Evaluating Information: Traditional Sources

  1. Spam and Chain Mail
  2. Evaluating Information
  3. Acquiring Information

Everything that I’ve said here applies to any source of information. Most “professional” news sources simply repeat what they’ve heard: if it comes over the newswire, and it looks sensational, it stands a chance of getting in. No fact checking is performed for a significant number of those items.

You will want to apply the same critical analysis to what you read in newspapers and see on the news, as you would from anything coming over the Internet. A little more, actually, as false information coming over a Usenet newsgroup will be challenged almost immediately. It takes days for challenges to reach newspapers, and even then the newspapers get to choose which challenges see print. Television won’t show any challenges.

  1. Spam and Chain Mail
  2. Evaluating Information
  3. Acquiring Information