Foreign Policy-Trade

Question: Identify an article on foreign policy from a credible source – local, a national or international newspaper, news magazine or television news. View article Six questions that will tell you what media to trust (Links to an external site.) in order to select a credible source. Discuss what stage of the process the policy is currently in. Who are the major players for and against the policy? What is the likelihood of the policy being implemented?. If not, why not? What recommendations might be helpful in getting to implementation? Six questions that will tell you what media to trust BY TOM ROSENSTIEL October 22, 2013 You may encounter media today from any number of sources, from traditional news sources to social media to email. How do you know what to trust? Ask these six questions and they will unlock whether something is trustworthy. It’s easier than you think. They will make you a more critical thinker and save you from being misled. (These come the book “Blur: How to Know What to Believe in the Age of Information Overload” by myself and Bill Kovach). 1. Type: What kind of content is this? Recognize first what kind of content you’re looking at. Is it a news story? Or is it an opinion piece? Is it an ad or what some people call native advertising produced by a company? Is it a reaction to someone else’s content? Knowing what you are looking at is the first step to figuring out what you can believe. ” ” Part of knowing what you’re looking at involves knowing who produced the content. Is it a news organization? Or is it a publication that is sponsored by a think tank, or a political group or a corporation? (If the story or graphic you’re looking at came in a tweet or through a friend, look at the name of the organization, not just the name of the author. If you don’t know the organization, look it up online.) Another thing to know is where the organization gets its money. If it’s a non-profit or an advocacy group, where did that money come from? If that isn’t clear, that’s a problem. Does the content have an obvious political slant? There are a lot of new partisan sources for news now. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from any single story whether the source is political. One way to identify partisan or political leaning is to see whether all the stories seem to point in a particular ideological direction, or would tend to reinforce the views of one party. If they do, that is a tip off that the site really has a political viewpoint. It’s easy to recognize. Scan the stories quickly. You will know it when you see it, even if each story itself seems fairly straightforward. Knowing what you are looking at is the first step to figuring out what you can believe. 2. Source: Who and what are the sources cited and why should I believe them? News content usually cites sources for the information provided. These are the people quoted, or the documents or reports or data being referred to. As you read, listen or watch a piece of content, note who is being cited. If it’s text, print it out and circle the sources. Is it a police official? A politician? What party? If it’s research, what organization produced it and what background if any is offered about them?