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War in Ukraine

This topic guide is intended to provide an overview of the events leading up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This guide may be useful to students in a variety of disciplines.

Overview

One issue that has arisen with the current conflict in Ukraine is the spread of false information about what is happening on the ground. Disinformation has long been used as a war tactic, however, in the modern world is being 

Bias: What Media to Trust

Image source: Screen-capture taken from American Press Institute

Tom Rosenstiel, the executive director of the American Press Institute, suggests six questions media consumers can ask to verify the trustworthiness of their information:

1. What type of content is it?
Is it a news report, opinion piece, or company/political advertising in disguise? Identifying content type and who is behind the literature will help you uncover the motivation.

2. What sources are being cited?
If the information refers to research conducted by a think-tank, track down the study and determine its validity. Look for research methodology, who might benefit from the study, and if there are any special interest groups who might be behind the project.

3. How is the evidence evaluated?
See if the literature explains how the evidence was discovered and introduced to the evaluation process. Be wary of literature that says “scientists agree…” or “research suggests...” without backing it up.

4. Is the reporter’s argument proven by evidence?
Except for straight narratives of an event, most news reports will have some sort of interpretation or a point to the story. See if the point is proven by evidence.

5. Is there anything missing?
Do you notice anything left out of the story? Is there an explanation for any missing piece of information?

6. What knowledge have you acquired?
Rosenstiel urges news consumers to take time and think about what they have learned - if anything - after clicking on a headline and reading a story.

Image Source: Modified screen-capture taken from the National Post.

Click here to read the full article.

1. What type of content is it?

  • A report covering an Angus Reid survey from a Canadian national newspaper company known for its right-centre bias
  • Headline appeals to readers’ emotions by using the word “lazy”
  • Emphasis is on negative reactions to the idea of guaranteed minimum income

2. What sources are being cited?

3. How is the evidence evaluated?

  • Angus Reid conducted the survey electronically using online forms
  • Appears to be a closed-question survey
  • Such surveys may receive responses from participants with limited knowledge or opinions about a particular issue 1

4. Is the reporter’s argument proven by evidence?

  • Article adheres closely to the survey results as published by Angus Reid
  • Headline using the word “lazy” is deceiving
    • Survey question as presented on the Angus Reid website asks whether “a guaranteed income program would discourage people from working.”

5. Is there anything missing?

Source:

1. Julien, Heidi. (2008). Survey research. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909.n441

 

Image source: Screen-capture taken from Slate

Click here to read the article.

1. What type of content is it?

  • Blog post from online news magazine Slate, known for its left-leaning bias
  • Reports on the mandate of charitable project GiveDirectly, which provides basic income to impoverished populations in parts of Africa
  • Authors state they are the founders of the project
  • Provides both sides of the argument for minimum income

2. What sources are being cited?

  • Mostly scholarly articles, government/United Nations policy papers, and some media sources including The New York Times

3. How is the evidence evaluated?

  • With the exception of newspaper articles, most of the policy and research papers are written by experts in the field
  • Many papers are based on data collected from studies/experiments

4. Is the reporter’s argument proven by evidence?

  • While the article is biased toward supporting providing basic income for the poor, it argues that its effectiveness still has to be proven.

5. Is there anything missing?

  • The authors state explicitly that they do not know what the outcome will be, but that their experiment is a crucial step toward ending poverty.

Types of Bias

Politics is not the only source of bias to watch out for. Also beware of the following:

Commercial Bias
News that is sponsored by businesses promoting their products.
Temporal Bias
In order to capture attention, “Breaking News” is featured prominently, while less recent content is made less visible.
Visual Bias
Images evoke emotional responses. Consider any visual content and whether it’s designed to make you feel one way or the other.
   Sensationalism
Scandalous or otherwise emotionally-charged stories attract readers by overtly emphasizing negativity.
  Narrative Bias
While news reports may follow a plot line from beginning to middle to end, that is most likely not how events unfolded in real life.
  Fairness Bias
Opposing points of view will often be presented in the interest of fairness, but intentionally or otherwise, one viewpoint will be given undue weight.
  Expediency Bias
To meet deadlines, journalists may interview experts who they have already talked to on multiple occasions. This may bias the coverage to those experts’ points of views.

For more information on bias in the media please see "Issues of Bias in the News Media: How Our Reality is Shaped by the News" in Media Smackdown: Deconstructing the News and the Future of Journalism. 

Adapted from: Finding News and News Evaluation, University of Texas Libraries

Image Sources (From top to bottom):

"Money Bag" by gira Park is licensed under (CC BY 3.0 US)

"Ephemeral" by Matt Brooks is in the public domain (CC0) 

"Eye" by Edward Boatman is in the public domain (CC0)

"Senses" by Kyle Berryman is licensed under (CC BY 3.0 US)

"Anecdote" by Marion Lachaise is licensed under (CC BY 3.0 US)

"Scale" by Erik Vullings is in the public domain (CC0)

"Stopwatch" by Gregor Cresnar is licensed under (CC BY 3.0 US) 

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