Observations of the Oconee County Observations Website

This blog entry will discuss the Oconee County Observations website and will seek to evaluate its quality and adherence to ethical standards and also discuss the author’s credibility. The website can be found at http://www.oconeecountyobservations.org/ . In a brief overview of the site itself, there are many entries and recordings of events within this site, dating back to 2006. The author of the blog is Lee Becker, who has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in Mass Communication, and a Masters in Communication from the University of Kentucky. The site itself is made up of observances and recordings (including videos) of the goings on within Oconee County, Georgia over the span of time from 2006 to present.

In many points of view the author of this site, Lee Becker, could be regarded as a professional journalist. His education in itself shows a high amount of experience in this particular field, and his observances are written professionally and seem to be well-rounded in scope. Professionalism can perhaps be judged in this way, with both education and experience playing a role in accurately analyzing a person’s professional aptitude. This website in itself however is not identified as a scholarly resource as there are no outside individuals critiquing the content. Also, this website is not a reputable journalistic entity within itself, as the New York Times would be considered.

Becker makes it clear within his site that his “experiences and aspirations for the county have influences” on what he posts, and also that he “strives to be accurate, fair, and transparent”. He also uses links to outside content to help support his views and proportions, and attempts to “offer a balanced presentation that recognizes different points of view and portrays the people involved with respect”. In these examples and a number of other from the site, Becker does seem to hold to many of the tenets of the SPJ’s Code of Ethics. By attempting to show different sides of a story and also report truthfully, Becker seems to take his responsibility for this site quite seriously and with pride. Becker also encourages his readers to comment on the content he has posted, in an attempt to “apply the standards of accuracy, fairness, and transparency” to them.

All of these examples point towards this site being written in the highest professional manner. Though Becker does not work for a reputable news organization, it appears that he makes every attempt to present well thought and documented content and is willing to open himself up for criticism if his work ever shows any bias. Sites and blogs written in this manner can perhaps be regarded as professional, if not more professional, than those written by journalists for major  news organizations that are considered reputable. Authors for sites such as these give pause to those who might not think professionalism, good judgment, and accuracy in journalism can be carried out by those who do not fit the historical mold for a professional journalist.

References:

Becker, L. (2015) Oconee County observations. News and comments about developments in Oconee County, Georgia. Retrieved from http://www.oconeecountyobservations.org/

Report Now and Apologize Later

We have moved into an age of instant information. From Twitter feeds of continuous live updates, to the self-reporting of news on Facebook and other social media, we have become a nation that needs our news immediately. This comes at a high price however, as the accuracy of the news that we are obtaining can be unverified at best, and completely untrue at worst. This blog will use the article The F.B.I. Criticizes the News Media After Several Mistaken Reports of an Arrest by Bill Carter for the New York Times as an example of how the news media “reports first and apologizes later” for the sake of higher ratings and an increased audience.

The article mentioned above describes what happened in the news media following the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. Many different news media reported that a suspect had been arrested in conjunction with them bombing, citing what they referred to as “credible sources”. These sources, and the news media that reported them were incorrect, according to the F.B.I., who also “warned that such unverified reporting could have unintended consequences for its investigation” (Carter, 2015). This is just another example of the media running with a story before fully fact-checking its sources and information. This example also shows the harm that can come from this type of reporting, in that it can harm an in-progress investigation.

In this way, this type of reporting also seems to fly in the face of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. In particular, it seems to go against the ethics code tenets on “remembering that neither speed not format excuses inaccuracy, gathering and updating correct information through the life of a news story, identifying sources clearly as the public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources, and providing access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate” (SPJ Ethics code, 2014). Has this code of ethics been forgotten in the rush to be the first to get the story? What has happened to the accuracy of a story and its importance to the audience? Is society accepting of the idea that news material presented to them might be incorrect, but at least they’re hearing some sort of news? Are we as a society not accepting of the fact that it may take a certain amount of time for accurate information to be deduced? Is instantaneous incorrect news better that verified and truthful news that takes a longer period of time to report?

I personally believe that since we have moved into the age of immediately accessible information on a mouse click, we have given up the right to completely verified news. We can’t have both, and it seems that we’ve chosen fast over true. The fault for this lies in our own hands, as for the most part, the news media is giving us what we’re asking for. It does appear that some types of news media are attempting to go against the grain, and take the time to verify their sources, but these media vehicles appear to often lose the ratings race. We as a society have become much more accepting of the retraction of stories and facts, so that we have something to read to make us feel as though we know what happening around us. Unfortunately, I do not feel as though this will change much in the future as our need for instant information appears to keep growing.

References

Society of professional journalists. Ethics code (Rev. 2014) Retrieved from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Carter, B. (2013, April 17). The F.B.I. criticizes the news media after several mistaken reports of an arrest. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/business/media/fbi-criticizes-false-reports-of-a-bombing-arrest.html?_r=1

Sources, Credibility, and Social Media

In this post, I will evaluate the article My Q&A With Work and Family Expert Joan Williams on When Work Becomes a Masculinity Contest by Arianna Huffington. The purpose of this evaluation will be to identify the sources used for writing the article and test them for credibility. In the article Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources, author Virginia Montecino showcases a number of guidelines to help those who are doing online research “become familiar with various types of Web resources and the reliability of the information. These guidelines will be used as a test for the credibility article named above.

In this article, Author Arianna Huffington showcases her interview with Joan Williams, identified as “an expert on matters of work and family, and a Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Hastings College of the Law”. This article takes the form of an interview, and is based on the give and take of information between the interviewer (Huffington), and the interviewee (Williams). Williams references a number of outside sources within her answers to the interview questions, including a study on work weeks by Silicon Valley engineer, Marianne Cooper, a study of surgeons and the loss of efficiency by Kate Kellogg, and books including Dangerously Sleepy (author not named), and Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte.

Williams, herself fulfills the guidelines, of being quite knowledgeable about the material she is presenting in this article. I researched information about her, and find that she indeed holds the titles referred to in Huffington’s article, and is also quite highly regarded in her particular scholarly field. She was awarded the Families and Work Life Legacy Award in 2014, along with much other recognition in this field. She is also the “author or co-author of over ninety academic articles and book chapters, along with eight books” (retrieved from William’s UC Hastings online profile). This information proves her experience in this field, and gives a large amount of credibility to her knowledge on this particular subject. There also appears to be very little in this article in the way of bias. Every point Williams makes is referenced, and does not have the air of opinion. The information in the article is current, and appears to be well documented and researched.

The article itself was written by Arianna Huffington, a well-regarded journalist in her own right. She has “been recognized in various media outlets, appearing on Time Magazine’s 100 list and Forbes’ special rundown of “the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”. Huffington is also recognized for “push (ing) a platform of individuals maintaining a balance between work, good health and life/enjoyment and has positioned the work/life balance as an important reform for companies to place at the forefront of their culture”, giving her additional credibility on this particular topic.

Blogging and social media have drastically changed the way in which we receive information about the world around us. Instead of hearing information directly from sources whose information has been vetted by newspaper editors and the like, information is now immediately released without verification to anyone who wants to read it. This leaves the burden of verification on those who are absorbing it, instead of the author. As our society continues to utilize and grow within this model of information transfer, we must take the time to verify the information we are receiving to prove its credibility to ourselves. Taking the time to ensure information credibility is truly the mark of a media literate person today.

References

Arianna Huffington. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved May 14, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/arianna-huffington-21216537.

Joan C.Williams profile. Retrieved from:

http://www.uchastings.edu/academics/faculty/facultybios/williams/

Huffington, A. (2015, May 13). My q&a with work and family expert Joan Williams on when work becomes a masculinity contest. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/joan-williams-work-masculinity_b_7277660.html

Montecino, V. (August, 1998) Criteria to evaluate the credibility of www resources. Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm