In the summer of 1947, alleged alien material was found in Roswell, New Mexico. Since the 1970s, the controversial subject has been an interesting topic of conversation. The United States military denies the recovered material to be that of an extra-terrestrial but a destroyed technological device from a classified program. However, not a lot of information is known about the classified project. Supporters of the UFO phenomenon believe the U.S. military is trying to cover up evidence supporting other extra-terrestrial life forms.
I found the website, www.theroswellfiles.com, through a search on Google. The searched “Roswell UFO facts.” Even though the idea came to me randomly, I thought this would be an interesting topic to research because of the skepticism surrounding the subject. The site is under construction and a date is not listed for when it was last updated. The information used to create the website is historical dating back to the late 1940s and the site uses the information from that time. The site has several internal links leading to different pages: The Story, The Storytellers, The Government, The Witnesses, and The FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). Given the complexity of the subject, outside evidence supporting the incident in Roswell is questionable. The creators, The Aerial Anomalies Research Exchange, used a scientific approach when creating the website but outside information regarding the subject is two sided. There are proponents who support the idea of another life outside of Earth, and those who believe it is a hoax. The creators listed references on their “Credits” page. In it, they base their content on the knowledge acquired from witnesses and storytellers, as well as government agencies.
The Aerial Anomalies Research Exchange (A.A.R.E.) is the creator consisting of a group of authors: Matthew Graeber, Wim Van Utrecht and Bruce Hutchinson. Their mission statement is to provide as much information to followers in a scientific manner. I performed an additional search on Google of A.A.R.E. and there was not any information on the group. This made me think their credentials are not as significant as another groups. You can contact the group via e-mail but the site does not have a discussion forum for web engagement. The .com website does not have a sponsor. There are several references to outside sources but that does not make the information credible. The internal links lead to governmental data within their own site and the external links lead to other .com websites. The information is not factual nor presented by a government entity. Reports filed by the CIA and Air Force are located under “The Government” tab and the documents are shown to be written by the officials of that time in 1947.
The site is professional looking and easy for the viewer to use. The writing style is appropriate for the subject, scientific in nature but in some areas the creators show bias by questioning the historical documents presented to the public. It is free of any grammar, spelling or punctuation problems. The images used on the site are appropriate in relation to the content. The main image behind the title is a UFO and the type looks like the style of typewriter allowing the viewer to envision a government agency typing a classified report.
I find the site’s credentials questionable at best. I am unsure of my views of other life forms. However, I am fascinated by the subject but I would not use this website to base for more facts. The group is forthcoming in presenting their resources used to build the site but the links do not lead to .gov websites. They are presented within the website and it could be likely the resources are false and were used to create more influence on the material. Also, because I could not find any other information about the group, it made it difficult for me to take them seriously.
For project 3, I will make a hobby page surrounding my passion for art. In it I will outline my art preferences and favorite artists.
No comments:
Post a Comment