When assessing whether information is true, journalists need to ask some tough questions to see if the claims stack up before reporting out.
However there are some valuable time-savers, according to Molly Stellino, editor for State Press Magazine. Writing for IJNet, she supplies nine verification shortcuts to help evaluate truthfulness quickly and easily.
One those includes using the acronym ESCAPE, courtesy of Newseum. It writes:
- Evidence – Do the facts hold up?
- Source – Who made this, and can I trust them?
- Context – What’s the big picture?
- Audience – Who is the intended audience?
- Purpose – Why was this made?
- Execution – How is the information presented?
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