VOA慢速英语:新闻素养第5课：新闻报道的质量

In this lesson, we present seven steps to help you judge the quality of news reporting:

Step One: Main Points

Be able to recognize and re-state the main points of the story. An intelligent news consumer asks: What are the facts and how are they presented?

Step Two: Evidence

Examine the evidence. How has the reporter confirmed the evidence? Is there video you can trust? Is there a paper trail -- documents to prove what happened?

Step Three: Sources

Consider the sources of the story. Are they named or not identified in the story?

Step Four: Openness

What is the transparency level -- the level of openness -- in the news organization? Where did they get their information?

Step Five: Knowledge of Subject

Is there something to provide context, such as background information or history? Does the reporter have a command of the subject of the report?

Step Six: The Five "W"s

Are important pieces of information missing? Does the report answer the questions: what happened? Where, when and why did it happen? Who was involved?

Step Seven: Self Examination

Are you open to fairness? As a news consumer, you must know yourself. Do you have opinions or beliefs that could influence your judgment?

Perhaps step seven is the most important of the seven steps. Ask yourself: Are you more likely to believe a story if it confirms your pre-existing beliefs? That is called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a sort of blindness that leads news consumers to seek out information they WANT to be true. A smart news consumer seeks out information from multiple sources, weighing the reputation of each source, and comparing their coverage.

Using these seven steps, a reader or listener can decide the quality and truthfulness of news reports.

In our final lesson, we will consider journalistic responsibility in the age of social media.