Credible articles are written by authors who have a mastery of the contents of the article and who use sources that are reliable. In her article “Why Black Women Fear for Their Lives in the Delivery Room,” published in the Huffington Post, Eternity Martis focuses on African American mothers’ plight in the United States and Canada’s delivery rooms. Although Eternity Martis is a trustworthy author, the sources she refers to are weak, the supporting references are not credible, and The Huffington Post is not a credible journal, which means that her article is not dependable.
First, the author of the article “Why Black Women Fear for Their Lives in the Delivery Room,” Eternity Martis, is trustworthy because she has written several publications and investigation articles on race issues. She is a professor of Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice studies at UBC. Moreover, she created several courses focusing on race problems, for instance, Reporting on Race: The Black Community in the Media. Martis has written articles on the topic of African-American women’s health for several credible publications. Her work on this topic has shed light on many problems facing minority communities in the United States.
Next, Martins would be considered the pioneer of African Health and indigenous cultural affairs in the media space. Her work on the topic of black and indigenous people’s health has been adopted by many media outlets. Therefore, Martis has an academic background and a history of publishing articles in reliable news outlets on the topic of racial disparities and race problems within the healthcare industry in particular, which qualifies her for writing on the issues of African-American mothers.
Second, although Metis is a trustworthy and credible author as per her professionalism and experience, she has written for biased magazines, and Huffington Post is one of these unreliable mediums. This article was published in the Huffington Post, a publication that is not considered a reliable and credible source of information by a large number of American citizens. According to a survey held in April 2020, only seven percent of Americans view it as a credible source of news, meaning that the majority of people perceive Huffington Post as a weak source of information. Huffington Post has been accused of publishing articles with biased titles which sensationalize the content. This strategy helps attract the readers, but it also affects the content of the article and the lens through which information is presented.
Additionally, The Huffington Post’s authors often refer to articles published in this magazine. This cross-referencing between The Huffington Post’s articles suggests that the texts have no outside support from other sources and publications. Due to this aspect, one cannot fully trust the information that is published in this source regardless of the author’s credentials. Therefore, the choice of the media outlet makes Martins’s article less reliable because the Huffington Post is not trusted by over ninety percent of Americans, its authors often reference articles in the same magazine, and they often sensationalize the content.
Thirdly, despite Martins being a professor and having worked in the media industry for some time, the article in Huffington Post does not fully meet the credibility criteria. The references that she includes in her article and the sources of information she alludes to are not entirely credible or reliable. In her article, Martins includes quotes of some of the victims of the ill-treatment in the health centers, which are 1st hand sources.
These black women tell of their experiences at the health centers that may portray them as having gone through discrimination based on their race. However, taking reference from firsthand information may be misleading, one-sided, and biased. Martins herself claims that there is limited information on the effects on pregnant women Covid-19 (Martins, 2020). Moreover, Martis does not use any statistical data, and the majority of the evidence she references are personal experiences. Martins provides little statistics and most of her evidence is based on the interviews and personal experiences of particular women, which means that this article lacks adequate evidence from reliable sources and lowers her work’s credibility.
In conclusion, Martins is a trustworthy author, who has written on the topic of race issues before, but her evidence and choice of publication medium are questionable. Martis is a credible author who has written multiple publications on race and racial prejudice in healthcare.
Huffington Post has been criticized for its lack of professionalism, and sensualizing titles and only seven percent of Americans trust this magazine. Moreover, Martis selected unreliable sources, such as first-hand sources that may be biased or misleading. Martis should have chosen second-hand sources and valid statistics as the basis for her article and should have published it in a journal that is unbiased and does not have a specific political affiliation.