The Student Toolkit
Here you will find a collection of documents intended to better prepare you not simply for our class, but for any class at any college. The documents were put together by students just like you and constitute the distilled wisdom of many bright minds.
I invite you to use this wisdom.
The Heart of History: Evidence
(Two Types of Evidence and How to Analyze Them)
Primary and Secondary Sources
Historians divide their historical sources into primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are sources made by eyewitnesses at or about the same time that the event that they describe occurred. A newspaper article written today on a ship that sank last night is, therefore, a primary source or document with regard to the sinking of that ill-fated vessel.
Note that the event and the report of the event occur close together and that the reporter either witnessed the sinking or interviewed those who did. For example, a newspaper article written in 1861 on the election of Abraham Lincoln is a primary source. Books, newspaper articles, letters, diary entries, movies, speeches or photographs can all be primary sources.
Secondary sources are materials produced by people in a later period about an earlier period or event. The persons who produce these sources did not personally witness the events that they describe or discuss. This is a key point that distinguishes secondary from primary sources.
For example, Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural speech in 1861 is a primary source for the history of the U.S. Civil War. Why? The document was made at or about the same time that the event that it describes (the Civil War) took place. Lincoln was a first-hand witness to the events of the war and (often) a key player in bringing many of them about.
On the other hand, Stephen Oates’ biography of Abraham Lincoln is a secondary source because Oates did not actually witness the events in Lincoln’s life that he describes in his biography. What he knows about these events comes to him second-hand, through the reports of others. This does not invalidate or weaken his account of Lincoln’s life and his first inaugural address. Some would argue, indeed, that his use of many primary and secondary sources gives Oates a perspective on Lincoln’s past that is even more accurate than Lincoln’s own. The reader must judge for herself.
In a word, a primary source is a source created by a “witness” to the event that the primary source describes. A secondary source is one created by a non-witness to an event that its creator learned about second-hand – through the witnessing of others. The secondary source usually occurs many years after the historical event in question.
Given that definition, primary sources are often personal letters, journals, newspaper accounts, pamphlets, and speech. Secondary sources are often textbooks, biographies, and Ph.D. dissertations.
In this class you will be asked to work with both types of historical sources.
A Few Questions to Ask of Primary Sources
The past, it's sometimes said, "is a foreign country." So historians often approach historical sources as records of a different world. But just as foreign peoples, however ‘strange’ to us, have two legs, two arms, and some idea of what we would call right and wrong, so “foreigners from the past” – historical actors – share many similarities with ourselves, and in spite of their distance from us in space and time. In reading the following sources, try to read with "fresh eyes." If the sources you read are strange at first, hard to understand – if they seem written in a strange and tangled language – think about why this is so. Places of frustration are fertile areas for self-examination and learning. Know too that in many cases, primary sources were made with no expectation that you or I would be analyzing them many years later, in our history class.
Just as there is a world of difference between, say, a cup of joe at your local greasy spoon and a double toffee-nut latte with whipped cream at Starbucks, so there is a world of difference between merely reading a primary source and analyzing a primary source.
A part of that difference comes from the reader knowing that the primary source is a window on the past – a past that no longer exists. It may be the only window on a particular place and time that has survived the event. This makes them holy objects for the historian and for anyone wishing to know what truly happened in the past. Bear this in mind. What diamonds are to jewelry makers, so primary sources are to historians.
Given the special status in which historians hold these objects, how do they analyze and make sense of them to better understand the past?
Simply put, by asking questions.
The questions you see below are a start, and all good historians ask them of their sources at some point. Just as importantly, all good historians stubbornly seek to answer these questions as fully and accurately as possible using every shred of information at their disposal. In this way the past is recaptured.
In this class we shall ask these very same questions. Here they are. Please print out this page and refer to it often as we journey into the world of primary sources.
1. Who (or what) wrote or produced this source?
2. What type of source is this?
3. When was the source made? It's important to know, as precisely as possible, what was going on at the time.
4. Where was it made?
5. Who was the audience for this source and/or (the same thing) who was it meant to reach or be used by?
6. In a word or words, what is the source about? Put it in a sentence.
7. What light does this source shed on the past? Be specific.
8. What is most memorable about this source for you – you personally?
Clearly there is more to being a good historian than asking these questions, but as with many other things in life, well-begun is half-done.
Primary and secondary sources are the doors through which we can enter the past. Please know how they differ from each other and read them critically.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic and student conduct rules and is punishable with a failing grade for the assignment, for the course, and possibly even more severe action.
All written work submitted for a course, except for acknowledged quotations, must be expressed in the student's own words. It must also be constructed upon a plan of the student's own devising. Work or words copied without acknowledgment from a book, from another student's paper, from the internet, or from any other source (a book, article, encyclopedia, etc.) is plagiarized.
Plagiarism can range from wholesale copying of passages from another's work to using the views, opinions, and insights of another without acknowledgment, to paraphrasing another person's original phrases without acknowledgment.
Plagiarism is the use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source. This includes, but is not limited to:
(a.) Copying from the writings or works of others into one's academic assignment without attribution, or submitting such work as if it were one's own;
(b.) Using the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgment; or
(c.) Paraphrasing the characteristic or original phraseology, metaphor, or other literary device of another without proper attribution.------------------------------------How to Recognize Plagiarism: Examples
(The format of the following examples was drawn from Acknowledging the Work of Others; it illustrates several types of common plagiarism. The passages in boldface reflect plagiarism of the original passage followed in italics by an explanation why they constitute plagiarism.)
THE ORIGINAL PASSAGE
“This book has been written against a background of both reckless optimism and reckless despair. It holds that Progress and Doom are two sides of the same medal; that both are articles of superstition, not of faith. It was written out of the conviction that it should be possible to discover the hidden mechanics by which all traditional elements of our political and spiritual world were dissolved into a conglomeration where everything seems to have lost specific value, and has become unrecognizable for human comprehension, unusable for human purpose.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1973 ed.), p.vii, Preface to the First Edition.
EXAMPLE I
Type: word-for-word plagiarism
This book has been written against a background of both reckless optimism and reckless despair. It holds that Progress and Doom are two sides of the same medal; that both are articles of superstition, not of faith. Interestingly enough, Arendt avoids much of the debates found in some of the less philosophical literature about totalitarianism.
When material is taken directly from a book, article, speech, statement, remarks, the Internet, or some other source, the writer must provide proper attribution. In this example, no credit is given to the author.
EXAMPLE II
Type: the footnote without quotation marks
This book has been written against a background of both reckless optimism and reckless despair. It holds that Progress and Doom are two sides of the same medal; that both are articles of superstition, not of faith.1 Interestingly enough, Arendt avoids much of the debates found in some of the less philosophical literature about totalitarianism. 1 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1973 ed.), p.vii, Preface to the First Edition.
When material is quoted word-for-word, a footnote alone is insufficient. The material that represents a direct quotation must either be put within quotation marks or indented. For example:
A. As Hannah Arendt explains, her book was “written against a backdrop of both reckless optimism and reckless despair.”1 The book “holds that Progress and Doom are two sides of the same medal . . . .”2
B. As Dr. Arendt has explained:
This book has been written against a background of both reckless optimism and reckless despair. It holds that Progress and Doom are two sides of the same medal; that both are articles of superstition, not of faith.1
Interestingly enough, Arendt avoids much of the debate found in some of the less philosophical literature about totalitarianism.
EXAMPLE III
Type: the paraphrase
Hannah Arendt’s book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, was written in the light of both excessive hope and excessive pessimism. Her thesis is that both Advancement and Ruin are merely different sides of the same coin. Her book was produced out of a belief that one can understand the method in which the more conventional aspects of politics and philosophy were mixed together so that they lose their distinctiveness and become worthless for human uses.
Even if the author’s exact language is not used, a footnote is required for material that is paraphrased.
EXAMPLE IV
Type: the mosaic
The first edition of The Origins of Totalitarianism was written in 1950. Soon after the Second World War, this was a time of both reckless optimism and reckless despair. During this time, Dr. Arendt argues, the traditional elements of the political and spiritual world were dissolved into a conglomeration where everything seems to have lost specific value. In particular, the separation between the State and Society seems to have been destroyed. In this book, she seeks to disclose the hidden mechanics by which this transformation occurred.
Even though this example includes some original material, selected phrases of the original are woven throughout the passage - a. reckless optimism and reckless despair, b. traditional elements of the {our in original} political and spiritual world were dissolved into a conglomeration where everything seems to have lost specific value, and c. hidden mechanics.
EXAMPLE V
Type: the “apt phrase”
Following the Second World War, scholars from a variety of disciplines began to explore the nature of “totalitarianism.” One of the most pressing issues for these writers was understanding the “essence” of totalitarianism. How, for example, is a totalitarian regime different from an authoritarian regime? Although authors disagree on the precise answer to this question, a common thread running throughout most of the classic works on totalitarianism deals with the relationship between State and Society. In a totalitarian state, the traditional boundaries between State and society are dissolved into a conglomeration so that the two become indistinguishable.
This passage is almost entirely original, but the phrase “dissolved into a conglomeration” is taken directly from Arendt. Even though this is a short phrase, it must be footnoted. Only phrases that have truly become part of general usage can be used without citation.
Acknowledging the Work of Others
Education at its best, whether conducted in seminar, laboratory, or lecture hall, is a dialogue between teacher and pupil in which questions and answers can be sought and evaluated. If this dialogue is to flourish, students who enter the University must assume certain responsibilities. Among them is the responsibility to make clear what knowledge is theirs and what is someone else’s. Teachers must know whose words they are reading or listening to, for no useful dialogue can occur between a teacher and an echo or ghost.
Students who submit written work in the University must, therefore, be the authors of their own papers. Students who use facts or ideas originating with others must plainly distinguish what is theirs from what is not. To misrepresent one’s work ignorantly is to show oneself unprepared to assume the responsibility presupposed by work on the college level. It should be obvious that none of this prohibits making use of the discoveries or ideas of others. What is prohibited is simply improper, unacknowledged use (commonly known as “plagiarism”). . . .
To acknowledge the work of others, observe the following conventions:
1. If you adopt someone else’s language, provide quotation marks and a reference to the source, either in the text or in a footnote, as prescribed by such publications as Format, The MLA Style Sheet, or the manual of style recommended by the course instructor.
Footnote form varies from discipline to discipline. In some fields, writers group references to a number of sources under a single footnote number, which appears at the end of a sentence or even of a paragraph. In other fields, writers use a separate footnote for each reference, even if this means creating two or three footnotes for a single sentence. It seems pointless, even counterproductive, to make the mechanics of footnoting unnecessarily complicated. If in a short, informal paper you cite a passage from a work all the members of your class are reading in the same edition, it may be entirely sufficient simply to cite page numbers (and if necessary the title of the text) parenthetically within your own sentences: “Hobbes suggests that life outside civil society is likely to be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’ (Leviathan, p.53).” To ascertain what form to follow in these matters, ask your instructor.
2. If you adopt someone else’s ideas but you cannot place them between quotation marks because they are not reproduced verbatim, then not only provide a footnoted reference to the source but also insert in the text a phrase like one of the following: “I agree with Blank,” “as Blank has argued,” “according to some critics”; or embody in the footnote a statement of indebtedness, like one of these: “This explanation is a close paraphrase of Blank (pp. ),” “I have used the examples discussed by Blank,” “The main steps in my discussion were suggested by Blank’s treatment of the problem,” “Although the examples are my own, my categories are derived from Blank.” A simple footnote does no more than identify the source from which the writer has derived material. A footnote alone does not indicate whether the language, the arrangement of fact, the sequence of the argument, or the choice of examples is taken from the source. To indicate indebtedness to a source for such features as these, the writer must use quotation marks or provide an explanation in his or her text or in the footnote.
3. If some section of the paper is the product of a discussion, or if the line of argument adopted is such a product, and if acknowledgment within the text or footnote seems inappropriate, then furnish in a prefatory note or footnote an appropriate acknowledgment of the exact nature of the assistance you have received. Scholarship is, after all, cumulative, and prefatory acknowledgments of assistance are common. For example: “I, . . . , wish to express my appreciation to Dr. Harlow Shapley of the Harvard Observatory, who read the original manuscript and made valuable suggestions and criticisms, with particular reference to the sections dealing with astronomy” (Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein [New York: the New American Library, 1958]).
4. Finally, and this is very important, ignorance of the meaning of the term “plagiarism” and the means of avoiding it – especially at the college level – cannot be used to excuse an instance of plagiarism as defined in this document.
Georgetown University Honor Council.
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Now it's your turn: if you have a question or comment about Plagiarism, please post your question in the Q&A tab under the Course Home so that I and your fellow students can read and respond to your post. Thank you!
“How Can I Navigate This Course Successfully?”
Read On, Wise Student.
Goals: In order to think about the past and its significance, it is necessary to acquire some accurate information. But mastery of factual details is not the primary goal of this course. The major goal is to create a pool of knowledge for your own serious thinking about the meaning of history and, through that effort, the world we presently inhabit – now.
Look For the Big Picture: In your reading, you should not seek to memorize small factual details. A person does not understand history by learning the name of Hannibal’s elephant or the foot size of Alexander the Great. Trying to memorize too many of these trivial facts, week after week, will have you climbing the walls. While completing the reading assignment prior to class, focus on large issues: major trends, central figures, world-changing events, broad interpretive questions, etc.
After reading the chapter in the textbook, close the book and ask yourself: what are the author's three or four main points in this chapter? What are they driving at here? Write down these points and try to remember examples and information that illustrate them. Then open the book and search out the necessary items to complete your outline – to flesh out with particulars this topic skeleton. This will serve you as a resource for later review. When reading the primary documents, answer the questions listed on the Heart of History handout.
Avoid Underlining: Textbook sentences seem to be “loaded” with details, so you may be tempted to highlight or underline long passages. This is rarely helpful. Much more efficient learning is achieved by writing your comments (or questions) in the margins of the book, by circling key words or phrases, and by putting quotation marks around sentences which you judge to be particularly worthy of reviewing. To read in this way is to read critically and not passively. Try this method at least once. You have nothing to lose but a lower grade.
Grasp the Geography: It makes sense when you seek to relate the where something happened to the how and why it happened, so take time to study the maps in your textbook. Locate the places mentioned in the sources. Think about the effort that was required to travel from one place to another to trade goods or to fight a war or to just see the face of your loved one again. Bear in mind the difference between the representation of a desert in your textbook and what that actual, very long and very hot and soul-destroying desert must have felt like to a person who needed to cross it.
Common Mistakes to Avoid: When a student begins to feel that this course is extremely difficult, one or more of the following apply: The student (1) ignored the advice given here, (2) fell behind in the reading, (3) skipped one or more classes, (4) panicked in the face of a large amount of unfamiliar ideas, names, and places, (5) made unrealistic assumptions about themselves or what this class requires, and (6) did not seek help by taking advantage of me, my e-mail and office hours, or the wisdom and know-how of their fellow classmates.
Writing: Writing, both formal and informal, will be an important part of your home and classroom assignments. Do not worry if your writing skills need improving: this is true of almost everyone in the class. What I will emphasize in this class is less the final product of your writing as the writing process itself. Though good grammar and spelling matter, your essays ideas and organization matter more to me.
Though you or I can’t control other people or events, you can take care of yourself and navigate this class successfully. Please tape this last sentence on your bathroom mirror for the remainder of this semester.
Tools of the Historical Trade
The Search for Truth in History
The modern historian has a great advantage over those who wrote more than a hundred years ago: much of what she studies has actually happened in front of the type of witness who cannot be mistaken. By this I mean radio, television and film. We can hear once again Bill Clinton’s inaugural address; we can see the World Trade Centers collapse on 9/11; we can see, too, what Allied Forces found in Nazi concentration camps after World War II. Much of the physical evidence is also still in existence, and we can pick up a paper from 1912 and read an account of the Titanic tragedy, or hold a WWII-era revolver in our hands.
Of course, even what we see with our own eyes is open to interpretation, and the modern historian has no easy task. Nothing still takes the place of careful investigation; no historian worth her salt can simply accept what an earlier historian has set down without checking facts for herself.
Imagine, then, how difficult it is for American and U.S. historians. How can they possibly know what did and didn't happen? To find the truth, the historian must use a variety of tools. Let’s look at these tools.
The first step is often to examine what other historians have written. But when we do this, we must also examine the historian. What do we know about the author of any given chronicle? Is he a contemporary witness? If so, did he actually see the events he reports? Had he any reason to twist the facts? If he did not live during the time the events were taking place, how and from where did he get his information? If the story is hard to believe or contradicts other contemporary works, does he tell it persuasively, and back it up with verifiable facts.
Next we should look at any documents available from the period being studied. Legal records are of course excellent sources, but letters and account books also provide helpful clues. It is most often events mentioned in passing that can solve a mystery or settle a historical question. If Lord Knobbly writes in a letter dated February 14th, 1340, to his beloved lady, "The bestowal of your favor last May at the Chumley Tourney is a moment I shall long remember," then we can assume a Tournament took place at Chumley in May of 1339, and that Lord Knobbly participated (because he was given his lady's favor or won it as a prize). Since the letter is not about the tourney but about private matters he expected no one but his lady-love to read, it's extremely unlikely that he would deliberately misstate the date -- although he could have been in error. Such clues are the kind of evidence on which a chronicle can stand or break apart: For example, any account that states there was never a tourney in Chumley would be called into question by Lord Knobbly's letter.
Literature of the times can be surprisingly instructive. While the stories cannot be accepted as absolute truth, many clues to life at that time can be found in casual descriptions. The Alliterative Morte Arthur contains a passage describing a magnificent feast the king has prepared for the Roman dignitaries; check it out to see what foods were considered delicacies. Beowulf often mentions items in passing, such as mail armor and other military paraphernalia, that were used in the eighth century when the poem was most likely composed. And let's not forget Chaucer's portraits of the many different people sharing a pilgrimage to Canterbury. Of course we must take all descriptions and narratives with a grain (and sometimes a whole shaker) of salt; but by careful study of many different works, a general picture of the times will become clear.
Archaeological evidence is another important tool, and our best source for discovering what life was really like in the past. The study of something so apparently mundane as a garbage dump can tell us volumes about the people who used it, such as what foods were popular and what materials were common and considered "disposable." Skeletal remains -- when examined across a spectrum of samples -- can tell us the general health of the people in question and their average height. Dendrochronological examination can date the construction of a house; dated coins found in a particular building can give a general idea of when that building was used. And, of course, artifacts such as mugs, plates and cutlery, jewelry, clothing and shoes, and other household items can tell us a great deal about how people lived.
Living history in its various forms is an excellent way to understand the past. Try a medieval recipe using only medieval utensils, and you can begin to understand a day in the life of a medieval woman. Put on a suit of chainmail and pick up a sword (even a reproduction), and you're on your way to discovering what it must have been like to be a knight preparing for battle.
Finally, the most important tool a historian must use is her mind. We not only need to question the evidence we see but use our judgment, deductive reasoning, and imaginations in forming sensible conclusions.
The truth about our past will always remain an incomplete puzzle, and our picture of that puzzle is constantly changing as new evidence is discovered and new theories emerge.
* Courtesy of The Medieval and Renaissance History Website, About.Com, 2000, used by permission of Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
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Let’s assume you have a lot of reading and not enough time. Sound familiar? You want to make every second count. The least effective way to read the chapter of a history textbook is to start at the beginning and read it to the bitter end. There’s a better way, it will save you time, and it will allow you to retain more of what you’ve read. It’s called active reading. One of the most important skills I learned in graduate school was the following reading method.
What’s active about active reading is the reader’s brain. It is constantly questioning, summarizing, defining, and re-organizing the material presented in the text, but it is doing this in a particular way that anyone can learn, internalize, and use for many other texts. How does it work?
- First, read the title of the chapter carefully. Really look at it and take it apart. Embedded in almost all chapter titles are key-terms to understanding the entire chapter. Take the chapter heading and convert it into a question. (For the chapter title “The Challenge of Reconstruction,” you might form the question, “What specifically was the challenge of Reconstruction?”)
- Next, scan the main headings of the chapter (these are usually in boldface or italics). Note on a piece of paper the key-terms that you find there and, as with the chapter-heading, convert all chapter main and sub-headings into questions. Write these down as well.
- Now pause a moment. Much of your work is done already. You now have a cluster of key-terms and some questions that get at the heart of what this chapter is about. This is the chapter in a nutshell. Now read the chapter specifically to answer the questions you’ve formulated from the chapter titles and begin to define your key-terms. These terms are your map and the destination all in one; armed with them, you can now read the chapter more efficiently and purposefully.
- But not yet! First read the introduction to the chapter. It is easily the most important part of the chapter. Here is where the writer has put all the stuff that’s important. It may lack historical detail – dates and names and decrees – but these will come soon enough. Look through the intro to see if your key-terms are here: they should be.
- When you’ve finished reading the introduction (noting again key-terms, circling them, and defining them briefly, if only mentally), flip to the end of the chapter and read the chapter summary or conclusion. It should sound like the introduction and bring home to you again the big concepts and key-terms discussed in this chapter. Read it carefully. Even twice.
- Only now, with step 6, do you actually read the chapter. Congratulations. But do not read it passively, vacantly, merely to get to the end. Read ONLY to answer the questions you devised from the chapter title and subheadings. Read ONLY to define the key-terms you’ve already written down.
7. Finally, at the end of your reading, finish up by asking yourself, “What are the two or three big things (themes/topics) the author is getting at in this chapter?” Write these down in your own words (this is important!) and reward yourself for a job well done with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey. Life is short: eat all the ice-cream you can.
You first reaction to this method may be “Wow--this is more work than my old way of reading. Thanks, Mr Van, but I’ll stick to my old way of doing things.”
I can almost guarantee that, at first, this method will seem awkward and difficult. It is, at first. But consider this: When you were a toddler, imagine how ‘awkward and difficult’ walking must have felt when crawling seemed so much better and ‘natural.’ You never fell while crawling, right? No balancing act. No grasping clumsily at chairs and legs.
So why aren’t you crawling now? Once you’ve used this reading method a few times and internalized the steps, it will be second nature to you. And it will put you light years ahead of your fellow students. Even if you perform only some of the steps an hour or so before class, you will be far ahead of those who simply dive into a reading with no purpose and hope to sop up all the info as best they can.
Most of the time in this life we have the tools we need to get what we want; we just don’t use them. Remember in the Wizard of Oz when the ‘wizard’ tells the scarecrow, tinman, and lion that, in short, they always had what they needed to begin with: heart, brain, courage? The Wizard merely affirms their inborn gifts. Now that all of you know this method, you have the tools to increase your comprehension and retention of textbook material a hundred fold.
However, experience has shown me that most of you will not even take this method for a spin, and the few who do will drop it and return to their inefficient and ‘comfortable’ reading strategy after a single try. It is the path of least resistance. That’s to say (and in spite of this nifty handout), most of you will opt for ‘crawling’ again.
I invite you to walk. To run.
How to Test for Credible
Information on the Internet
Have you ever gotten bad information off of the Net, information that was wrong, old, or just not true? Have you ever found that names were misspelled? Dates wrong? Or that one site merely parroted the false information from another and couldn’t be bothered to tell you where they had gotten it?
Welcome to the Information Age.
To start with, few if any people are being paid to ensure the accuracy of anything on the Net. It is a great cornucopia, as one person describes it, but of both of riches and garbage. Because there are few if any peer-reviewed websites, where experts on any given subject ensure the accuracy and truthfulness of web-posted information – a process that exists, by the way, in colleges and universities and in legal and medical professions – how can you, the average user, test for the credibility of the information that you find on the websites that you surf?
As with most things, it starts with questioning. Here are some questions you should be asking:
Who wrote the material? Is the author identified? Who is she or he?
If there is no contact person, no credit taken for the web site, don’t trust it. If someone won’t stand behind their work or at least provide their name, be wary. But even if someone provides his name, find at least two other independent sources that can verify what this person has written or presented. At least. If you like, ‘google’ this person and see what you find.
What authority and credentials do they have?
Consider the source. Professionals make mistakes, but behind them stands a professional organization, with editors, fact-checkers, professional standards, and others who find and correct errors.
Does the site address end with .edu? If so, you have an academic site, and academic sites are usually peer-reviewed and peer-maintained. Bear this in mind. Learn how to parse an internet address.
What are the biases of the writer or info-provider?
Once you’ve located the source, ask yourself why the information is being provided. What is the intention of the website owner? Does he or she have an ax to grind? Are they selling something? What’s in it for them? Also, this person may merely love the subject of their website and want to share their interest. In this case, questions of objectivity become important.
Has anyone checked the work?
Are other people mentioned in the article as being experts or sources? Look them up as well, either on the web and/or using a hardcopy journal or book index at a good library.
Is the data from a traditionally reliable source? (Are sources even mentioned?)
Are there footnotes, cited references, or just bold unattributed statements? (“Who is writing this stuff?”) Check out the site documentation at the foot of the webpage. Check for misspellings as well – a sign that the owner of the webpage has not allowed others to doublecheck his info or can’t be bothered to get it right. If they can’t be bothered to get the spelling right, what does that say about the trustworthiness of the information? Think about it.
How To Detect Bias In News Media
Information media – TV, newspapers, film, radio -- have tremendous power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political and social discourse. It is essential that news media, along with other institutions, are challenged to be fair and accurate. The first step in challenging biased news coverage is finding it and getting the word out about it. Here are questions to ask yourself about newspaper, TV and radio news.
Who are the sources?
Be aware of the political perspective of the sources used in a story. Media over-rely on "official" (government, corporate and establishment think tank) sources. For instance, FAIR found that in 40 months of Nightline programming, the most frequent guests were Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Elliott Abrams and Jerry Falwell. Progressive and public interest voices were grossly underrepresented.
To portray issues fairly and accurately, media must broaden their spectrum of sources. Otherwise, they serve merely as megaphones for those in power.
Count the number of corporate and government sources versus the number of progressive, public interest, female and minority voices. Demand mass media expand their rolodexes; better yet, give them lists of progressive and public interest experts in the community.
Is there a lack of diversity?
What is the race and gender diversity at the news outlet you watch compared to the communities it serves? How many producers, editors or decision-makers at news outlets are women, people of color or openly gay or lesbian? In order to fairly represent different communities, news outlets should have members of those communities in decision-making positions.
How many of the experts these news outlets cite are women and people of color? FAIR's 40-month survey of Nightline found its U.S. guests to be 92 percent white and 89 percent male. A similar survey of PBS's NewsHour found its guestlist was 90 percent white and 87 percent male. Demand that the media you consume reflect the diversity of the public they serve. Call or write media outlets every time you see an all-male or all-white panel of experts discussing issues that affect women and people of color.
From whose point of view is the news reported?
Political coverage often focuses on how issues affect politicians or corporate executives rather than those directly affected by the issue. For example, many stories on parental notification of abortion emphasized the "tough choice" confronting male politicians while quoting no women under 18--those with the most at stake in the debate. Economics coverage usually looks at how events impact stockholders rather than workers or consumers. Demand that those affected by the issue have a voice in coverage.
Are there double standards?
Do media hold some people to one standard while using a different standard for other groups? Youth of color who commit crimes are referred to as "superpredators," whereas adult criminals who commit white-collar crimes are often portrayed as having been tragically been led astray. Think tanks partly funded by unions are often identified as "labor-backed" while think tanks heavily funded by business interests are usually not identified as "corporate-backed." Expose the double standard by coming up with a parallel example or citing similar stories that were covered differently.
Do stereotypes skew coverage?
Does coverage of the drug crisis focus almost exclusively on African Americans, despite the fact that the vast majority of drug users are white? Does coverage of women on welfare focus overwhelmingly on African-American women, despite the fact that the majority of welfare recipients are not black? Are lesbians portrayed as "man-hating" and gay men portrayed as "sexual predators" (even though a child is 100 times more likely to be molested by a family member than by an unrelated gay adult—Denver Post, 9/28/92)?
Educate journalists about misconceptions involved in stereotypes, and about how stereotypes characterize individuals unfairly. E-mail them or visit them in their offices at the newspaper.
What are the unchallenged assumptions?
Often the most important message of a story is not explicitly stated. For instance, in coverage of women on welfare, the age at which a woman had her first child will often be reported—the implication being that the woman's sexual "promiscuity," rather than institutional economic factors, are responsible for her plight.
Coverage of rape trials will often focus on a woman's sexual history as though it calls her credibility into question. After the arrest of William Kennedy Smith, a New York Times article (4/17/91) dredged up a host of irrelevant personal details about his accuser, including the facts that she had skipped classes in the 9th grade, had received several speeding tickets and, when on a date, had talked to other men. In what way does this information help us to answer if this woman was raped or not on a specific day, at a specific time? It doesn’t.
Challenge the assumption directly. Often bringing assumptions to the surface will demonstrate their absurdity. Most reporters, for example, will not say directly that a woman deserved to be raped because of what she was wearing.
Is the language loaded?
When media adopt loaded terminology, they help shape public opinion. For instance, media often use the right-wing buzzword "racial preference" to refer to affirmative action programs. Polls show that this decision makes a huge difference in how the issue is perceived: A 1992 Louis Harris poll, for example, found that 70 percent said they favored "affirmative action" while only 46 percent favored "racial preference programs." Demonstrate how the language chosen gives people an inaccurate impression of the issue, program or community.
Is there a lack of context?
Coverage of so-called "reverse discrimination" usually fails to focus on any of the institutional factors which gives power to prejudice white men and women, factors that slur over larger issues of economic inequality and institutional racism. Coverage of hate speech against gays and lesbians often fails to mention increases in gay-bashing and how the two might be related.
Provide the context. Communicate to the journalist, or write a letter to the editor that includes the relevant information.
Do the headlines and stories match?
Usually headlines are not written by the reporter. Since many people just skim headlines, misleading headlines can unduly influence a reader. A classic case: In a New York Times article on the June 1988 U.S.-Soviet summit in Moscow, Margaret Thatcher was quoted as saying of Reagan, "Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears." The Times headline: "Thatcher Salute to the Reagan Years." Call or write the newspaper and point out the contradiction.
Are stories on important issues featured prominently?
Look at where stories appear. Newspaper articles on the most widely read pages (the front pages and the editorial pages) and lead stories on television and radio will have the greatest influence on public opinion. When you see a story on government officials engaged in activities that violate the Constitution on page A29, call the newspaper and object. Let the paper know how important you feel an issue is and demand that important stories get prominent coverage.
To learn more about the Media, the bias in its reporting, and how you can become a better, more critical consumer of the information in this information age, head to the FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) website. Also, ask yourself – “Where does this information come from and why should I believe it?”
AV – An Interview with Mr. Van
Is it true that your last name – Van Benschoten – is a Dutch term meaning “a bad-tempered family of domestic fowl”?
That’s an ugly rumor. Next question.
But you’re only partly Dutch...?
That’s true. My mother has mostly German and French blood in her veins. I am a Euro-mutt, as many Americans are. There are no pure races in the world and even “race” as a concept is probably just that – a concept. According to science and the DNA record, “race” corresponds to no external reality, or -- to no external reality that we yet understand. That’s saying a lot if you stop and think about it.
You teach American history.
Yes.
What does it mean for you to be an “American”?
It means that I have been given many advantages. I live in a nation where freedom and justice for all are something more than talking points. They are standing orders in a long and costly struggle to see what humans can make of themselves. And even when this nation has failed to live up to its founding principles, which it has failed to do many many times if you examine the historical record, its founding documents have always recalled its citizens to the loftier principles of its political creed.
America can run from these ideals but it cannot hide from them. It tries to at times, mightily. But it keeps running into this vision of its better self. America has stumbled, will continue to stumble, but I know of no country that has set the bar of social justice so high. Think about it.
Do you eat?
I do.
Is it true that you like smelly cheeses?
You’ve done your research. Many people ask me why I enjoy cheeses that smell like sweaty feet. All I can say is that my Mom used to make limburger cheese sandwiches when I was a kid. It drove my Dad from the house. (By the way, limburger is a Belgian cheese that smells like old socks tossed behind an old sofa.) Luckily, my Dad loved my Mom deeply, then and now, and always came home again.
As a young man, your Dad drove a tractor trailer and, later, owned his own trucking brokerage firm. He lives in Albuquerque now, with your Mom. What have you learned from him?
One is respect for others. That’s not negotiable. Another is questioning authority, and that meant more to him than mere cynicism. Cynicism is cheap. Find out what is wrong, be sure that you are not seeing what you want to see, and then lend a hand in fixing the problem. Another value he instilled in me is that cooking is manly. My Dad grew up working class, and working class men are not supposed to enjoy greasing bread tins or whipping egg whites so that they’re upright and firm. But from early on I remember him baking upside-down pineapple cakes and loaves of incredible bread. His lemon chicken with soba noodles is the best I’ve had.
His Dutch pea soup is transformative.
As it should be. Let’s talk about history. The students you teach, they might be interested to learn why you got your degree in history rather than, say, aeronautical flotational devices.
This is a good question. You should know that, without consciously aiming to do so, my early goal in life was to know everything.
That’s a tall order.
It is, and life is short. The beauty of history is that it includes EVERYTHING. Nothing falls outside of it. That can’t be said of automotive repair or hospitality services (which are all fine areas of study and employment, mind you). So history and I were a good fit. It didn’t hurt, of course, to come upon friendly history teachers at U.C. Riverside, where I did my undergraduate work. These teachers took me by the hand and showed me how rich and intellectually-demanding history could be. They showed me too how the present is merely the result of the past. Therefore to understand the present, you must understand the past or you risk repeating old mistakes. That’s true whether we’re talking about the history of a nation or the history of a private citizen living quietly in a one-room walkup.
“The past is prologue.”
That’s Shakespeare. He was right.
I believe you. You do more than teach history and consume food. You consume cultural products as well. What are your three favorite films?
It’s A Wonderful Life
American Beauty
Citizen Kane
Blow-Up
That’s four movies, not three.
And now you know why I majored in history, not math.
6/15 bvb