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Teaching fact checking and verification is an essential part of journalism education. Detecting Deception applies the concepts of logical argumentation to supplement standard verification techniques. This text is essential for training future journalists to build impeccable stories.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction - An introduction the problem of people trying to mislead the public, followed by a description of techniques for general critical thinking including breaking statements into premises and conclusions.
Things to look for - This will be the majority of the book, consisting of multiple short chapters. Each chapter will describe the issue, explain why it is an issue, offer an example with analysis drawn from existing news stories from a variety of topics and times and then offer an example without analysis for consideration or for instructors to use as an assignment.
Problems with how people think
Arguing about the person instead of the idea (The Ad Hominem)Arguing against something no one actually said (The Straw Man)Don't be a hypocrite! (Tu Quoque)Look! Squirrel! - Arguing by distraction (The Red Herring)There are only two things that could happen (The Black and White)And you'll end up living in a van down by the river... (The Slippery Slope)One rotten apple spoils the barrel (The Fallacy of Fallacies)Apples to oranges (Faulty Analogies)Cool. Don't care. (Irrelevant Conclusions)I saw a thing once. (Hasty Generalization) All the children are above average. (The Division Fallacy) Great players must make a great band. (The Composition Fallacy) (Begging The Question) (No true Scotsman)Problems with what people say
If you loved me... (The Appeal To Pity)Agree or else (The Appeal to Force)No one has proved you can't, so... (The Appeal To Ignorance)I'm not a doctor, but... (The Appeal To Authority)We've always done it this way. (Appeal To Tradition)A lot of people agree. (The Appeal To Popularity)The sky is green. (The Big Lie) Problems with numbers
It's a percent of what? (Ignoring The Base Rate)Spider bites and spelling bees (Correlation Is Not Causation)Rabbit feet and lucky rocks (Lurking Variables)The difference that doesn't matter (Unnecessary Precision)It's not actually that likely (Naïve Probability)Bigger isn't necessarily better (Lying With Charts)When a difference isn't really a difference (Misinterpreting Polls)
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Amanda Sturgill is Associate Professor at Elon University and has been teaching the use of logic to create and understand arguments throughout her 20-year career as an educator. She can use her knowledge of how to explain to novices and combine it with her experience as a journalist and as the director of communications for a major international competition.
Zusammenfassung
This accessible text covers the most common issues with claims newsmakers use to try to shape the stories about them along with examples and chances to practice for yourself using real-life cases of deceptive communication.
