Reading and writing fill in the blanks
Good information One of the characteristics of 'good' information identified earlier was that it should be ‘balanced’. In an ideal world, 'objective' or 'balanced' information would present all the for and against, and leave you to weigh this up and draw conclusions. In the real world, however, we recognize that all information presents a position of , although this may not necessarily be intentional. Objectivity may therefore be an unachievable ideal. This means that the onus is on you as the reader and user of the information to a critical awareness of the positions represented in what you read, and to take account of this when you interpret the information. In some cases, authors may explicitly express a particular viewpoint – this is perfectly valid as long as they are open about the perspective they represent. Hidden bias, whether or not it is , can be misleading. This could be particularly important in a subject area where there is controversy.