Since the general opinions of large numbers of persons are almost certain to be a vague and confusing medley, action cannot be taken until these opinions have been factored down, canalized, compressed and made uniform. The making of one general will out of multitude of general wishes… consists essentially in the use of symbols which assemble emotions after they have been detached from their ideas. Stanley. (2015). How propaganda works.
Political news can trigger a defensive response in audiences, which makes them resistant to updating their beliefs. That reaction has recently been applied to the tendency of audiences to consider news that challenges their worldview as “fake.” Duncan, M. (2019). The effectiveness of credibility indicator interventions in a partisan context. Newspaper Research Journal, 40(4), 487–503.
Those papers that report most crime... have readers who have the highest Fear of Crime levels. Williams, P., & Dickinson, J. (1993). Fear of crime: Read all about it? The British Journal of Criminology, 33(1), 33–56.
News is likely negative in part because news consumers are more attentive to negative information. But the propensity to over-represent negativity in mass media need not be a product of profit-maximization alone. Journalists and editors are also humans, after all, and thus have the same tendencies as their audience. Soroka, S., & McAdams, S. (2015). News, Politics, and Negativity. Political Communication, 32(1), 1–22.
We find that, although consumers of scientific and conspiracy stories present similar consumption patterns with respect to content, cascade dynamics differ. Selective exposure to content is the primary driver of content diffusion and generates the formation of homogeneous clusters, i.e., “echo chambers.” Del Vicario, M., Bessi, A., Zollo, F., Petroni, F., Scala, A., Caldarelli, G., Stanley, H. E., & Quattrociocchi, W. (2016). The spreading of misinformation online. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(3), 554–559.
Do you have a standard for what you'll eat on a road trip? Is that standard lower than when you're at home, or at a wedding, for examples? (image: Hot dog of the week: 24-hour dog. (n.d.). Serious Eats. Retrieved September 13, 2024, from https://www.seriouseats.com/).
QUESTION:
-what is the lowest standard road-trip food that you've seen someone consume?
-what is the highest standard of food you expect, and in what situation?
INFORMATION STANDARDS
"Popular" is quick to get, quick to consume, often it is fun or entertaining
"Scholarly" is expensive to create, time consuming to read, but it aspires to be formal, unbiased, evidence-based, and has a good reputation for being valid, reliable, consistent by its reviewers and readers.
The best information has obvious ways to determine:
Purpose: why does this information exist? Is it for good reason, or mysterious reasons?
Authority: who is the author? Do they have a reputation for providing good information on the topic? Do they have credentials (like a degree, or history of expertise on the topic?)
Editors: does an organization back up the author's information? or is it self-published?
Date: is the information recent or out-of-date?
(there's a lot more description of these terms here: PADRE)
image: Thalen, M. (2023, June 1). Target is not using Baphomet mannequins to push Satanic clothing to kids. The Daily Dot. https://www.dailydot.com
CITATION HINT!:
for the library assignment, there are many citation generators in the library catalog, but for open web stuff, I like Zbib!
Critical elements of a scholarly article:
Author declares their credentials (faculty at a university? PhD? etc.)
Publication website can tell you (example: Journal of Food Protection) if it is academic, scholarly, peer-reviewed, refereed, etc.
Content formal/serious language, black & white graphic design, no photos of authors, etc.
Editor/Peer Review: the author never stands alone, but are validated by strong review by peers in their field of study
QUIZ: can you tell which is scholarly just by looking at a thumbnail?
Using AI for...
Keywords Help in General
Searching academic library resources can be frustrating and slow -here's a few tips and background info that will help you speed up the process and understand how it all works. ask me anytime :-) "what's a good keyword for...?" at dale.larsen@utah.edu
Objectives:
Students will learn the basics of how to use an academic library, and what to expect from a librarian
Students will learn the differences between open web (smart) searching vs. library keyword searching (and why)
Students will learn how criteria and standards are used for information, and how they can assess their own information and respond to class assignments calling for academic sources.
