A paper on neutrality and reliability of news coverage

I am in the process of writing a paper on neutrality and reliability of news coverage and I need your help. If you are willing to contribute some of your free time to participate in this project, read further to know more and to see what you can get out of it. If you are a businessman (or a budget holder) interested in the world of media and you may want to fund, sponsor or invest in this project, please read further as well.

The paper will study in detail the characteristics of a “good” news article taking into consideration Impartiality, information, and related information. This process is currently done by common-sense because there is no objective scientific way to measure this. To be frank a computer will not be able to do this job, but we will be pursuing the objective scientific way of doing it by a human.

The aim of this project is to put a near to perfect definition of a good news coverage. The final paper will include a detailed explanation on how to study the reliability of a news article in addition to studies and statistics about major news providers. I will start by examining the following aspects:

• Neutrality and Bias
  • Statements that express a “point of view” (or “POV”) of the writer
  • The use of images, metaphors, comparisons and representations
  • Conveying of assumptions
  • Putting reasonably enough effort to cover the multiple faces of the story, or in the case of conflicts presenting objectively the position of all parties.
  • Inclusion of other stories (relevant or otherwise) to emphasize a certain POV

• Information
  • How much effort has been made to get the info
  • How reliable the sources of info are
  • Inclusion of references
  • Giving background information about the story
  • Linking to related stories about the same subject

The project consists of several phases.

The first phase: organize the team

The first phase will be dedicated to organizing the team and defining the tools of our work. Basically we will use the freely available tools to discuss, collaborate, share files, etc. For example a closed Google group for the team.

The second phase: criteria

We will hold extensive discussions, experiments, trials, case studies to come up with detailed discretion of the elements of a news article/ report.

This project does not depend on any other related studies or standards available. We will attempt to reinvent those standards by:

• Defining how to spot flaws in a news article and what aspects to look at in a study. We will also agree on a marking system to be followed in case studies.
• Define the widely used keywords that hold negative or positive meanings to influence a POV
• Define a way to spot embedded assumptions in an article and read between the lines
• Define the criteria to validate primary and secondary information
• And much more ..

Third phase and more!!

After finishing the second phase there will be other phases we won’t talk about now. Some of those phases are not yet defined.

However, you will need to know that if you join the team you will be involved in studying random articles from several news providers. Each article will be reviewed by two or three people ideally familiar with the subject matter of the article. The reviewers will put notes, do background reading, and follow the agreed criteria to put marks. No one of the reviewers will know about the work of the others results until everyone finishes. Results are then aggregated.

This is a very brief overview of the project if you are interested to join, please let me know. You will know much more details when you join

What’s in it for you?

• A chance to self learn, polish and practice your research skills
• Your name will be mentioned on the final paper
• You will get a share of the money, “in case” this project was able to attract any funding
• This project is part of a bigger business plan. You will have the priority to participate in any future business model based on this initiative

If you have any interest in the world of media, you speak very good English, you are open to new ideas and you like playing within a team, I would like to hear from you. Please send me an email.

If you want to put funding in this project, I will be happy to discuss any business idea for profit or non-profit. As I mentioned this project is part of a bigger business plan. If you are interested, let me know.

You can send me an email to: m@hooz.me

The world is not governed by logic

“lessons you wouldn’t learn in business school – 03″

In our day-to-day lives we tend to make several business decisions. The decision making process has had enough attention by researchers. Many studies types of decision making and the circumstances around the decision and the consequences of each type of decision made.

Other than decisions we also make forecasts. Based on those forecasts we plan our actions or reactions.

I wouldn’t want to discuss what is right or what is wrong in decision making. For me, the only guideline is that the decision should lead to best achievable result considering the cost of alternatives and the information in hand.

What I want to focus on in this article is forecasts or expectations. We tend to make a lot of logical expectations about the state of the market, sales activities, market segment requirements, and so on. The thing is markets are rarely predictable. Recent events in the global economy are a good proof of this. Who could foresee a barrel of oil skyrocket to 140$ in less than 6 month and “free fall” back to the 40ies in about the same timeframe.

There are two (of many reasons) for the unpredictability of the markets:

• Herding

Many studied the herding behavior of the market. Most recently the International Monetary Fund – IMF made a study on financial markets reaching the conclusion that the status of the market may not be an exact reflection of the true state of the fundamentals. According to their research, people tend to take buying decisions not based on actual information they have but according to other people’s actions.

• The emotional factor

Many researchers have made the point that when taking “hot” decisions (that is a decision in a short timeframe with no adequate time for research) people tend to be more emotional than rational. And they tend to be influenced emotional factors rather than by information they already have in hand.

Lessons you wouldn’t learn in business school:

• Dig deep in the study of the market and the culture. Learn the people and how they take decisions in the market segment you are targeting. It is very dangerous to think you know what you really don’t know.
• Do not take business decisions based on what others are doing.

• Build an emotional relationship with your customer. You will most probably win even if your competitor has better options.

This Article is part of the series “Lessons you wouldn’t learn in business schools”. Previous Articles:

Circles of business knowledge

The Danger of Average

The Danger of Average

“lessons you wouldn’t learn in business school – 02″

The average of two numbers is the total of those numbers divided by two. But is it that simple?

Business managers use the average function in countless places around the daily process. We average sales per week, output number of products per day, cost per piece, average time consumed, etc. Some key performance indicators (KPI) are also an average. It is used so frequently because it is a useful simple way to get a general idea about a certain situation. But it comes with a price.

It has two main dangers:

1. we tend to make quick averages which are not always correct mathematically

For example: you have a car which go a distance of 60km up the hill with a speed of 60km/h and descends the same hill with a speed of 120km/h. what is the average speed of the car for the whole journey? You may be tempted (I did) to sum the two speeds and divide by 2 getting an average speed of 100km/h.

The correct way to calculate the average speed is: total distance divided by the total time. The total distance is 120 km and the total time is 1.5 hours. So the average speed is 120 / 1.5 = 80km/h.

Result: values are two types: simple values and compound values. Be careful when you want to average compound values.

1. The average is an indicator which does not represent its components

Let’s say that a company decides to operate a plane to a certain destination. The flight departs with the following passenger number on board each month (percentage to actual number of seats):

Week 1	50%
Week 2	25%
Week 3	60%
Week 4	100%
Week 5	80%

The average fullness of the plane is 63%. But does this number give any idea about any of the individual months?

Many business leaders get lost analyzing the 63% fullness (or 37% emptiness) and they forget about the month where they may have lost passengers because there are no seats; or those days where the flight left nearly empty.

We have the same result of 63% which may make sense if you are studying the cost for example. But if you want to analyze the traffic, you have two wholly different scenario (and results). One approach is to study the 63%; another is to study the monthly break down. And guess which result would be more accurate?

Lessons you wouldn’t learn in business schools:

• KPIs are good, but it’s always good to get down to details (of course only to the level of significant details)
• Stop at every step of your analysis and recheck. You may have made an incorrect average (or a bad assumption). It gets dangerous when other results or assumption are based on this one.

This Article is part of the series “Lessons you wouldn’t learn in business schools”. Previous Articles:

Circles of business knowledge

Circles of business knowledge

“lessons you wouldn’t learn in business school – 01″

Managing business is a piece of cake if you have an MBA. Or at least this is the perception.

Personally speaking, I have nothing against MBAs in general or MBA graduates in particular. The thing is that the rise in the number of the so called “professional managers” is raising a number of questions in the circles of business. Those questions have been given a rise in the last period after the global economic crisis. This crisis which started in Aug 07 with the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market has its effects so huge today more than a year after. Many people think that the roots of the crisis lie in bad decisions made by this new generation of business leaders equipped with a certificate and who lack what the CEO of General Electric calls “Domain knowledge”.

الجنس: غير مهم

جاء أخيرا .. و بعد انتظار طويل .. نظر في عينيها بهدوء و نظرت هي .. و كانت تفكر كيف ابتعد عنها بسبب ظروف الحياة القاسية .. و كيف كان يمكن أن تاخذه منها امرأة أخرى .. و لكن كل هذا لا يهم فهو الآن معها. قال لها أحبك و قالت له أحبك. و عاشا معا في سعادة طوال الحياة.

هكذا انتهى الفلم المصري في دار السينما حيث كانت أعين الفتيات تكاد تغرورق بالدموع من شدة التأثر و أعين الفتيان ذابلة لشدة البلاهة.

An Open Message to Geert Wilders

And a review of the Fitna Movie

I am writing to you after I saw your movie “Fitna”.

I will start by introducing my self, I am a moderate Muslem from Syria and I am speaking to you in the name of moderate Muslems around the world.

The purpose of this message is to clarify to you some of the misconceptions and inconsistencies in your film and return it to its correct historical context.

First I would say that I agree with you that there is a global need to identify and fight those extremists who continue to attack the peace of all nations around the world. It is a real pain in the heart of every human to see those hostilities taking place in our 21^st century world. And it is more painful to see the ideology behind those actions spreading in several cultures. But … it is a historical mistake to condemn a whole nation with the actions of a small minority.

I learned in 2007

This is my 50^th article which is interesting to me because it coincides with the 100^th comment on my blog. And it coincides with the end of year 2007 which held a lot of great experiences for me on the personal level.

Back when I started my blog in July this year, I wrote an article titled: “I learned – 2006“. I will tell you one little secret of mine; all through the year when I write my diaries I keep little notes about what I learned in special occasions. I summed it up for you in 2006 and here we go for the 2007.

Skimming is bad

I admit, this is one of my mistakes, I have been skimming.

I recently noticed that I don’t remember little details about some issues. I asked myself what’s the reason for this and I found out. I have been reading everything from daily news to books and reports so quickly. I think pressure and lack of time are main reasons for this attitude.

What are you?

The other day I was chatting with my friend Qusai about the situation of a certain artist. I don’t want to mention the name of the artist as it is not relevant to my point.

He told me that this artist was neglected by the media for more than seven years now after all what she was in a certain stage in her life. I said: “who cares about her. After all she’s not that brilliant artist according to the measures today”.  He told me that today’s measures are not important as much as what this person did and contributed to the artistic movement in a certain time. I think he’s right.

For me, you’re just a “frown” !!

Guess what, those days I’m practicing my new habit of communicating with people. It’s a new game I’m beginning to love. I used to watch people “from a safe distant” like a silent observer of people and their social activities. But I found out recently that I can learn a lot more by getting closer.

One of the things I learned is that people don’t see you as you are; they rather see you as a pile of collective experiences.