2008 Woodie Awards
What's the Real Deal?
Can you trust what I write?
Issue date: 4/9/07 Section: Voices
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Can what we read from the media be trusted, whether it's found online or in the newspaper?
That question was posed in my government class a couple of weeks ago and jumpstarted my thoughts…can I trust the media to report accurately and honestly?
Can the Ann Arbor News, Detroit Free Press and The Voice be trusted?
Generally yes, unless someone in the business find's someone else plagiarizing their work, or making up beautiful fictional stories. Case and point, a young writer, Stephen Glass, who wrote for the New Republic magazine as an associate editor was found to have fabricated most of the stories he wrote for them.
Other events have happened in the media world. But even when we're careful, accidents still happen on the media's side. For instance, the media in the 2000 election reported that Gore had won the state of Florida in the election when in actuality, Bush did.
Any news that I find, whether it's through blogs or web pages online…I scrutinize them. I look at when the article or website was last updated. Then I review the author giving the information; is it just someone posting just to be doing it or does he or she have a legitimate background? Is he or she a writer? Do they have contact information?
In addition, when I get information online, I look for the company or organization. Is this information coming from an educational site or a small business? If I am researching a specific topic, I continue on my search by finding more sites that present close to the same information. I don't just take Wikipedia (a free online encyclopedia site where anyone can post information) and run with it.
Questioning the media or what I read can be a powerful tool in the print world. Recently, I challenged myself to look into the allegations about the true creator of The Matrix.
Over the Internet, it turned out that a rumor was floating around. The report was about Sophia Stewart, an African American screenplay writer, author of The Third Eye, and the creator of The Matrix.
That question was posed in my government class a couple of weeks ago and jumpstarted my thoughts…can I trust the media to report accurately and honestly?
Can the Ann Arbor News, Detroit Free Press and The Voice be trusted?
Generally yes, unless someone in the business find's someone else plagiarizing their work, or making up beautiful fictional stories. Case and point, a young writer, Stephen Glass, who wrote for the New Republic magazine as an associate editor was found to have fabricated most of the stories he wrote for them.
Other events have happened in the media world. But even when we're careful, accidents still happen on the media's side. For instance, the media in the 2000 election reported that Gore had won the state of Florida in the election when in actuality, Bush did.
Any news that I find, whether it's through blogs or web pages online…I scrutinize them. I look at when the article or website was last updated. Then I review the author giving the information; is it just someone posting just to be doing it or does he or she have a legitimate background? Is he or she a writer? Do they have contact information?
In addition, when I get information online, I look for the company or organization. Is this information coming from an educational site or a small business? If I am researching a specific topic, I continue on my search by finding more sites that present close to the same information. I don't just take Wikipedia (a free online encyclopedia site where anyone can post information) and run with it.
Questioning the media or what I read can be a powerful tool in the print world. Recently, I challenged myself to look into the allegations about the true creator of The Matrix.
Over the Internet, it turned out that a rumor was floating around. The report was about Sophia Stewart, an African American screenplay writer, author of The Third Eye, and the creator of The Matrix.
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