How do I know?

Thank you Messrs. Kovach and Rosenstiel (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010) for introducing me to the phrase and concept “the way of skeptical knowing (p. 30)”.   You’ve introduced me to a wonderful way to help me with answering the question “How do you know what you know? (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.)”  I have sometimes been frustrated in my life because I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and because of that, I didn’t know how to make a good decision.  Yes, I learn from my mistakes and I am wiser for them, but, just like the horizon keeps changing when I’m sailing, the components of my decision-making process continue to change.  Sometimes I don’t realize the process has changed until I make a decision whose outcome is not what I anticipated, and I learn there are new factors that need to be included in my process.  Because my background is a blend of businesswoman and geek, I view what is presented to me as data, until I apply it through my lenses and filters of background and experience and it becomes information I can use.

I subscribe a feature of a social media tool, LinkedIn (LinkedIn, 2013), titled LinkedIn Influencers.  I am periodically sent an email from LinkedIn Influencers with posts written by individuals they think are noteworthy.   Their most recent post was written by Bill Gates, the Co-chair of the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation, and is titled Three Things I’ve Learned FromWarren Buffett (Gates, 2013).  In his post, Bill explains three things he has learned from Warren Buffet over the years he has known him.  I immediately clicked on the link to the post because I have known about each of these gentlemen for more than thirty years, and I have learned continuously from both of them.

When I read an online article I look to see if I recognize either the author or the organization presenting the information so I can determine if I have enough information to trust what I am reading.  I have worked with the company Bill Gates co-founded, Microsoft, for my entire professional career and he has earned his reputation and credibility because of many decades of his consistent commitment to excellence.  I have a number of years of positive experience with LinkedIn; it has continued to provide a valuable product and a commitment to an ethical experience.  Both Mr. Gates and LinkedIn have long-standing positive reputations, so I took the information presented at face value as information I can trust.

Another lens I use to look at the data being presented me is if the material appears to be championing a cause, defending a position, or not aligned with the description I used to search for what I was looking for.  If this is the case, I need to get additional information in order to make an informed decision about what I am being presented.  Even though I had not heard of The Inverted Pyramid Structure (Purdue OWL, 2013) of writing in journalism, I had been taught that news stories, whether printed or verbal, used the format of presenting the most important information first.  As Purdue Owl presented in their article The Inverted Pyramid Structure (2013), this format provides the most essential information — the Who, What, Where, Why, and How — being presented at the beginning of the article.

As I read the description of why this structure of journalism was created, I was reminded of a commonly used phrase Everything Old is New Again.  While the inverted pyramid structure of journalism got its origins in the technology of the telegraph, it is still as relevant today.  With both the limitations of a tweet in Twitter, or trying to keep a reader from bouncing (leaving) a webpage after reading the first paragraph, the inverted pyramid structure serves to help me know if I believe the information I am being presented is what I am looking for.   The article Pump Triggers Three Mile Island Reactor Shutdown, NRC says (Staff, 2012), is a good example of the inverted pyramid structure at work. The first paragraph tells us what happened and subsequent paragraphs provide additional details.

In the first paragraph of the LinkedIn Influencers post, Bill Gates explains the goal of his postings will be to share, with all the subscribers to LinkedIn Influencers, what he has learned in his career.   He follows that up in the second paragraph with by explaining that his post is sharing several key things he has learned from Warren Buffet over the years.   Both of those pieces of information, along with the credibility Bill has in my mind, served to keep me reading the rest of the post, to continue down the pyramid.

I was introduced to something else new this week.  The book Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 34) explains the concept of four different models of journalism.  Two very helpful things came out of this for me.  I hadn’t previously known about different models of journalism, but when I read about them I immediately understood some of my frustrations with “news” I have been reading and hearing.  I grew up watching and reading the news through what I have learned is the journalism model called the “Journalism of Verification” (p. 36).    I have been reading and listening to “news” that is being presented using other models of journalism and have been frustrated because I didn’t know they were using a different model.  The components of my decision-making process have needed to change but I haven’t known that until this week.      

Something else I hadn’t realized before reading about the models of journalism this week is that I have been informally applying criteria of the models of journalism to how I use different tools of social media.  With each tool I use, I “consider the source” and have a goal for how I use it.  For example, LinkedIn is a social media tool targeted at the network of professionals.  In the About Us section of their company LinkedIn page (LinkedIn, n.d.) they explain: "LinkedIn takes your professional network online, giving you access to people, jobs and opportunities like never before.  Built upon trusted connections and relationships, LinkedIn has established the world’s largest and most powerful professional network".  This doesn’t mean everything posted on LinkedIn is accurate and shouldn’t be checked, but the intent of the site, it’s guidelines and design, all create a more credible foundation.   I associate LinkedIn with the Journalism of Verification (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 36) model of journalism.

I also use facebook and, based on my readings this week, it provides me another comparison between the models of journalism.  I don’t think of facebook as a tool that has a strong commitment to verification, accuracy and context as the Journalism of Verification model does, so my strategy for facebook is not to rely on it professionally or as a credible source for news.  I use it personally to catch up on the activities of my family and friends because, from the perspective of credibility, I trust what my family and friends are sharing.  Considering the four models of journalism, I would apply the Journalism of Assertion model (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 38) to facebook as a tool of social media.  Information is shared instantaneously, technology supports the sharing to be on almost any electronic communication device, information isn’t passed through filters of verification before being shared, and people can say anything they want.

Because there are so many more sources of data for me to evaluate, and multiple views of many types of information available, I want to become more like John Crewdson (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010, p. 62), who was committed to looking at multiple places to get a breadth of information, asking more questions, and challenging conventional wisdom.  He didn’t settle on assumptions, he dug for facts until multiple sources came to the same conclusion.  I am going to add a new filter to my decision-making process, asking the question “Is the information complete; and if not, what is missing? (p. 60) ”  Based on the answers to my questions and my decision-making strategy, I will be able to decide if what I am reading is credible and become a credible source for information with what I write.

References

Gates, B. (2013, June 12). Three things i've learnded from Warren Buffet. Retrieved June 24, 2013 , from LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130612065727-251749025-three-things-i-ve-learned-from-warren-buffett?trk=mp-details-rc

Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: How to know what’s true in the age of information overload. New York City, New York: Bloomsbury.

LinkedIn. (2013). About Us. Retrieved June 24, 2013, from LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/about- us

Purdue OWL. (2013). The Inverted Pyramid Structure. Retrieved June 24, 2013, from Purdue Owl: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/04/

Southern New Hampshire University. (n.d.). Learning Modules: Module 2. Retrieved June 28, 2013, from SNHU My Blackboard: https://bb.snhu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_6293_1%26url%3D

Staff, C. W. (2012, September 20). Pump triggers three mile island reactor shutdown, NRC says. Retrieved June 24, 2013, from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/20/us/pennsylvania-three-mile-island/index.html