ADSET, as some people are aware is a membership organisation and when you ask a question the whole membership MAY be involved in providing your answer. However, the day-to-day research work that ADSET does is just two of us - Hazel (that's me) and Dawn (who refers to me as "Boss"). We have, over time, evolved what we think is a good split of responsibilities -- ologies not starting with "tech" or "info" are Dawn's responsibility (she's a sociologist) and everything else is mine. I'm not sure what I would call myself -- 22 years as a civil servant, most of the time spent in the JobCentre service, 5 years with ADSET as an employee, 12 years as the MD, CEO, CIO, FD and general dog's body don't seem to fit into a mould. Perhaps "Boss" will do.
Anyway, I was reading e-content mag and came across an article about a social issues database -- definitely in Dawn's province! WiseTo Social Issues provides, says e-content, "a balanced look at all sides of social issues and current events, including professionally written information on more than 100 subjects". Sounds wonderful but ...
Dawn says: "It's a good idea in theory, but this site doesn't really do what is claims. It's very American [not necessarily a bad thing -- just makes it less useful to readers in the UK] and the information is presented with a firm American bias. And, of course, there's the problem that one person's balanced look is another person's rabid right-wing outpourings. The section on abortion is particularly interesting. It clearly states that the camp is split into 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice' and that both have valid points to make, but then it seemed to descend (to me, at least) into a load of drivel about how the pro-choicers are actually misinformed, misguided and just plain wrong! A nice idea, but I won't be going back."
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I see that bias too in library directed digital sources, only the other direction. Could it be. . . librarians are 224:1 liberal to conservative and select their collections, both print and digital, with that slant? Since I'm a conservative, I'll take a look at this site you mention and give an opinion.
OK. I looked at the site. I didn't see the "drivel" you cited, however, I did detect a stronger pro-life point of view than pro-abortion. What makes it easy to spot, isn't so much what is said, but that it is said at all. Many people have forgotten the states-rights issue, which would be totally unfamiliar to Europeans, but was a big deal in the USA. States have lost so much to the federal in the last 30 years, it is not a strong position, however, for this topic.
On the other hand, the links to the recent decision about partial birth abortion where the baby's brains are sucked out while still alive and in the birth canal, are definitely pro-choice, even though 80% of Americans are opposed to this, even many pro-choicers who support early term abortions.
I checked the animal rights topic, and found it very leftward--virtually new-age religion. Animal rights and animal welfare are two different topics. I didn't see the animal welfare position at all.
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