Thursday 3/27: Evaluating Sources

Today, as we look for sources and data for your own infographics, we talked about evaluating sources. You already know how to tell the difference between a scholarly source and a non-scholarly article. But what about other sources?

One source that we use a lot is the TEDTalk. And this is for good reason: TEDTalks are useful mediums for us because they are relatively accessible discussions by very smart people. These smart people take a complex idea and explain it in ways that make sense to us, so that they seem simple. However, as Bruce Fierson points out in his infographic "Ted-o-Matic" in Vanity Fair (see the link to the right), there are also many bad TEDTalks that oversimplify complex issues (rather than taking the time to explain them well). 

Fierson’s Critiques:

1) the speaker’s claim of specific and interesting knowledge

2) a topic that is oversimplified/reduced (rather than a complex idea that seems simple)]

3) entertaining instead of explaining

4) using popular terms/vocabulary/buzzwords - rather than explaining

5) using popular names - rather than explaining

6) the speaker brags about the self (though seems humble)

7) Concludes with an oversimplified explanation

Homework:
Complete the GoogleDoc on "Faux Profudnity" (listed at right). 
Next week, we will begin discussing the design aspects of infographics. For this reason, please be familiarize yourself with typography by reading (and responding to in your blog entry #7) Butterick's Practical Typography Chapter 1: "Why Typography is Important" (see link at right).