Information Literacy: Be Savvy about your Sources: What do you want?

You can't trust someone who remains anonymous. If nobody can be held accountable for wrong information, then there is no consequence to the author for providing wrong information. 

If an author publishes their name along with their contact information, that increases their credibility. They will be judged by the information they publish.  They can be held accountable.  They risk their reputation.

A person who is recognized as an authority or expert in a profession is an authoritative resource. Their reputation is usually based on their training and what they have produced in the past. If a professional gives out bad information or makes a mistake, they risk their reputation, and may also risk their job, grants, licensing, customers, etc.. They have a lot of incentive to provide the best information they can.

Primary: First-hand. 

• Primary source of information is experienced, observed, created, or imagined. 
• Documenting Primary in tangible form makes it into an intellectual property that has an owner and a value.
• Examples include: The data collected by a researcher.  A movie, song, painting, photograph, journal entry, recording, or speech, etc. 

Secondary: Second-hand. 

• Someone is explaining or interpreting what the Primary was or meant. 
• After reviewing the account or documentation of the first-person Primary experience, the interpretation or discussion is the Secondary information or documentation. 
• Examples include: Book or movie reviews. An Article discussing or summarizing a published science paper, or group of resources on a topic.