Five simple questions to help you understand a popular media story:
- What do the numbers really mean?
- Are all facts from a reliable source? Are the quotes in the context that they were intended?
- What is ‘proven’ and what is inferred from the facts?
- What else is at stake or who else could benefit by the reported conclusion?
- Why haven’t you heard about this before? Or if you have, why hasn’t something been done about it?
For an example of the application of these questions, see this post.