Credibility of a blog

If this is not your first time reading my posts, you know that a while ago I started posting digests of interesting things i spot while reading (primarily) blogs and some other resources.  Given my interest in telecom policy with a particular focus on developing countries, it is not surprising that one of the blogs on my RSS feeds is called “IT News Africa“.  I started following it a few months ago as I thought it brings interesting and relevant information.  However, the more I follow this blog, the more doubts I start having about its credibility.

My main problem with this source is that it never links back to its sources.  Many times it looks pretty clear that the article is re-posted from elsewhere, which is a common practice, but there is no link back.  Sometimes they would even mention the source (like Business Africa Daily, but would still provide no link to the original.  Sometimes the post would be signed by ITnewsAfrica.com Reporter, but if you check out the about page, it does not have any reporter on staff, which raises questions.  In fact, I even tried contacting them once, asking for the source of one of their items, but I have never heard back.

The “about” page is also weird.  It has a very concise description of the project, which boils down to the fact that they syndicate their content across various platforms, and a list of names with titles.  There are no bios and no other information about the people behind the project, which does not add at least to my level of trust.

I think I’ve reach a point where I feel I should finish that semi “trial period” with this website and I am left with a few thoughts and concerns.  On the one hand, I wonder how people judge the trustfulness of individual blogs.  To what extent people are concerned with crediblity of information they encounter online.  Specifically, how do they establish what blogs to trust and to what extend?  On the other hand, I wonder if there are really good information sources about telecom news from the African region and other parts of the world that are less covered by the mainstram media in the US.  Any ideas?