Chapter 5,Critical Interpretation, Isaac

Purpose

-This text is about the various tools that copy editors have available to them for fact checking various things within articles, and checking the reliability of sources and the such. The author of this work wants the reader to know the various tools, indexes and other bits of knowledge the copy editor has available to them. The author wants the reader to know how to successfully know how to referance various sources and assert its reliability, as well as learn how to be knowledgeable of all the various lists, indexes, sites and more the copy editor in the newsroom has available to them. People who need a quick run down of what copy editing is all about would most likely read this text.

Structures and Features

The same structures and features that you would expect to see in any scholarly or acedmic text are present here. Bolded keywords, italic bolded words, bullets, broken up block text are the norm here and it stays the same throuh out. Minimal diagram usage is present, and acedmic tone is used throughout...there is no ulterior meaning to the text here.

Power

Is the text fair? Sure it is. There really is no bias present here, except a minor one possibly towards copy editors, as this is a prominently copy editing and proof reading text book...go figure.


Gaps

There is no real gaps to speak of...the book is all about proof reading and copy editing, plain and simple. People who have no real interest in the topic at hand (that is journalism, and within it, copy editing and proof reading in the newsroom)probobly wouldn't have a reason to crack the binding on this text book;however, for those in need of a crash course in proof reading and copy editing, there is vital information that covers the basics of this scholarly art.

Blog Report 2

Blog Report 2:




Due: March 15th

Title: We Regret the Error, Name Surname

Label: Blog Report 2



Respond, using examples and in an academic tone:



“Journalists are conditioned to fear and avoid mistakes. This helps send the message that accuracy is important. From there, the best course of action is to help mitigate the fear by teaching practices and introducing tools that help prevent factual errors. Fear of mistakes doesn't lead to accuracy. In fact, one of the best ways to learn how to avoid errors is to make them in the first place. A study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition is just the latest piece of research that suggests, as lead author Nate Kornell, an assistant professor of psychology at Williams College told me, that "making errors is the best way to learn information that you want to learn." Perhaps this sounds a bit confusing: fear is good, but also bad; mistakes are bad, but also instructive. That's exactly the point. Teaching accuracy is a multi-faceted process. It's complicated, and in truth it never really ends. You can't learn accuracy the way you learn to add and subtract. It's a process and a combination of learned behaviours, not a matter of memorization or motor memory.” ~ Craig Silverman



Include at least three mistakes made in Canadian newspapers (online versions)

Note the inaccuracy

Example:

“In a story on Page 3-A of Wednesday’s Independent about the Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Trail of Terror haunted house, a reaction to strobe lights should have included the word “freaking.” The word was replaced with asterisks, perhaps causing confusion about what was actually said. The Independent apologizes for this confusion and the impression it left.” — The Grand Island Independent

 
 
Note: Image from Altgate.
 

Chapter 5: Critical Interpretation by Dale Boyd

Purpose

Chapter 5 focuses on providing an overviews the most useful reference materials for fact-checking. The methods for fact-checking provided are mainly for aspiring copy editors who need to be able to quickly verify things such as the example in the text "Was Canada's first prime minister a Macdonald or a MacDonald?" (96).

Structure

The structure of the text in the chapter is pretty much the exact same throughout. The chapter consists of minimal diagrams and is really not much more but standard bullet points and blocks of text. The language used is pretty straightforward and mundane, usually standard in textbooks.

Power

The text is completely un-biased and fairly un-charged, it does show a tendency towards copy editing as being of great importance in the newsroom, it also provides evidence to back up this claim demonstrating what copy editors have to do in their day to day.

Gaps

This text is not really intended for those who wouldn't have a use for copy editing; however, for those in need of such skills it covers a bunch of ways to fact-check in short notice.

Evaluating The L.A Times by Dale Boyd

Overall Content

The Los Angeles times provides people of the world and the Los Angeles community with the daily news, both global and local, as well as weather and other relevant media. The front page contains some space for advertisements currently taken up by Cadillac. With the credibility of a publication like the L.A Times the accuracy of information would be a top concern throughout the website. The information given is fair and balanced and the author's name and the date and time when each article was published is present. There are links for related sites if they are relevant to the story, as well as related articles. The Intended audience is anyone and everyone that wants to know whats happening in the world around them, more specifically there is a local version of the site for the Los Angeles area.

Compare with Other Resources

The site is very similar to other news sites as they all contend to cover a wide variety of news topics every day. The Website's value among other news sites is its proximity to the Hollywood film market; among its contenders would be the L.A local paper, Variety. The L.A Times covers an expansive amount of news topics from movie reviews to articles on buisness, also it links to different relative media.

Author

The authors are journalists who usually, but not always, have some sort of training or schooling behind them. As a long standing newspaper in America the L.A Times has a reputation for very reputable journalists, while there are other types of writers that contribute to editorials. The site remains professionally objective; however, bias is found in editorials and some blog posts from those authors who write the articles. Owner of the publication, Sam Zell, is also the owner of the Chicago Tribune.

Check the Links

The links lead to more information on the story as well as images and videos. All links are relevant to the subject matter, and more often than not add to the story for those who want to know more.

Evaluating "Lac La Biche Post.com", Isaac Kaplyuk

I chose to investigate and evaluate the laclabichepost.com, because it is a local paper that I grew up with,and I decided to see how legitimate (or maybe not) their website for the paper is.

Overall Content

The purpose of the web page is to provide the weekly local headlines. Factual information is obviously presented because it is a newspaper site-accuracy is a must.As for products being sold or advertisements, on the site there were none that I could see; in fact, there were just separate tabs labeled 'Advertising' and 'Classifieds' if you wanted to see such things.

The information on the page is incomplete as there are just short blurbs of stories, and you must click the 'Full Story' link to navigate to a separate page for the full story. There is a feature photo on the home page with a full caption, and authors for the blurbs and the individual person who shot the photo are not named on the homepage.

The intended audience are locals of the area or readers of the paper. The site does not state that it targets a special interest group of an kind, and the site isn't for researchers, children, or librarians specifically, but said individuals could most certainly navigate the site.

Compare With Other Resources

Compared with the range of information resources based on this topic within the site, that is, the local happenings of Lac La Biche/Lakeland County, this one is most certainly the best. Other larger papers don't really cover the happenings of these areas, unless a larger, more pertinent event occurs. This site covers small, local events, but also covers hard news stories and other stories with headlines that read 'Bright Fireball Spotted Over Northern Alberta'.

This site is preferable to other resource types because it focuses on the local area readership, and focuses on all happenings, which larger papers and sites wouldn't regularly bother cover-it keeps locals in the know, even if they don't have a paper handy.

Since this a newspaper site, the dates are current, or as current as they can be considering that this is a weekly paper.

This site is about as comprehensive as it gets for such local areas. The site even links out to other local paper sites, providing for even more insight to smaller locals. Aspects of things going on outside of the general locale may not be covered as in depth, or even covered at it all as in the case of larger papers. Further links aren't provided in the stories that I checked out, but as mentioned earlier, links are available to other local paper sites, possibly providing further information therein.

Author

The author/producers of this site are the same people who run the paper. The author of the article is the byline, at the top.

The authority or expertise of the people who run the site are those with, at the very least, a Journalism diploma, so the expertise is there.

If there is any kind of bias present, it's just towards the local area. The stories have a broader connection in some cases, but tie in to the local area to give locals the angle that concerns them.

The site and the paper appear to be owned by a group called Great West Newspapers Limited Partnership.

Check the Links

The criteria that is used to provide links (the links that are given are ones to other local news sites, and other things within the site like Classifieds, Photos, Advertisements, etc;) are either papers that are owned by the same company, or things that are relevant or pertinent to the site and its readers.

I couldn't tell when these links were revised.

The links are comprehensive as they provide everything that you would expect them to-no samples of any kind really to be had here; and, they are mostly just links to other local newsgroups, essentially (found near the top, right hand corner labeled 'Other Publications, accessible anywhere, anytime on the site.)

The links offer possibly more comprehensive coverage if the event that occurred is more thoroughly covered by a different paper if said event happened closer to that specific area. For example, an event could occur in Athabasca that the Lac La Biche Post could cover, but the Athabasca Advocate, Athabasca's local paper, would most certainly cover it more in depth.

The links don't appear to be evaluated in any way, but they shouldn't be as this is a legitimate local newsgroup site.

Evaluating "The Huffington Post", Susan Eder

I chose "The Huffington Post's" website to evaluate to help me better understand their version of the news as well as how they present that information to the readers. Using Figure 5-2 on page 99 in our textbook website accuracy was checked.

OVERALL CONTENT
The purpose of this site is to present unbiased newsworthy stories to citizens. Authors are named with a chance to post comments to them. The site was updated one minute ago. Dates and links are included as well as RSS feeds and other social networking sites. The intended audience is the average citizen who blogs, posts videos and uses community sites. Anyone wishing to find current information can use the site. This is a good source for finding new story ideas. The site provides bios of the authors to check out. The site offers quick reads and following links provides well written detailed articles.

COMPARE WITH OTHER RESOURCES
There are a wide range of sources on the Internet that would cover similar stories. For example, the story in "The Huffington Post" about police attacking looters after the Chile earthquake such as "The Associated Press" and the "The Globe and Mail" provide more information. The website is good for quick reads and to gather lots of information fast. The use of videos can help the user to not only view the pictures, but also feel involved in the process. Sites that do not incorporate video may perhaps not have these strong connection feelings. The sites provides references to others sites as well as other stories.

AUTHOR
Arianna Huffington is co-founder and editor in chief of "The Huffington Post". In 2005 she started the Internet site to report the news and to blog. "In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the world’s 100 most influential people". She has an MA in Economics. Arianna's credibility has been established by the amount of times her site is visited as well as linked to.

CHECK THE LINKS
The links in this site are clearly labelled and direct you to expected material. Well labelled links may lead to more story links. There are links to a range of Internet sources such as newsgroups, blogs, e-mails, social networking sites and comment opportunities. Links were updated less than one month ago. The site provides easy access to these links.

BIAS

Political:
Is the "Huffington Post" biased? It is argued that the site favours president Obama and the White house by giving him more coverage in more stories than in other political parties. Most people agree that the site is Liberal.

Advertising:
The home page on this site is uncluttered with advertising. The site saves money (so Arianna makes even more money) by refusing to pay their contributes. However the site does sell advertising. This causes biases in that the site is seen to be catering to those who are attracted to those ads.

"The Huffington Post" doesn't seem to have any corporate biases. The sites includes written material from many different sources. The "Post" doesn't discriminate between race or religion and shows no sensationalism. The site is simple, plain, and educational.

Chapter 5: Critical Interpretation, Susan Eder

PURPOSE
Chapter five is about checking sources for reliability. One way copy-editors check facts is by referring to indexes. The author of the text wants the reader to understand the importance of checking facts for accuracy to give credibility to the author and to separate the professional writers from amateurs. The author wants the reader to use the various Internet tools available to check for accuracy. These tools include the use of newsgroups, lists, discussion groups and electronic databases. The author also wants to show the reader how to find information on the Internet. The people who would read or view this text include anyone interested in the ways that new technology can assist them in their job. They may work as copy-editors, proofreaders, journalists, or anyone else who needs to find reliable sources to check information for accuracy. The text is written for anyone wanting to be considered credible, reliable and accurate.

STRUCTURES AND FEATURES
The text is structured in categories with sub-headlines. Each section uses paragraphs and either numbered lists or bullets. The use of bold and the use of different text sizes do not help to make the information more exciting. The text uses figures to break up the text, but the figures are just large pieces of too much information. The style used in the design of the text suggest that the audience is academic. The figures explain the elements that make up a web address, a check list for checking website accuracy and a list of discussion groups to subscribe to. There are no images in Chapter five. The language used is formal and the words suggest that a level of professional understanding is needed to comprehend what is being read.

POWER
The text is fair in that it includes the value of both professional and amature reporters. The text explains any uncommon terms the reader may not understand. The text also explains the abbreviations that are used. The people and groups that are seen in "good light" are the authors of professional sites as professional sites are viewed as credible. Perhaps the people who are not seen in "good light" are citizen journalists and amateur writers. We need to be able to check their information for credibility. The text serves the Internet for anyone who cares about accuracy and wants to be considered reliable and correct in their reporting and publishing responsibilities. The reader is the one who benefits when the text is accurate.

GAPS
The people not heard from in Chapter five are the people who do not represent professionalism. These are the bloggers, the tweeters and others who make up the general public. This text is not intended for columnists and others trying to express their opinions. The text describes different processes but leaves out why they are so. The history is missing. Also the text avoids to give any information on who to contact for help. The additional reading list may be of use, but it is not personal, just geared to textbooks and such. I would have liked to learned in this Chapter about specific Internet sites that can help journalists check for accuracy. Mostly the text covered enough if not too much information for the average copy-editor or proofreader.

Evaluating “The Edmonton Journal,” and Bias Activity, Matt White

I chose to evaluate "The Edmonton Journal" because it's local and it's reliable. Using the tips found on page 99 I came to the following conclusions.

• The overall content and purpose of this website is news. It is there to inform the public. It includes news from many authors and covers a variety of subjects. You can check for accuracy by comparing the articles with other news related sites, as well as doing some of your own research into the subject through reliable web pages. If you come across anything inaccurate, you are able to comment on the article, or contact an editor via email.
• Comparing this site with others of the same nature is a good way to check for accuracy. It's rare that you would find articles the differ greatly from articles posted on other reliable sites.
• The authors themselfes are professional journalists who answer to a code of ethics. Any citizen partcipation or freelance writing is noted, so readers are always aware of the source.
• Lastly, the links used on this site usually lead to other rebutalble websites, but the user should always be aware of where they're getting their information from. Just because you have been linked from a reliable site, doesn't mean you're going to one

Bias Activity

I chose to focus more on the initial bias of an article instead on focusing on the entire piece.

In The National Post article, there is strong evidence of bias in the word use and balance. This article has many subtle words that direct the reader towards the feeling of “Republications bad; Democrats good.” In the first paragraph the word “derailed” is used to describe the republications effort to stop the bill from passing. As if they are causing a train crash by voicing their opinion or doing what they feel is right. The second paragraph then states that Obama’s health plan aims to “provide cover for 31 million uninsured Americans and crack down on exorbitant premium hikes by insurers.” This does a great job of painting a lovely picture of Obama saving all those poor and helpless Americans from the big bad capitalist giants. Using these two examples so high up in the article instantly gives us a feeling on the topic. We are steered in the direction of favoring this health care bill before we even have a chance to dissect what we’re reading. The article then goes on to give facts supporting the health plan and exhibiting the massive expenses of health care today. It’s not until we’re roughly three quarters of the way through the article do we begin to see an attempt at providing a balanced piece. Lastly, I thought adding the fact that “The United States spends more than double what Britain, France and Germany do per person on health care,” was kind of funny since the article was written by Tangi Quemener, Agence France-Presse.

In the Fox News article, even the headline itself contains a hint of bias: “Controversial Health Plan Provision Aims to Protect Consumers.” Using the word “controversial” in the headline immediately gives the impression that this health plan has flaws and people are debating on it. As the first paragraph takes form, we are given the information that “Republicans have been invited to post their own ideas for reform,” as well as the general public, on a White House website. Why is there a special mention of republicans? The second paragraph then begins with “One of the proposals Republicans are expected to take aim at is the idea of a rate hike authority that will oversee insurance premiums.” I’m already seeing a problem with this new health plan. Surprisingly, the rest of the article does a descent job of providing both sides of the argument. Using examples and quotes from both sides gives the reader a fair view of the issue.

I stumbled upon the One News Page website and this article through a link on The Edmonton Sun website and I’m quite glad I did. I think writing shorter articles is something not often taken advantage of. The article is in fact so short, that I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not it contains bias.

“Barack Obama today revealed the health care proposal he’ll be taking into bipartisan meetings this week, a $950 billion bill that hews closer to the Senate’s model than the House’s. The plan seeks to resolve some of the contentious issues between the two bills, cutting, for example, the special Medicaid...”

Chapter 5: Critical Interpretation, Matt White

Purpose
This chapter covers the reliability of reference sources, Indexes (what they are and how to use them), how to use internet search engines and discussion groups, Usenet newsgroups, and finally, the role and function of commercial electronic databases. The author of the text wants to get the message across of how important accuracy is in journalism, and reliable ways of obtaining accurate information on the internet. I see this information being valuable to anyone who is interested in getting accurate information off the internet. I see it being especially useful for those who may not be so familiar with the internet, and haven’t already developed the skills necessary to properly use the internet for info.

Structures and Features
I find he structure this particular chapter follows to be very mundane. It is roughly 15 pages of paragraph after paragraph after paragraph, with no pictures, charts, or anything significant enough to give my poor eyes a break. There is a small attempt of breaking up the text with bullet lists, greyed boxes, and bold subheads, but it doesn't come close to overcoming the intense amount of tiny text. The design of the text seems to suggest that it was written to be presented in an academic textbook format (go figure). The one thing that could be considered an image was the "How to Unravel a Web Address" box. It did exactly what the title suggests by pointing out the various points of a web address and what they each represent and what they're used for. The language used is clearly formal/academic.

Power
I think that the text is very fair. It does an excellent job of giving an extremely in-depth look at finding reliable information on the internet. As far as people being seen in good or bad lights, the text does give some bias, but it is rightly so. The text points out the reliability of academic or professional sites over amateur or citizen pages. While this may shed an unfair light on all the citizen information out there that is accurate, the insane amount of garbage on the internet requires us to surf cautiously and be sceptical of anything not done by professionals. The text in this chapter serves the interest of anyone with reliable information on the internet. Even if the information is presented via citizen participation, reliable information is being praised throughout this entire chapter, and that can only help the accurate citizen.

Gaps
I guess you could say that the people who are "seen but not heard" in the chapter would be all those people who have contributed information to massive databases. These databases are primarily used for fact checking as opposed to enjoyable reading. This tends to draw attention away from the piece as a whole or the authors themselves. It leads to skimming for facts instead of reading the piece as a hole. I would say that this text would obviously not be intended for anyone who isn't interested in the subject at hand. I don't feel that the text left out any impertinent information; in fact, I thought it went a bit too far and actually should have included less information.

Lecture 6: Checking Facts and Forms of Bias

Outline:
Homework Review
Evaluate Websites
Forms of Bias
Blog Report 2
Homework


Chapter 5 Review:
With a partner or on your own:
Write a blog post responding to the following questions
Title: Chapter 5: Critical Interpretation, Student Names
Label: Lecture 6, Review
Interaction: Add a comment to another group’s Chapter 5 blog post

20 – 25 minutes

Purpose

• What is this text about?
• What does the author of the text want me to know or think?
• What does the author want me to do?
• Who would read or view this text?

Structures and Features

• What structures and features are used in the text?
• What does the design or style suggest about the text or about the audience of the text?
• What do the images/figures suggest?
• What kind of language is used?
• What do the words suggest?

Power

• Is the text fair?
• Are there people or groups who are seen in a ‘good light’? Are there people or groups who
• are not?
• Whose interests does the text serve?
• Who benefits from the text being read or viewed?

Gaps

• Are there people depicted in the text who are ‘seen’ but ‘not heard’?
• Who is not seen in the text?
• Are there people for whom this text is not intended?
• Does the text leave out or avoid certain ideas or issues?

Checking Sites for Accuracy:
Choose a journalism related website
Using the tips on page 99, evaluate the website for accuracy
Include your findings in a blog post
Title: Evaluating “Name of Website,” Student Name
Label: Lecture 6, accuracy, journalism 2.0, fact-checking


30 minutes

Types of Bias:

• Political bias, including bias in favour of or against a particular political party, candidate, or policy.
• Advertising bias, corporate media depends on advertising revenue for funding. This relationship promotes a bias to please the advertisers.
• Corporate bias, coverage of political campaigns in such a way as to favour or oppose corporate interests, and the reporting of issues to favour the interests of the owners of the news media or its advertisers. Some critics view the financing of news outlets through advertising as an inherent cause of bias.
• Mainstream bias, a tendency to report what everyone else is reporting, and to gather news from a relatively small number of easily available sources.
• Religious bias, including bias in which one religious or nonreligious viewpoint is given preference over others.
• Bias for or against a group based because of their race, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
• Sensationalism, bias in favour of the exceptional over the ordinary, giving the impression that rare events, such as airplane crashes, are more common than common events, such as automobile crashes.

Critical Questions:

1. What is the author's/speaker's socio-political position? With what social, political, or professional groups is the speaker identified?
2. Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?
3. Who is paying for the message? Where does the message appear? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?
4. What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how were the data gathered, who gathered the data, and are the data being presented fully?
5. How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view? Does the speaker fairly present alternative arguments? Does the speaker ignore obviously conflicting arguments?
6. If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterised? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view? Does the speaker ascribe positive motivations to his/her point of view and negative motivations to alternative points of view?

Bias Activity:
Choose an event and locate 3-4 articles in different news sources. For example, if it is a Canadian story choose news sources from various regions of the country, if it is an international issue such as conflict in the Middle East select sources from various sides of the issue.
Some good websites include: www.newseum.org, www.onlinenewspapers.com and www.journalismnet.com/papers/canada.htm (Canadian Newspaper Index)
write a paragraph on whether there is bias in the news and give examples related to the chosen issue to prove your points

Blog Report 2:

Due: March 15th
Title: We Regret the Error, Name Surname
Label: Blog Report 2

Respond, using examples and in an academic tone:

“Journalists are conditioned to fear and avoid mistakes. This helps send the message that accuracy is important. From there, the best course of action is to help mitigate the fear by teaching practices and introducing tools that help prevent factual errors. Fear of mistakes doesn't lead to accuracy. In fact, one of the best ways to learn how to avoid errors is to make them in the first place. A study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition is just the latest piece of research that suggests, as lead author Nate Kornell, an assistant professor of psychology at Williams College told me, that "making errors is the best way to learn information that you want to learn." Perhaps this sounds a bit confusing: fear is good, but also bad; mistakes are bad, but also instructive. That's exactly the point. Teaching accuracy is a multi-faceted process. It's complicated, and in truth it never really ends. You can't learn accuracy the way you learn to add and subtract. It's a process and a combination of learned behaviours, not a matter of memorization or motor memory.” ~ Craig Silverman

Include at least three mistakes made in Canadian newspapers (online versions)
Note the inaccuracy
Example:
“In a story on Page 3-A of Wednesday’s Independent about the Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Trail of Terror haunted house, a reaction to strobe lights should have included the word “freaking.” The word was replaced with asterisks, perhaps causing confusion about what was actually said. The Independent apologizes for this confusion and the impression it left.” — The Grand Island Independent

Homework:
Read Chapter 9
Read a current edition of the Huffington Post (the Feb. 28 or March 1 issue)
Come with a topic for your e-portfolio



Note: Image 1 from Wristwatch Review, Image 2 from Unambiguously Ambidextrous.