NewsCritic: When Multiple Sources Lead to a Broader Picture

Newsletters, professional articles and news reports are abundant. It is easy to find information. What is not always easy to understand is what the whole picture looks like when several pieces of news are combined – and whether the explanation we are offered is valid.

In this newsletter, the selected contributions will be introduced with NewsCritic as part of the title. In contrast to a usual news item, this contribution will combine several original resources on a common topic and consider what comes out of it.

An organisation may announce an initiative. A research article may discuss one particular issue. An institution may publish new data, regulations or issues of governance. These are all useful sources of information – but from different perspectives.

Here we begin NewsCritic.

It is not just a combination of several sources or a summary of what each of them says. What is interesting here is the relationship between the sources. Is their message reinforcing? Is there a different interpretation offered? Does one of the sources put the conclusion of the other into doubt? And is something revealed only by the combination of these sources?

From independent information to interrelated topics

For example, there is a growing change in the role of managers in organisations assisted by AI technologies. One of the sources may discuss automation. Another one – the decisions authority. Yet another – the skillset of the workforce and accountability.

They may look like separate issues. But when combined, they may lead to a more general conclusion: the automation may not only change tasks. It may also change how experience is acquired, where the decisions are made and who is accountable when contributions of humans and technology are more closely interconnected.

None of these sources may make this particular argument. It emerges from the consideration of several of them. But it is definitely not the only interpretation of the developments that can be made.

NewsCritic will be used to analyse selected developments regarding management, consulting, organisational transformation, AI governance, workforce capability and professional judgement.

How the analysis is done

A NewsCritic contribution will begin with the facts revealed in the original resources. The evidence, claims and disagreements of these sources provide the starting point for the analysis, not a support for some pre-defined conclusion.

After that, the analysis will be continued with the examination of what happens when these sources are combined. A pattern may be identified. There may be a contradiction between the statements of organisations and the reality. There may be a consequence of two different developments, which both of them ignore.

Based on this, NewsCritic will interpret the sources and explain their significance for managers and organisations.

Original resources will remain accessible in the form of direct links to them. It is important, because readers should be able to go beyond my interpretation and evaluate the evidence independently.

The completion of the analysis is done by the reader.

The combination of several sources does not lead to one correct interpretation. The selection of sources will certainly miss some relevant evidence. The same developments may also have a completely different meaning in other organisational, professional or industry contexts.

Therefore, the interpretation must remain open to the evaluation of the reader.

He/she may agree with the connections, partially agree with them, find something missing in the analysis or even make his/her own conclusions. It doesn't make the analysis worse. On the contrary, it may reveal another aspect of the topic.

That is also why the readers' comments will not be just reactions to the article. He/She may introduce another source, ask the question about the relative significance of a piece of evidence or explain why the interpretation cannot be applied to a different organisational context.

My role is to select the sources carefully, represent them fairly, make the connections and justify my interpretation. The reader decides what he/she will do with it.

If NewsCritic is successful, then its value will not lie in proving who has the final answer. It will help to make a developing topic easier to examine from several perspectives – and hopefully make the discussion following the article as valuable as the article itself.

· The news informs us what happened.

· The summary reduces it.

· Synthesis connects it.

NewsCritic helps to make the critical connection for the reader to evaluate it.