Reviewing Lesson 9

Here's the summary of what we covered in Lesson 9:

• Sources are people who provide information to a journalist used to validate a claim being made in a news story.

• We use the acronym IMVA/IN to evaluate the credibility of the sources in that story:

I:

Independent sources are better than self-interested sources

M:

Multiple sources are better than single sources

V:

Sources who Verify with evidence are better than sources who assert

A / I:

Authoritative / Informed sources are better than uninformed sources

N:

Named sources are better than unnamed sources

• While independence is most likely the most important of all of these characteristics to seek from a source in a news story, it needs to be balanced relative to the amount of information that the person may have or may be aware of.

• Anonymous sources can be credible ones if they exhibit characteristics of transparency, characterization, and have their information corroborated by others.