VOA慢速英语视频：News Literacy Lesson 5: Quality of News Reports

News Literacy Lesson 5: Quality of News Reports

新闻素养第五课：新闻报道的质量

In this lesson, we present seven steps to help you judge the quality of news reporting:

在本课程中，我们将介绍七个步骤来帮助您判断新闻报道的质量：

Step One: Main Points

第一步：要点

Be able to recognize and re-state the main points of the story. An intelligent news consumer asks: What are the facts and how are they presented?

能够识别并再述新闻的要点。一位聪明的新闻消费者问：事实是什么?它们是如何呈现的?

Step Two: Evidence

第二步：证据

Examine the evidence. How has the reporter confirmed the evidence? Is there video you can trust? Is there a paper trail -- documents to prove what happened?

核实证据。记者是如何证实证据的?有可以信任的视频吗?有书面证据证明发生了什么吗?

Step Three: Sources

第三步：来源

Consider the sources of the story. Are they named or not identified in the story?

考虑一下新闻的来源，他们在故事中是被指定的还是没有被识别出来的?

Step Four: Openness

第四步：开放

What is the transparency level -- the level of openness -- in the news organization? Where did they get their information?

新闻机构的透明度-开放程度是多少?他们是从哪里得到信息的?

Step Five: Knowledge of Subject

第五步：主题知识

Is there something to provide context, such as background information or history? Does the reporter have a command of the subject of the report?

是否有什么可以提供上下文信息，例如背景信息或历史?记者对报道的主题有掌握吗?

Step Six: The Five “W”s

第六步：五个“W”

Are important pieces of information missing? Does the report answer the questions: what happened? Where, when and why did it happen? Who was involved?

重要的信息丢失了吗?报告是否回答了以下问题：发生了什么?在哪里、何时以及为什么会发生这种情况?谁被牵扯进来了?

Step Seven: Self Examination

第七步：自我检查

Are you open to fairness? As a news consumer, you must know yourself. Do you have opinions or beliefs that could influence your judgment?

你愿意接受公平吗?作为一个新闻消费者，你必须了解自己。你是否有可能影响你判断力的观点或信念?

Perhaps step seven is the most important of the seven steps. Ask yourself: Are you more likely to believe a story if it confirms your pre-existing beliefs? That is called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a sort of blindness that leads news consumers to seek out information they WANT to be true. A smart news consumer seeks out information from multiple sources, weighing the reputation of each source, and comparing their coverage.

或许第七步是最重要的。扪心自问：如果一个故事证实了你原有的信念，你更有可能相信它吗?这叫做确认偏差。确认偏差是一种盲目性，导致新闻消费者寻找他们想要的真实信息。聪明的新闻消费者从多个来源寻找信息，衡量每个消息来源的可信度，并比较它们的报道。

Using these seven steps, a reader or listener can decide the quality and truthfulness of news reports.

通过这七个步骤，读者或听众可以决定新闻报道的质量和真实性。

In our final lesson, we will consider journalistic responsibility in the age of social media.

在我们的最后一课，我们将考虑新闻在社会媒体时代的责任。

Words in This Story

consumer -- n. one who buys or uses a product

transparency - n. the quality that makes it possible to see through something

context - n. the situation in which something happens : the group of conditions that exist where and when something happens

bias - n. a tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly