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 Lesson
5: Quality of News Reports
The lesson includes a video program, the text for the
video
program, and a words in this story section. |
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Lesson 5: Quality of News Reports
Watch the video program about this lesson.
Then read the text and the words in this story section. |
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Lesson 5: Quality of News
Reports |
In this lesson, we present seven steps to help you judge
the quality of news reporting:
Step One: Main Points
Be able to recognize and re-state the main points of the
story. An intelligent news consumer asks: What are the
facts and how are they presented?
Step Two: Evidence
Examine the evidence. How has the reporter confirmed the
evidence? Is there video you can trust? Is there a paper
trail -- documents to prove what happened?
Step Three: Sources
Consider the sources of the story. Are they named or not
identified in the story?
Step Four: Openness
What is the transparency level -- the level of openness
-- in the news organization? Where did they get their
information?
Step Five: Knowledge of Subject
Is there something to provide context, such as
background information or history? Does the reporter
have a command of the subject of the report?
Step Six: The Five “W”s
Are important pieces of information missing? Does the
report answer the questions: what happened? Where, when
and why did it happen? Who was involved?
Step Seven: Self Examination
Are you open to fairness? As a news consumer, you must
know yourself. Do you have opinions or beliefs that
could influence your judgment?
Perhaps step seven is the most important of the seven
steps. Ask yourself: Are you more likely to believe a
story if it confirms your pre-existing beliefs? That is
called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a sort of
blindness that leads news consumers to seek out
information they WANT to be true. A smart news consumer
seeks out information from multiple sources, weighing
the reputation of each source, and comparing their
coverage.
Using these seven steps, a reader or listener can decide
the quality and truthfulness of news reports.
In our final lesson, we will consider journalistic
responsibility in the age of social media.
This lesson is based on the News Literacy class at the
Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University. For
more on how to become a news literate citizen, go to The
Center for News Literacy. |
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Words in This Story |
- consumer
- n. one who buys or
uses a product
-
transparency - n.
the quality that makes it possible to see through
something
- context
- n. the situation in
which something happens : the group of conditions
that exist where and when something happens
- bias
- n. a tendency to
believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better
than others that usually results in treating some
people unfairly
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Source: Voice of America |
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