Detecting Deception - by Amanda Sturgill (Paperback)

About the Book

Teaching fact checking and verification is an essential part of journalism education. Detecting Deception applies the concepts of logical argumentation to supplement standard verification techniques. This text is essential for training future journalists to build impeccable stories.

Book Synopsis

Teaching fact checking and verification is an essential part of journalism education. When a confusing media environment includes statements like "Truth is not truth" and "The president offered alternative facts," students need to go beyond traditional reporting standards. They need to be trained to consider the presentation of reality in deciding if a statement is misleading or patently false. Detecting Deception applies the concepts of logical argumentation to supplement the verification techniques that are the stock and trade of any media professional.

Pithy and practical, Amanda Sturgill draws from present day news examples to help students recognize the most common bad arguments people make. Detecting Deception is an essential tool for training future journalists to build stories that recognize faulty arguments and hold their subjects to a higher standard.

Review Quotes

"This practical guide was designed to help train potential journalists "to spot problematic reasoning so it can be questioned or corrected." Dividing her text into three parts, Sturgill employs contemporary news stories throughout to illustrate how facts can be presented in misleading ways. Each chapter ends with a "Your Turn" section, presenting reflective questions that challenge readers to practice the skill introduced in the chapter at hand. An appendix that includes possible answers to the questions makes this a resource that can be independently consulted by individuals seeking self-study.... More practical and pedagogical than similar works...this volume will serve as an affordable and accessible handbook for undergraduate students studying journalism, or any reader interested in improving their news evaluation skills. Recommended." --Choice Reviews

"Detecting Deception is both readable and fun. Amanda Sturgill uses references from pop culture and current events to engage readers, and the Your Turn sections engage interactive thought. Students, professors and others will benefit from exploring the strategies used by senders of messages to build a case; however, Sturgill goes farther to give her audience strategies to identify and combat weak arguments. The work is well researched and includes insightful references" --Michael Ray Smith, author of Fake News, Truth-Telling, and Charles M. Sheldon's Model of Accuracy

"Truth is difficult to discern in today's news media, so this intelligent and pragmatic book arrives none too soon. Filled with relevant examples and new insights, Sturgill instructs us on how to sift through the plethora of messages that characterize today's complex and often divisive media environment; she does so with refreshingly crisp and clear writing. This is the foundation for identifying good journalism that we've been waiting for." --Daniel A. Stout, Professor Emeritus of Communication, Brigham Young University Hawaii

About the Author

Amanda Sturgill is an associate professor of journalism at Elon University, where she teaches classes in writing, copy editing, media analytics and digital strategy to undergraduate and graduate students. A self-described critical thinking maven, her students leave the university with a strong appreciation for the vital role of accurate and honest communication in free societies. Amanda was trained in the doctoral program at Cornell University and has gone on to publish communication technology and media and religion work in a variety of outlets. She was an editor on the two-volume Religion Online: How Digital Technology Is Changing the Way We Worship and Pray and an associate editor for The Golden Age of Data: Media Analytics in Study and Practice. She has a special interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning and, in particular, the integration of high-impact teaching practice in professional fields like journalism. She has run an international pedagogy research seminar, co-edited Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad and is an active member and presenter with the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She presently chairs the Standing Committee on Teaching and sits on the board of directors of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.