The foundations of news reporting are the sources of
the information that supports the accounts and claims made within a piece of
written content. In the age of the World
Wide Web, it becomes challenging to clearly identify sources and evaluate their
creditability. Online content is filled
with user generated blogs and opinion based articles, so it is important for
readers to be able to sort through this information to discern if what they are
reading is coming from legitimate and reliable sources.To better illustrate the investigation process of
assessing sources, I selected a current events article published on the Time website entitled “Authorities Arrest Captain of Capsized Ferry”, and I tracked each of the cited sources. To determine the creditability of each
source, I utilized the “Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources”, which was published by Virginia Montecino in August 1998. Although the
Time article was relatively brief,
the author, Maya Rhodan, noted three different sources to support her
story. Before even diving into the
sources, I noticed that Ms. Rhodan also noted her Twitter handle next to her
name to direct her readers from her formalized, source rich article, to her 140
character social media reporting outlet.
I also noticed that this online article, like most of articles of the
same nature, do not end with a formal work cited page, as suggested in Virginia Montecino outline; rather, authors utilize
links directly to the source they are referencing, which actually promotes
consumer research and evaluation.
Two source links are found in the very first line of text, referring back to a CNN article discussing the arrest of the South Korean Ferry captain who abandoned his sinking Ferry boat, and then to an earlier Time article on the current death toll from the incident. Both articles appear on creditable websites and their authors are clearly associated with these noteworthy news outlets, provide current information on the incident, and do not show a bias on the subject, which are all highlights of the Virginia Montecino evaluation criteria. The Time article appears to follow the same format as the original piece, but the CNN article, which is referred to multiple times throughout the article, looks to be an account from a reporter closer to the scene; the article itself, which discusses the arrest of the Ferry captain, was authored by three different individuals who recount the reporting of an individual in South Korea. This presentation provokes the question, “Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field” and “With what organization or institution is the author associated?” (Virginia Montecino, 1998) The three authors of the article, all noted as representatives from CNN, identify their source as a CNN affiliate, YTN, based in South Korea. This article provides no other linked source, so all of the provided information is said to have been from YTN.
The third source, which is identified as the AFP, is cited in the middle of the report, and it supports the statement that arrest warrants were issued for several members of the Ferry crew. Unlike the first two sources noted, I was not familiar with AFP, so I definitely felt the need to investigate it further. If I was not doing this exercise, I probably would have not checked the CNN and Time sources because I consider them to be trusted news outlets, but, as an educated media consumer, that should not be an excuse to not check the facts of a story. When I arrived at the AFP website, the title of the site was noted as “The Sunday Times.” Since that did not seem to fully described the abbreviation, I clicked on the wording and was brought to the homepage entitled, The Straits Times, which is a news publication based in Singapore. Knowing this, it seems that this was an account provided by a news outlet that was much closer to the situation than that of the original article in Time. The article on The Straits Times did not list an author and did not offer any additional sources, so I had reached another dead end as I had done with the CNN article reporting from their affiliate. Trusted news outlets in our nation are using reports from journalists in other nations instead of sending their own reporters to the location, which truly shows the reach of global reporting and connectivity provided by the World Wide Web. However, because there are no global guidelines to evaluate sources like the ones provided by Virginia Montecino, it becomes increasingly difficult for consumers to fully examine each source because it is coming from a world away.
After completing this examination of the Time article's sources, it is clear that unrestricted web publishing can be a very harmful tool. Unreliable information can spread through the world like wild fire with the help of online social media forums. Particularly in the case of this article or any article regarding tragic events, families are anxiously waiting to hear about the fate of their loved ones, so any report on the subject is taken very seriously by those directly affected. Additionally, although the CNN article used a source presented as a legitimate first-hand account, it is very easy for consumers to present their created content in the same manner even if it is not truly such an account. Mass communication has evolved to allow consumers to participate largely in the transmission of information, and this blurs the lines between true journalism and user generated material. Therefore, sources become a critical part in the differentiation between fact and fiction, but verifying sources has become even more challenging in the age of digital media.
Two source links are found in the very first line of text, referring back to a CNN article discussing the arrest of the South Korean Ferry captain who abandoned his sinking Ferry boat, and then to an earlier Time article on the current death toll from the incident. Both articles appear on creditable websites and their authors are clearly associated with these noteworthy news outlets, provide current information on the incident, and do not show a bias on the subject, which are all highlights of the Virginia Montecino evaluation criteria. The Time article appears to follow the same format as the original piece, but the CNN article, which is referred to multiple times throughout the article, looks to be an account from a reporter closer to the scene; the article itself, which discusses the arrest of the Ferry captain, was authored by three different individuals who recount the reporting of an individual in South Korea. This presentation provokes the question, “Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field” and “With what organization or institution is the author associated?” (Virginia Montecino, 1998) The three authors of the article, all noted as representatives from CNN, identify their source as a CNN affiliate, YTN, based in South Korea. This article provides no other linked source, so all of the provided information is said to have been from YTN.
The third source, which is identified as the AFP, is cited in the middle of the report, and it supports the statement that arrest warrants were issued for several members of the Ferry crew. Unlike the first two sources noted, I was not familiar with AFP, so I definitely felt the need to investigate it further. If I was not doing this exercise, I probably would have not checked the CNN and Time sources because I consider them to be trusted news outlets, but, as an educated media consumer, that should not be an excuse to not check the facts of a story. When I arrived at the AFP website, the title of the site was noted as “The Sunday Times.” Since that did not seem to fully described the abbreviation, I clicked on the wording and was brought to the homepage entitled, The Straits Times, which is a news publication based in Singapore. Knowing this, it seems that this was an account provided by a news outlet that was much closer to the situation than that of the original article in Time. The article on The Straits Times did not list an author and did not offer any additional sources, so I had reached another dead end as I had done with the CNN article reporting from their affiliate. Trusted news outlets in our nation are using reports from journalists in other nations instead of sending their own reporters to the location, which truly shows the reach of global reporting and connectivity provided by the World Wide Web. However, because there are no global guidelines to evaluate sources like the ones provided by Virginia Montecino, it becomes increasingly difficult for consumers to fully examine each source because it is coming from a world away.
After completing this examination of the Time article's sources, it is clear that unrestricted web publishing can be a very harmful tool. Unreliable information can spread through the world like wild fire with the help of online social media forums. Particularly in the case of this article or any article regarding tragic events, families are anxiously waiting to hear about the fate of their loved ones, so any report on the subject is taken very seriously by those directly affected. Additionally, although the CNN article used a source presented as a legitimate first-hand account, it is very easy for consumers to present their created content in the same manner even if it is not truly such an account. Mass communication has evolved to allow consumers to participate largely in the transmission of information, and this blurs the lines between true journalism and user generated material. Therefore, sources become a critical part in the differentiation between fact and fiction, but verifying sources has become even more challenging in the age of digital media.
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