The newspapers article in New York Times “Greek Antiquities, Long Fragile, Are Endangered by Austerity” (Karon, 2012, para.1) set to connect the austerity measures put in place by the government to the theft of museum antiques. The article cites only one incidence where a museum lost antiques to thieves after the austerity measures were put in place. It fails to prove that theft was austerity-related. The quality issue is that the article does not have enough sources to validate the claim that austerity measures are leading to art museum thefts. Then again, the piece should be to be about Greek antiquities and austerity measures but skewed towards austerity. At the end of the read, a strong correlation between the two events has not been achieved.
One of the quality tools that can be used to eliminate the problem is the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. It calculates the number of years of education one needs to understand a piece of writing. This tool serves both as an analysis tool to test the journalist’s competence and also gauge the audience’s comprehension of the written material. Another tool is the editorial excellence inventory which aids newspapers to monitor and measure news content. It works through a scorecard on performance objectives met by the editor over time. This creates a track of factors that improve or decrease readership. The combined use of the two tools encapsulates the whole process of journalism from information gathering to dissemination analyzing every step.
To deal with the problem identified in the article; first, it would be paramount to construct an apt title for the article, after which comparative paragraphs are written that relate the two occurrences. Moreover, more information should be gathered to support the overriding argument.
The article on time magazine “Will Poland vs. Russia Spark War on Warsaw streets” (Randy, 2012, para.1) is a speculative piece of writing that elucidates the emotional aspects of the soccer fans. Although pointing to an imminent clash between Polish and Russian football fans, the article explains more of the atrocities of the Second World War rather than justifying the possibility of violence between football fans during Poland vs. Russia match. The quality issue is the detachment between the title and the details.
To solve the above-stated problems, tools for evaluating information relevance are to be used. Using Pareto analysis source information can be inferred via the software to identify the minimum set of information that would qualify the stated hypothesis. In speculative journalism, both historical and current facts are essential to giving valid foresight. It is with these aspects that Pareto analysis becomes a core tool to extract succinct information.
Another means of monitoring the quality of the news article is by use of a cause and effect diagram. This tool best fits the speculative article because it is from the factors identified from the fishbone diagrams that the correct premise for making an argument can be found.
Solving the problem identified in this article will first require the gathering of related information that surrounds the Euro 2012. Using a grounded theory approach, make inferences from the data and avoid creating hypotheses first then seek data to qualify the assumptions. Further, to give the article an authentic feel, referencing key factors would be appropriate to eliminate the possibility of doubt.
References
Karon, Tony (2012). Will Poland vs. Russia Spark a Soccer War on Warsaw’s Street? Time World. Web.
Kennedy, Randy (2012). Greek Antiquities, Long Fragile, Are Endangered By Austerity. The New York Times. Web.