Analysis
Analysis
Checking skills are best practised on calm examples where nothing gets in the way of thinking. That is why we take apart a headline about the weather rather than something alarming: the techniques are the same, but there is less emotion. Below are six steps for analysing a headline and a table for uncaptioned photos.
A headline is an invitation to read the text, not a summary of it.
Taking apart a headline: a neutral example
Read the headline slowly
Say you see: "Freak heatwave set to engulf the city". Note which words describe a fact and which convey an impression. "Engulf" and "freak" sound much stronger than a plain "hot weather expected".
Find the numbers in the text
See what temperature is forecast, for which days and for which part of the city. Quite often a dramatic word hides a forecast just two or three degrees above normal.
Check who the text cites
Weather forecasts are produced by meteorological services. If the article does not say where the data comes from, that is a reason to look up the original source yourself.
Look at the date
A week-old forecast may already have changed. Old weather and sports stories often resurface in feeds, and without a date they are easy to mistake for fresh ones.
Compare the headline with the conclusion
If the last paragraph says the heat will last one day and give way to rain, the headline is more dramatic than the facts warrant.
Put it in your own words
Try to sum up the point in one calm sentence: "Up to thirty degrees expected on Thursday, cooler on Friday." If you can, you have read the text and not just the headline.
Photos out of context: what to check
| What | Why | How |
|---|---|---|
| Date taken | A photo of last year's snowfall can circulate as if it were today's. | Look for a caption and the publication date; a reverse image search can sometimes show when the picture first appeared. |
| Location | Similar streets, stadiums and waterfronts exist in many cities. | Look closely at shop signs, house numbers, the language of any lettering, and the weather and season in the picture. |
| Author | The photographer or eyewitness can tell you what was happening outside the frame. | Find the first publication and see who is credited as the author or who first posted the image. |
| Caption | The same picture with different captions tells different stories. | Compare the caption in the forwarded message with the caption in the first publication. |
| Cropping and editing | The edge of the frame may hide an important part of the scene, and a video may be spliced from different clips. | Look for a wider version of the photo or the full, unedited video. |
Related sections
- Original source (in Russian)
A note on an archived link-out address: five steps from a retelling back to the original source.
- News vs opinion (in Russian)
A note on an archived feed post address: how to tell news from opinion, reviews, interviews and advertising.
- People
Who makes the news: the reporter, the editor, the photo editor, the fact-checker, the columnist and the reader who shares.
Sources
- Library materials on media literacy
- Materials from media literacy education projects
The magazine draws on general principles of media literacy and encyclopedic knowledge of the history of print. How feeds work, notification settings and menu names in your apps may differ from the general descriptions given here.