken from? Is it VALID for all other people/places?

The word documentary makes us think it is a serious and objective source. However it was funded and initiated by McDonalds itself! So is it really going to give us an UNBIASED view?? Probably not - although you can see what their spokesperson and Channel 7 and the Telegraph had to say here.
It gave a pretty positive image of McDonalds farmers and suppliers. But we need to consider:

- Were the farms and suppliers and restaurants shown in the documentary a large enough sample to be representative of all those that they use/run? i.e.  were the results RELIABLE and VALID?
- How was the sample of farms, suppliers and restaurants selected??
- Can we be sure that this is an accurate representation of the whole of McDonalds throughout Australia? What about the rest of the world?

These are the sorts of questions you should be asking about any SOURCE you use and any PRIMARY data you collect yourself!!