39 Research in Journalism

Chapter & Discussion

This chapter includes a presentation that can be navigated in a classroom setting or independently. You can access the presentation via the link below.

Research in Journalism: How to Look for the Truth

Work through the different sections of the chapter and discuss ideas and topics as they arise. If you’re working independently, take notes instead. Notes and active discussion will be helpful in navigating this week’s assignments.

Journalistic Research

Journalists use a variety of methods to conduct research and find facts for their stories, including:

Interviewing sources – This could include eyewitnesses, experts, officials, etc. Effective interviewing requires preparing good questions ahead of time and listening closely to responses.
Library/online research – Searching through books, academic journals, magazines, newspaper archives, and reliable websites to find historical context, precedent, quotes, etc.
Fact-checking – Verifying key details, claims, names, numbers, etc. cited by sources through further documentation and confirmation.
Documentary Research – This may include government documents, legal filings, academic studies, and other sources that provide factual data.

In College and the Workforce

In college and the workforce, you will often be asked to defend your ideas. To do this, you’ll need to build a case for them with arguments and evidence.

The evidence you provide should come from research.

There is a lot of information available (especially digitally) and it can be difficult to determine:

• Which sources you trust
• How to tell good evidence from bad evidence
• And the purpose and audience of a source

What to Trust

It can be difficult to determine whether or not a source is credible or trustworthy. When researching, there are a few strategies that can help.

• Lateral Reading (developed by John Green in Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information) is the act of checking sources for credibility as you read them. You can use newspaper articles and fact-checking sites like Politifact and Snopes for this.
• Try to determine the authority of an author by finding out their professional background, the process they used to produce the information, and whether they have systems in place to catch mistakes.
• Try to determine the perspective of an author: consider their reason for sharing the information and how their views might influence their writing.

Evaluating Evidence

When researching, you will need to evaluate the evidence that sources provide to defend their claims. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Does the author cite credible sources?
  Check the citations and make sure they come from trusted institutions.
• Is there context for the evidence they provide and is it relevant to their case?
  The author should provide context in the form of similar evidence from other, unbiased sources. It should also feel relevant to the issue at hand.
• How easy would it be to fact check?
  Credible sources are easy to fact check. If you can’t find anything to back it up, it might not be trustworthy.

Putting it All Together

As journalists research, they are consulting mutliple sources (as many as they can find) and trying to put together a picture that makes sense.

If two sources don’t add up, they have to try to fact check each to figure out who (or what) is telling the truth.

If a source didn’t tell the truth, part of their job is to report on that, and provide evidence to the audience to show them what is true.

Journalists constantly practice critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and digital literacy to make sure they report the truth.

Assigned Reading

Here are this week’s readings. Additionally, please read for your own personal enjoyment for 1/2 hour each day. This will be called your “Reading Zone” reading and it will coincide with many upcoming activities.

Deciding Who to Trust by John Green (via Crash Course)