The Credibility of News Stories by Witnesses in Journalism and Criminal Justice Law

PURPOSE KNOWLEDGE After doing this assignment, you will understand: 1. How to create a textual and intellectual argument more independently. 2. How to handle an abstract concept and philosophical challenge in a productive and critical manner. SKILLS After doing this assignment, you will be able to: 1. Demonstrate competence at composing a university-level essay in a timely manner. 2. Incorporate multiple sources in a more complex discussion and argument. TASK Given all the potential biases and mistakes and outright lies the media or eyewitnesses can make, how can we reliably determine what has actually happened in any given news story or criminal investigation? You must first consider which factors most interfere with our ability to find the “truth” (is it lies and deception and misinformation? Is it human error? Is it incompetent story telling, by reporters and/ or witnesses? Is it personal and political biases?). Focus on the two factors you believe are most threatening to the truth. Then devise some way to minimize, if not eliminate, those two interfering factors. Be as specific as you can, explain yourself, and support your point of view at length. After detailing, explaining, and supporting your solution, apply that method to the events of the film Rashomon. Explain how your method best finds the most reliable “truth” of whatever happened in that story of the dead samurai and his wife. Somewhere in your paper, you must also use the following articles: ● “Rashomon and Repression: A Multi-Source Analysis of Contentious Events” by Christian Davenport and Marika Litras ● “The Rashomon Effect in Three Headlines/ Stories” by Will H. Moore ● “American Meet Rashomon: Donald Trump and Multiple Truths” by Michale Lissack These articles present both examples of the “Rashomon Effect” in action, and in at least two cases these articles present ideas about how best to handle uncertainty of contradictory stories among mutiple witnesses. You may end up agreeing with one or more of these sources, or you may end up disagreeing with all of them, too. Whatever the case may be, consider within your paper what each of these authors is saying, cite them all at least briefly, and respond to them (do you agree or disagree and why). These articles also give you some examples to consider, too, which you may in turn use for your own argument. You may choose to argue that there is NO WAY to find actual truth. But that too is an argument. Make that your thesis, defend it at length (prove that interfering factors are insurmountable, for instance), and then draw inferences from that position (what, then, is news if it never can reveal the truth? What is the point of a criminal justice system that can never reliably know who did what?) You are allowed to use outside research beyond the three required articles above and the film Rashomon. If you’ve taken psychology or law courses, for instance, those may be highly relevant to this discussion, as well as philosophy, journalism, sociology, or anthropology classes. Your paper needs a properly formatted Works Cited page. Your paper must have at least four body paragraphs minimum (so combined with an introduction and conclusion, your final essay must be at least six total paragraphs). There is no specific page length. Be direct, be thoughtful and considerate; remember the things I always grade for (detail, clarity, support, and insight). This final essay, as challenging a question as it is, represents only your best, most educated opinion at this point in time. Speak for yourself, argue your reasons, and try not to get overly bogged down with prewriting for too long or research for weeks. The sooner you draft, the better