Are you “old school” and trust everything you read? Are you “new school” and mistrust everything you hear? Or do you find yourself avoiding news, literature, and the Internet because you don’t know what to trust? Like most of us, you are probably pulled in multiple directions. No one conveys a message without placing a part of his own personal perspective into the piece; it is an inevitable human factor in communication. However, there are simple strategies one can apply to print, audio/video, and online information that will determine its credibility, its trustworthiness. Give them a try.

Print Materials

Books

First, look for distinguished publishers. Nonfiction books published by reputable houses are more likely to have been checked for accuracy of content as well as reliability and expertise of author. Reputable established publishing companies employ editors, fact checkers, and professional artists. However, a number of self-publishing organizations have cropped up over the years. These institutions allow any author to pay to have a book published. The author does or pays for her own editing and artwork. And with the advent of digital POD (print-on-demand) technology, a vanity publisher can print as many books as the author can afford.

Check an author’s background, credentials, and reputation. Would you trust Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Medical Intuitive or G. Francis, MD, Author of Why Die of Colon Cancer? to provide your yearly physical? Has the author previously published other medical books? Where did he attend medical school? Have you heard of him before? What do other medical authors say about him? Do they refer to him in the reference section of their books and journal articles?

Magazines and Journals

You know you can trust the Encyclopedia Britannica more than Judy Brown’s website. An article in Science or National Geographic Magazine will be much more likely to contain accurate information than an article in Popular Science or Science & Theology News Magazine. Why, because the first two magazines hold as their mission the reporting of facts. The later magazines have as their goal appealing to a particular audience’s viewpoint.

You can usually trust any source called “The Journal of…” but people have been known to abuse this title too. If you recognize the organization for which the journal is published, then the content is fairly safe, though understandably written with that organization’s purpose in mind. For example, would you refer to a paper in The Journal of Pharmacotherapy in Community & Public Health or The New England Journal of Medicine when wondering what to do about Avian Flu? Not always simple is it? Actually, the first journal has been discontinued so would not contain information recent enough to cover the current Avian Flu epidemic. The New England Journal of Medicine has been a trusted source since 1812.

Newspapers

In America most newspapers, radio broadcasts, television broadcasts, and Internet news feeds come from one of two sources, the Associated Press or Reuters. These organizations hire reporters to cover news events across the world. Local reporters still often report local news, but the majority of our information comes from these two service agencies. We are at their mercy as to whether or not the information is correct, and with timelines for news reporting these days, facts are checked only after initially reported, usually by other skeptical reporters. Therefore, a long running story is more dependable than a late-breaking one.

Pamphlets and Other Advertising

By nature, pamphlets, flyers, stickers, billboards, signs, posters, and the like are marketing materials. Their purpose is to advertise. Advertising is the art of showing a product or service in its best light, creating a demand for that product or service. If you have ever taken a communications course, then you probably remember some of the dozen or so persuasive techniques used by advertisers (e.g. repetition, bandwagon, testimonials, emotional appeal, slogans, controversy, and subliminal messages). Beware advertising methods in any medium. If a message stirs your emotions, confuses you, or you feel pressure to agree, suspect that it is not trustworthy.

Audio/Video Media

Listening and Speaking

Listening and speaking are genetically imprinted talents, talents that need to be developed and nurtured. Our ancestors used oral history the way we use books. Effective listening and speaking skills must be learned much the same as reading and writing. The average person, who actually claims to be listening carefully, will only remember half of what she hears. Trust only what you are absolutely sure you remember and only if it comes from a reliable source.

Radio

Radio goes through phases where we fear it is the lost avenue of communication, but it always seems to resurrect. Humans come from a long line of storytellers. If you have complained that radio only broadcasts talk-radio programs, have too many commercials, or play the same music repeatedly, then you are not alone. Five non-commercial networks, nine state radio networks, and a handful of religious broadcasters fight the airwaves for recognition.

Approximately twenty-five commercial radio networks broadcast in the US, some of these from Mexico. Viacom, IDT, and Westwood One telecommunications corporations own most of the previously independent networks. Westwood One owns CBS and NBC. Disney now owns ABC. Talk Radio constitutes about half of all airtime. I believe all pure music networks have gone defunct. Music is now programmed by marketing alliances such as America Online and Infinity Broadcasting’s agreement to “suggest” content with the guarantee that their recommendations have a “proven track record” for drawing the largest audiences. Talk-radio consists of individuals sharing their personal opinions.

Sports broadcasts are usually highly dependable due to competition for listeners. News broadcasts use the same sources as newspaper and the Internet. Stock and farm market reports are susceptible to the vagaries of an investment portfolio. Music is a matter of taste and so are opinion talk shows. Again, trust only the sources you know or for whom you can find credentials and a sound reputation.

Television

Television suffers the same problem as radio only to an even greater degree. Only nine US television networks broadcast for anyone with a television to receive; however, not all operate in every area of the country (e.g. America One, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Omni, WB, UATV, UPN). The advent of cable and satellite television has expanded opportunity exponentially, but with opportunity comes bias. Independent television networks, and even some of the major nine, broadcast with an agenda in mind. Their purpose may be to entertain in one particular genre, provide news with a political or religious focus, or remain wholly objective. Whatever their original goal, the lure of advertising dollars inevitably leans programming in one direction or another. Networks may choose which advertisers to use, but they all need advertising funds in order to run their service.

Other Audio/Video Materials

Authorized educators experienced in the associated field usually prescreen educational audiotapes, books on tape, videos, or radio and television programming. These are typically safe. They have been edited, reviewed, and critiqued by authorities before you ever hear about them. Marketing audio and video materials should be treated just as any print advertising media. Don’t trust it unless you know where it comes from and who is saying it.

Online Services

Digital information deserves a special category all its own. The Internet began as a way for scientists to exchange data and observations in a timely manner. Later educators joined the movement to enable the sharing of professional information quickly and easily. Now the World Wide Web has become the playground for anyone with a computer and phone service. This has brought our world closer, enabling better global and multicultural socialization. It makes fact checking easier with access to online reference material, databases, and personal librarians. The WWW also complicates communication because anyone can post information on their own webpage saying anything they like. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has little leverage for regulating Internet content, due to user invoked First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.

Domains

Evaluation of online content includes all of the above recommendations, because print, audio, and video are all available online. However, additional measures can be taken to justify our faith in what we find on a particular page or website. Websites are published by a particular organization, commercial enterprise, individual, government agency, or educational institution, thus the domain tags .org, .com, .net, .gov, .edu, etc. There are other domains, including country domains, such as .uk for United Kingdom and ca for Canada. Provided with the same information from three websites, .org, .gov, and .com, which would you trust? Not an easy decision, is it? What if you knew they were the American Medical Association’s pharmaceutical recommendations, Russian government recommendations on pharmaceuticals, and Aestus Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Canada? Easier isn’t it? Knowing who publishes the information and the credentials of the author are even more vitally important on the Internet.

Bias

Knowing a publisher or author’s mission tells you the kind of bias you are dealing with. In our example, the AMA’s mission is to relay factual medical information to the public, the Russian government may make excellent recommendations on pharmaceuticals which may or may not be approved for use in this country, and APC will try to sell their pharmaceuticals to anyone visiting their website since they are a commercial business. When you are not sure about bias, look for appeals to your emotions, over simplification of concepts, or limited perspective. Does it seem you are only receiving one side of an argument or one view of a situation? Bias is not necessarily bad; you may want biased support for both sides of an argument you are discussing. The key is to use biased information consciously.

Date

A simple way to evaluate online content is to check the publication date. Or one would think, so until you go searching for the actual date an article was posted. Many websites use automatic updating so that the date shown on the page is always the current date. Others will only display the copyright year at the bottom of the screen. When looking for historical information, dates don’t usually matter, but current events require recent updating. Try not to get caught quoting pharmaceutical information you found on a page that is three years old. Internet browsers have a helpful tool for checking the date, if the creator completed the properties information. When using Internet Explorer, under the File drop-down menu click on Properties; the date created and last modified should be listed. When using Netscape or Mozilla, under your Tools drop-down menu click on Page Info, under Meta it should tell you the creation date and last modified date for that page. If this information is not provided, double-check your information elsewhere.

Evidence

Probably the easiest and most important way to be certain you have accurate information is to check the evidence. Do the facts support the hypothesis, opinion, or topic? Find out where the author got his data. Follow any links the page makes to other web pages. Run a search for the author to find out what other experts are saying about him. Run a search for the same topic to see if other reputable sources confirm his facts or link back to your original site. Many websites offer contact information; can you contact the author to ask questions? Only stable, reputable people are confident and efficient enough to handle web-referred questions. Rule of thumb, “You can only trust a fact if you can find the same information in at least three reputable locations on the Internet.” (21CIF, 2000)

Summary

Buyers decide whether print material will be successful; corporate executives decide whether audio and video will be successful. No one is quite sure how the success of online material will be determined. This does not mean one is any more reliable than the other. It just illustrates the fact that communication always travels through a filter, sometimes several filters. Knowing where and who the information comes from, what their bias may be, and how that information matches with other reputable sources will go a long way toward insuring your trust.

External Links:

• IMSA 21st Century Information Fluency Project - Educational portal for fluent use of digital information
• Wikipedia - A free online encyclopedia
• Allyn & Bacon Communication Studies Website - Instructor resource for teaching communications