The point is: don’t be satisfied with the first thing you find
The Internet has made it possible to find expertise to an unprecedented degree. Don’t be content with the first thing you find on a Google search. Follow the web of connections.
The National Council on Public Polls offers “Twenty Questions a Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results.”
Several websites offer mashups of polls. Cornell offers an index of polls. Very interesting.
So much information is available so rapidly that journalists have a special problem. They have got to be thorough in their research, or they risk publishing expertise that is inaccurate or out of date. And readers now have the ability to check up on journalists in a way they never have before.
