Reading

• Academic humility vs. academic pride

• table of content

Evidence

• Reason vs. Evidence

• Watch Moon Hoax.

• Are the evidence convincing? Why?

  • reliable, relevant, explain

• Deep fake? Could deepfakes weaken democracy? | The Economist

Evaluating Evidence

• Who/what is the source of the evidence?

  • academic journal. why?

• Primary or secondary source?

• How current is the evidence?

  • particularly in science, medicine, and technology

• How relevant?

• Are there different interpretations?

Evidence

Here is an ABC checklist from openpolytechnic, with some additions from Lumen.

• A is for author

  • Is the author clearly identified?
  • What is the author’s level of expertise on this subject?

• B is for bias

  • What is the source of evidence? credentials; primary vs. secondary
  • Is the purpose of the information to inform or to persuade?
  • Is the information fact or opinion? If it’s opinion, is it backed up with evidence?
  • Is the language emotive or neutral?

• C is for currency

  • When was the information published? Check the copyright date on a book’s imprint page (back of the title page), the date of issue for magazines, journals or newspapers, or for a website when it was last updated?
  • Is the information itself up to date?

Citation

• Why citation?

• Examples using CMOS from Purdue OWL.

• Some examples using CMOS: book, article, website, interview

In-class activity

• Open the discussion forum and create a thread

• Evaluate two other fellow students’ evidence using the checklist

Polls on US

How well does the follow statements describe the U.S.? (Well vs. Not well) from Pew

• The rights of people to express their views in public are protected
• Most people have a good chance to improve their living standard
• The court system treats everyone fairly
• Elected officials care what ordinary people think
• No matter who wins an election, things do not change very much
• Most politicians are corrupt
• Most people lives in areas where it is dangerous to walk around at night

Democracy

• What is democracy? What kind of democracy do we have? (contradictory values: freedom; equality; majority rule; minority rights; individual agency; public good)

  • Here is a video on Normative Theories of Democracy. Classical direct democracy; liberal democracy; deliberative democracy.

• How is democracy? Pew Research Center’s polls

What should democracy be?

“Democracy is under siege. Approval ratings for democratic institutions in most countries around the world are at near-record lows. The very ideal of democracy as rule by the people is suffering a crisis of confidence: If the “will of the people” can be manufactured by marketing strategies, fake news, and confirmation bias, then how real is democracy? If the expanse between decision-making elites and a mobilized public grows, then how functional is democracy? If political alienation and apathy increase, then how representative is democracy?" from Daedalus

• It’s time to rethink our ‘democracies’, which has a clip on Brexit.

• What should democracy be?

Deliberative democracy

• What is deliberative democracy? What are the three principles? [from the reading]

• Can it help? Why? How?

• What are the prospects? What are the limitations?

  • But is a diverse and polarized citizenry even capable of deliberation? How likely is group deliberation to reach a well-reasoned decision? And wouldn’t group deliberation recreate the same power imbalances obstructing other kinds of discourse? from Daedalus

Citizen Assembly

Reclaiming democracy through citizen assemblies | George Zarkadakis

The Citizens’ Assembly on Brexit

Citizens, Assemble! Deliberative Democracy in 3 Minutes.

More resources

Democracy When the People Are Thinking|James Fishkin. Three problems of public opinions. around 7th min. Proposed deliberative polling at 10:20 min

Our democracy no longer represents the people. Here’s how we fix it | Larry Lessig first 5 min

How the Net destroyed democracy | Lawrence Lessig

- The willing of people and final stage of democracy 13:45 min

Acknowledgement

The evaluating evidence part is taken from Writing 250 – Writing & Rhetoric Advanced Composition from Lumen.