Verification

The most interesting thing that we talked about last class was bias in news. I think that the news is often presented in a very biased form. I remember the clips of Anderson Cooper that we were watching a couple weeks ago. We talked about how he was very emotional in his presentation. I think the biggest thing wrong with that report was how biased it was. Yes, the people needed help; however, he didn't report anything that the government was doing to help. He simply ignored any facts that didn't go along with the story he wanted to present. I think that more than anything journalists need to keep themselves unbiased. http://www.journalism.org/resources/principles

I think that one of the most important points of verification is the principle of transparency.This means being open to your audience and showing them how and where you got your sources. The goal of journalists is to get information out to the public and have them make decisions about information. I we do not do this in a trustworthy way, we stop being credible. I found an article about peoples trust in the media compared to other places.  http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/little-trust-in-government-or-media-either/

I think that the internet poses a threat to the verification process. I think that many blogers think that it is more important to be fast than it is to be correct. Journalists need to be accurate and dependable or else people will go to other sources. I really liked the accuracy checklist that was shown in class. I think as news consumers we should encourage truth and accuracy in the news. If we don't read the fiction or embellished truth then they will stop writing it. http://businessjournalism.org/2010/10/29/how-to-build-a-personalized-accuracy-checklist/