In today’s day, the media is swarmed with ‘fake news.’ When people go to read up on the current happenings around the world, they must constantly be aware on whether or not what they are reading is factual and without bias (McManus, p. 90-91). Thus, in order to be properly informed, media literacy education is vital to the citizens of the world.
Today, I will be looking the recent NFL article titled These Niners look a lot like ’94 Super Bowl champs and analyzing the credibility of this article using ‘The SMELL Test.’ To summarize, the article discusses the 49ers football team, and some of their memorable moments leading up to the Super Bowl. The SMELL Test stands for: Source, Motive, Evidence, Logic, and Left Out, and after analyzing this article I believe that it is more credible than it isn’t. While this article is not deemed perfect according to the standards of ‘The SMELL Test’ I believe it is still somewhat credible, with a purpose to inform and entertain.
SOURCE:
Let us begin with source, according to John McManus, websites and similar media outlets usually include 3 levels of sources. Firstly, the organization itself, in this case it is the NFL or nfl.com. Secondly, the author who wrote the article, Grant Gordon. Lastly, the source(s) that the author relied on for the face value material, in this article the author quotes Jimmy Garoppolo and refers to ‘NFL research’ (McManus, p. 92). All three levels of sources can be evaluated on three criteria, also known as ‘PIE,’ (McManus, p. 93) proximity independence, and expertise. The first source, nfl.com does have high proximity and expertise to the topic it is discussing, being the ‘National Football League’ and informing upon the 49ers football team. However, I would say the independence of the NFL can be questionable, with the amount of sponsors and hierarchy found in the organization. The author, Grant Gordon being the former sports editor of Times Community News and current writer for the NFL does have high expertise and somewhat high proximity. But, being employed and paid by NFL, one can assume his independence is not of the same level as his proximity and expertise. Jimmy Garoppolo, a source that the author has quoted, does have high proximity and expertise, being the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. However, similarly to the author, he is employed and paid by the NFL therefore leaving his independence as a person low. The second and final source used by the author in the article is ‘NFL research,’ and one can assume high proximity and expertise from this source, but low independence. In conclusion, while the reader can trust the expertise and proximity of the various sources throughout the article, they may want to question the independence in which it has been written; perhaps the author has been told to display a certain narrative and/or bias.
MOTIVE:
The second step in the analyzing an article’s credibility is discovering the motive behind writing the article. In my opinion, I believe the motive of this article was halfway to inform the audience and halfway to entertain. The article is faithful to the evidence and employ logical inferences to come to their conclusion, but the evidence is not cited, this proving to be one of the main issues of the article. In addition, part of the article is used to entertain due to emotion prevalent, for example the author sets a heartwarming scene regarding Mike Shanahan and his son Kyle. This can also be noted as one of the techniques used to hold the readers attention.
EVIDENCE:
While a few sources are provided in the article, none of the facts are followed with evidence. Authors who aim to be trustworthy should attempt to verify their findings by citing at least one credible source, but Gordon fails to do so.
LOGIC & LEFT OUT?:
Next, one may ask, does this article make sense? And is anything being left out? The points in the article overall do make sense, however one may argue that more context must be provided in order for a reader who isn’t a sports fan to fully understand the article. Lastly, holistically, I don’t believe anything of large importance and value is being left out from the article.
In conclusion, while this article is certainly not perfect, with a few edits, the author could transform this work into a credible piece of journalism.
Word Count: 738 | Sources:
-John McManus, “The SMELL test”
-Grant Godron, “These Niners look a lot like ’94 Super Bowl champs”
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