In this survey course, many topics had to be dropped or treated very lightly. Which topic in U.S. history do you think should have been included which was not OR which topic do you think should have been discussed in greater detail? The topic can be a person or group, a specific event, or a long-term trend.
We looked at reliability of a source for Colonial America. Now you evaluate the source you find yourself. Find an article, website, or video online (which was not included in this course in Canvas) which explains the topic, but make sure it meets the reliability criteria below. The source must have an identified named author (or two people), not simply be Editor. It must have been created after 2000.
Answer the questions below. You do not need to repeat each question, just use the number and a key word like “author”. Your answers should be in proper English, including complete sentences. Explain everything in your own words. Be specific enough so that no one has to go back and read or watch your source to understand what you mean. Most questions can be answered with a single sentence. Questions 1, 2, 6, and 7 require one to two paragraphs each and so are worth more.
Questions to Answer
1. Briefly explain why the topic is important: what consequences did the event or trend have, what did the person or group do?
2. Identify your source (title, series/journal title if any) and briefly summarize what your source says about the topic.
Now, prove your source is reliable. When we analyze reliability, we analyze how the film, book, article, or website, was prepared. We don’t want to have to duplicate the work the writer did by looking at the bones and letters or interviewing the experts ourselves. We don’t compare with other sources because how do we know those sources are correct? Use only the criteria below. Whether something has an .edu or a .com or something else doesn’t matter.
3. Who wrote it: provide the person’s name. If the author is not actually named, pick a different source. There can be two authors, but no more than two. For a film, you can pick the producer.
4. Is the author (s) an expert in the subject (Colonial America or World War II or whatever)? Explain. Do not Google the person, but use only the information on the website, in the film, or with the article.
5. Was there someone else either controlling what was said or certifying it was accurate (the editor of the journal and a broadcast network are two examples)? Coca Cola running an ad in a PBS special would not control the content but PBS would. If there is someone controlling the content or certifying it, identify that person or company or government agency and say whether that provides more confidence that the material is accurate. If not, say there isn’t.
6. What secondary and primary sources did the writer rely on? You don’t have to list every source the writer used, but group them by interviews of historians, articles and books by historians, letters of George Washington, pandemic graves, etc. Provide two examples of each group the author relied on.
7. Is the film/website/article itself biased? For example, in a film or other source discussing relations between Native Americans and Europeans, does it do anything to make you on the side of the Indians or the side of the Europeans? What specifically does it do? Does it use certain wording that puts it on one side? Does it show one side attacking the other but omit to show the second side being aggressive? Provide specific examples. Those are the kinds of things we are looking for. We are looking at whether the article/film/website you chose is biased. The people interviewed or underlying sources can be biased but the author of your source should balance them or deal somehow with their biases. If it isn’t biased, then provide specific examples of presenting different viewpoints or otherwise being not biased. Need two examples of either bias or lack of it.
8. When was it written? It must be after 2000. Explain if that is recent enough for any new discoveries which changed things to have happened.
9. Was it professionally done? Does it look like someone took time to do a good job and did a good job or was it something done in an hour? Are there a lot of typos? Do the links work? Content is more important than looking great, but one must make some effort.
10. After discussing all six criteria with specific examples, conclude: is is reliable overall? It might not meet all of the criteria, but should meet most. For example, an article written by a journalist or a documentary might have an author who doesn’t know the subject. But if there are experts interviewed in the article or documentary, it can still be reliable. Some of the criteria are more important than others. If it isn’t reliable, pick something else
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