For this blog, I focused on this Wired story where 2020 Democratic presidential candidates answered a question about the current political division in America.

First, the story was based on a number of sources, but all were presidential candidates who had a clear agenda they were trying to push. These sources are not ones I would necessarily consider “credible” because they have an obvious bias and are trying to get elected president, which is not an easy task.

Additionally, there wasn’t a single hyperlink to another news source or article in the entire story, which to me is relatively concerning. At The State Press, where I work as managing editor, we require at least five (typically more) hyperlinks per story because it improves our credibility and helps gain reader’s trust. This lack of those sources made me feel less confident in what the candidates were claiming about how to fix political division.

To address the reporter, I generally feel that transcriptions of candidates or political figures are not well-reported stories. Not necessarily that hearing from political candidates isn’t important, but more so that it gives them a platform without any criticism or feedback from professionals in the field. This story was also filed by “Wired Staff,” and stories without an actual byline make me skeptical.

Also, I have a problem with only asking one question without follow-ups. How can a journalist truly be doing their job when they only ask one question. I understand that it’s hard to get in touch with political candidates, but allowing them to only answer one, pre-written, question lets candidates get away with not having to deal with real journalism

I would give this story a C+, because it is truly very average. While it may have high-profile people answering a question about political division, it is not a fully reported or well-sourced story, which I have problems with. I assume the staff allowed written comments for this story, and I truly believe for a story to be well or fully reported it needs live interviews or, at the very least, a phone call.

As stated in my last blog post, Doctor Who created history by casting a black woman as the doctor. It’s wonderful that this very white show is creating some diversity, but there is backlash to this casting decision. Which is exactly what the article “Doctor Who: Fan reaction to first black Time Lord exposes Britain’s deep divisions on race and gender” written by Alec Charles. 

This article was fairly well written, and on the surface, seems legit. However, a lot of articles seem okay on the surface, so with this article I am going to do a little bit of digging and analyzing of it. 

The first thing I check is the author. What else has he written? What are his credentials? Immediately looking at the article, it shows that Alec Charles, the author, is a Dean of Arts at a university. So right away I trust this author. However, I want to know more about him in order to truly know he is qualified. A quick look on his profile on The Conversation website shows me lists all his accomplishments, and lets me know he is qualified to be writing on this subject.

After checking the credentials of the author, I check the credentials of the news site itself, The Conversation. Just by a quick Google search, I can see that this site is very trustworthy, and almost never biased. I check out a few other articles, just to be sure, especially since I have never heard of this site before. Luckily, everything checks out. 

So now that I know the author is credible to be writing on this subject, I move to analyzing the actual content of the article. Before even reading it, I can see a lot of outside sources are linked within the article, which is a good sign. 

As I am reading the article, these links add a ton to what is already written. What Charles adds proves what he is saying. He links to fan forums and personal pages, all which show the divisions on race and gender. Including these links is really well done in this article. All the links work and add something to the article, they are not just there for show. This improves the overall quality of the article. 

After checking out the links and sources to the article, I check to make sure there is not any bias within the article. Reading through it, it seems that there may be a slight bias in the article. However, not enough to make it untrustworthy. Especially when the title of the article itself shows some bias. 

The entire premise of the article is the backlash of BBC casting a black actress on Doctor Who, so a little bit of bias shows through. However, it is not much. It is mostly facts and examples of said backlash. The author tries his best to not give his input. 

Image credit: BBC

If I had to grade this article, I truly believe it deserves an A. The author is highly qualified and credible, and it is written on a credible site. It has sources embedded into the article, which make fact checking easy, and there is little bias within the article. It was a high quality article.

Analyzing a Nerd Wallet article for credibility

This week I am analyzing the article 8 African American Financial Gurus to Follow in 2020 for credibility.

The article was published by Nerd Wallet on February 5^th. It’s unique because few articles cover financial literacies for minorities from an educational perspective. Most media on this topic is written about minorities, not for them.

Let’s first take a look at the credibility of Nerd Wallet, the platform this article is published on.

Nerd Wallet claims to provide objective expert advice to help their audience make smart financial decisions. They offer some transparency about the products and services they recommend on their About Us page:

“In some cases, we receive compensation when someone clicks to apply or gets approved for a financial product through our site. However, this in no way affects our recommendations or advice. We’re committed to helping you make your smartest money move.”

At the top of every article, readers can click to read their Advertiser Disclosure and view a full list of partners. Readers can easily locate information about security and their privacy policy on the website.

Another positive feature of this website is that they provide easily accessible information about their executive team, the board of directors, advisors, and investors on their Leadership page. You can easily identify who is behind the company and discover more about them.

The authors of this article are Laura McMullen and Amrita Jayakumar. Their bios are included at the end of the article and readers can click through to their author pages to find that both are qualified in journalism and focus their writings on finance. Contact information for both authors is provided.

Based on this information and the topic of the article I would trust that the authors did their background research and selected credible gurus. The intent of the article is to connect readers with African-American financial experts who would add value to their audience.

The authors asked the gurus one of the following questions:

1. 1. What are your financial goals for 2020?
   2. What was your financial situation 10 years ago, and how does it compare to now? What did you learn in that time?
   3. What is one aspect of personal finance you wish people would pay more attention to?

The questions do not appear to be loaded with an agenda, but within the article itself, the authors chose to only link to other Nerd Wallet posts. An “About the gurus” section provides website and twitter links for each featured expert. I do not see that any products or services are being directly promoted within the article.

Overall Credibility Grade: A-

I think it serves as a great point to connect readers with experts who provide financial literacy education for minorities and beyond and allows people to share their personal experiences, potentially expanding perspective for readers. However, it is a bit self-serving in that it does not link to other sources and the contact information of those featured is withheld until the end of the article.

As the horror movie genre can be a very niche topic, and a tight knit community, there are always specific websites dedicated to all thing’s horror movie reviews and news. Either its releasing trailers for upcoming blockbusters, breaking news about an actor/actress joining a cast, or maybe even an interview of a well-known horror movie director about an upcoming project. Usually every sub-genre is covered on these websites, and the reader or audience can stay informed about all horror movie news.

. . . . .

The first article we’re going to look at is the A Quiet Place Part II featurette. This just provides a preview of the upcoming movie set to release in 2020. It also provides featurette type video of interviews from Director John Krasinski and actress Emily Blunt. This is a news type article because it is very informative, gives insight into the new movie, and is giving more press to hype the audience up before the actual release date is given. It’s a very simple and straight to the point. This article is a reliable source because it provides the links for this videos, and referencing this other news source, thus backing up its claims for the information they are telling the reader.

. . . . .

This article is much like the first article to where it provides updates to a movies actor roster as filming has already begun for the movie. Guillermo del Toro is a very well-known horror movie director. Del Toro has directed big movies like The Shape of Water, Pans Labyrinth, or more recently known, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Whenever news hits of del Toro working on another film, the horror movie lovers get excited, so this article is very informative. This article is reliable because like the first article is provides another source of where it’s getting its information about the official synopsis of the film and character descriptions.

. . . . . 

In the movie review/movie critic realm we see A LOT of opinion based articles as reviews and critics are strictly based off the person who’s writing its opinion. Often times you’ll read one review praising a movie and then can find a review saying it was awful and terrible, so more often than not the news you’re getting about movies are very opinion based or analytical.

. . . . .

This is a movie review of this recently released remake of the grim fairytale Hansel and Gretel, know named Gretel and Hansel. As this is a review it is a very opinion based and analytical. It is analytical because it provides some quotes and aspects of the film and breaks them down. This is also opinion based because we get the authors opinion about how the movie was underdeveloped and overshadowed by the photography aesthetic. “Together, Jeremy Reed’s production design and Galo Olivares’s photography weave a chilly spell that’s regrettably undermined by the opacity of the storytelling. Like our two babes in the wood, the movie needs a bit more meat on its bones.” This is a reliable source as it comes from The New York Times and they are well reputable news and media outlet.

. . . . .

This last article is very much like the other review with it being both analytical and opinion based. It pulls aspects of the film and breaks them down, and helps explain the plot line a little more for those who haven’t seen the movie. It then goes into the reviewer’s opinion as he says “it doesn’t make you feel like you’ve watched a failed adaptation of a horror-lit landmark” and “It just leaves you feeling totally screwed over.” This also comes from a very reputable news and media outlet, The Rolling Stone. Anything usually coming from trusted news outlets like this definitely have some reliability to them.

Load management in the NBA seems to increasingly become a favored topic of discussion between columnist, media outlets, journalist, and even fans across all sports spectrum. Below are some different options between news and opinion or analysis articles.

Analysis- This Old Gold and Black, student paper article is credible due to the fine print under the paper name, stating this is a Wake Forest student paper since 1916. That solidifies a location for this paper, the history and ongoing credibility over the years where students get to share their stories and analysis.

Zimmerman goes on to explain in detail what Load management is, what the league defines it to be, and what the different perceptions around the league from teams and fans may be. He has sources and facts that he mentions, such as Dr. Marcus Elliot and Adam Silver who he explains who each person is and they are two credible people in the NBA sports world that he confidently researched information from.

Analysis-In this Forbes article, what made it credible is the author, Evan Dammaroll, and it has his position with Forbes next to their name. Also, there is a small hyperlink next to the name that when you hover over it , says the contributor to this article are all opinions of their own.

Dammaroll has strong opinions here, such as stating  if the NBA organizations were to lay out a structured schedule that shows when they are going to rest players, a lot of this negativity would likely go away. This is not certain, but he is expressing out of his thought process and what maybe he hopes for the outcome to be. He also mentions more than twice that fans will need more than a paragraph above to squash any negative connotations. Again, that is of his opinion not necessarily from the NBA league, the players or the organization as whole.

At the end of this article, Dammaroll has a description of his current position and in the past. He adds a personal email to be reached as well as the noted statement that he wants to provide readers with a thoughtful and rational look at the cavaliers and the league as a whole

News– In this ESPN article by Pelton and Arnovitz are stating news as they found it with credible sources. As you read through it, you get the vibe of it to be news instead of opinion or analysis, there is no I feel or I think,  but  majority of this is factual because of exhibit A,B,C. That’s  a determining factor of differences between news and opinion.

This is a credible source by the entity name of ESPN, its reputable history as the largest sports media outlet, gives you that assurance that it is a trusted source in comparison to millions of other sports outlets that may be floating around with the same information.

News-In this Bleacher Report article, this piece is stating news and is credible because like ESPN, this media outlet is reputable and known for trusted stories in the sports world. They have many hyperlinks across the article, where it redirects you to further credible resources. You can never have too much credibility sources, the more the merrier. It shows accuracy, attention to detail and trust for their readers. The questions throughout this article, gives the reader much more confidence of the credibility, because there is specific interview answers, details and names mentioned throughout. Overall, this read gives the best knowledge of the topic and as a news article that’s important, because the reader or journalist is looking to gather all the details to connect the dots to the topic for further understanding and potentially to further share what they have learned from it.

The LA Times was invited to a media day for the USA Olympic Skateboarding team. This is very clearly a simple news article. There are quotes from several skateboarders that are Olympic hopefuls and what they think of the sport being in the international event. This article isn’t attempting to sway the reader into believing that skateboarding belongs in the Olympics or that it shouldn’t. It is simply explaining what happened at the media day, who was there, and what they thought of it.

The New York Times sent a reporter and two photographers to the Dime 2019 Street Challenge. This news story covers the event, why and how it was conceived. The reporter spoke to the event organizers who explained that it was held outside the Montreal Olympic Stadium to be a sort of “Anti-Olympics”. With quotes from both event attendees and participants supporting this statement. The event displayed skateboarding in its truest and most creative form. However, this wasn’t an opinion presented by The New York Times. This was an opinion held by the organizers. The article doesn’t cite any reasons why this is the truth that everyone should believe. It simply explains that this was the intention of the people who put it all together. The photojournalists covering the event portrayed the event in a truthful manner with portraits of both professional skateboarders, event organizers and attendees and action shots from the competition.

Opinion articles:

Iain Borden wrote an opinion piece for The Conversation on why skateboarding’s evolution into an Olympic sport is good. The article headline is the first give away that it’s an opinion piece: “Ollies at the Olympics: why having skateboarding at Tokyo 2020 is a winning move”. It is making an argument that skateboarding as an Olympic sport is going to be beneficial.

Borden starts off the article by explaining that skateboarding was officially confirmed to be an event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He explains that, to many skateboarders, this may be unwelcome news and cites why. Some of the biggest concerns are that skateboarding is almost an antithesis of the Olympics, that many are concerned about skateboarders passing drug tests, along with several other valid points that some may make to dismiss it as an Olympic sport. However, Borden quickly refutes all of these arguments with explanations of the history of competitions in skateboarding, it’s relationship to corporate entities, and how the days of skateboarding acting as “misunderstood teenager” are long gone.

To Borden, skateboarding belongs in the Olympics, this opinion piece definitely strengthens his argument.

The other opinion piece I found was written by one of the best skateboarders of our time, Tony Hawk. The headline makes it clear that this isn’t a news story: “Thoughts on Olympic Skateboarding”. The article begins with an explanation of why his voice is relevant. Hawk is often considered an ambassador for skateboarding because he is the biggest and most recognizable star of the sport. He also explains that he doesn’t have many answers for questions on the process or if it will accurately represent the sport. He recognizes the naysayers who claim that skateboarding isn’t about competition and quickly refutes the argument that judgment isn’t welcome in skateboarding. Hawk explains that skateboarders have always judged others on things like style and trick selection and comparison to others is an innate human action, just as there have always been skateboarding contests. Hawk ends his argument against those who believe skateboarding isn’t an Olympic sport by explaining that its inclusion will bring in a new and diverse generation of skateboarders, show the world what skateboarding can teach and that many skateboarders will still always be seen by others as punks, and all of that is okay.

As I discussed last week, this blog will begin to focus on political divisiveness in the United States.

Opinion:

This New York Times analysis of the book “Why We’re Polarized” starts to get to the heart of political divisiveness in America. “In the end, he offers simply the hope that as Americans become more aware of the cancer of our current identity politics, they will make efforts to reduce their own involvement,” Norman J. Ornstein writes. Ornstein’s use of first-person is what truly identifies this article as an opinion/analysis piece, though it differs from an ordinary opinion because it is analyzing a book that recently came out.

This column, also in NYT, titled “Is America Hopelessly Polarized, or Just Allergic to Politics?” gave me a new perspective on the polarization arguments and discussions. “It seems that the only thing Americans can agree on is that we are living in an era of extreme political polarization,” wrote Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan. But I found this graph the most interesting and important of the whole story. “Polarization, however, is not just about disliking the other side. True polarization is when you dislike the other party and really like your own party.” I have never viewed polarization in this way, and I think their opinion on it is very clear and something that may have changed the way I now view polarization (even though one of the authors is a U of A professor. This article is clearly an opinion, as it is published in the op-ed section and shares the personal views of its authors.

News:

This story in the Pew Research Center, titled “U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided” delves into how where people get their news factors into polarization. The study found that, out of 30 media sources, Democrats trusted 22 on average, while Republicans distrusted around 20 sources. Pew is a very credible organization that does original research and analysis, and I often go to their site for political news because of its great use of polling and research. Additionally, they publish a methodology for every study, which increases their credibility.

This article in the journal Foreign Affairs, titled “How Americans Were Driven to Extremes In the United States, Polarization Runs Particularly Deep” goes into both America’s, and the globe’s polarization. “The more than 35 books published on this subject in the past decade have shed much light on partisan dynamics. Yet almost without exception, they examine U.S. polarization as an isolated phenomenon, separate from the experiences of other countries,” wrote Thomas Carothers and Andrew O’Donohue. I thought that this story did a great job of explaining the U.S.’s polarization, while also talking about how America and our ideals affect the rest of the country. But, they also say that U.S. polarization is worse than in other places. “American polarization has deep roots that have taken decades to grow and strengthen,” according to the article. This story was published in a credible research journal, and the study was used by other news outlets as well, which lends to its credibility.