The following are the main learning objectives from this chapter. To help you coordinate your studies, these objectives are organized into sub-sections (4-1, 4-2, etc.).
Objective 4-1
Understand the basic concept of credibility.
Be familiar with the difference between assessing the credibility of a claim and assessing the credibility of a source.
Objective 4-2
Understand the ways of assessing a claim that comes without supporting argument.
Recognize the importance of direct observation but also the factors that might render such observation unreliable.
Understand the broad significance of background information and the way it plays into assessments of credibility.
Recognize what burden of proof means and how to apply that criterion.
Objective 4-3
Understand the ways of assessing the source of a claim.
Understand the criteria for assessing someone's expertise: education, experience, accomplishments, reputation, and position in the relevant field.
Recognize the factors that diminish a person's credibility.
Objective 4-4
Understand the issues of credibility that arise for public sources of information.
Be able to assess the credibility of news media.
Be able to assess the credibility of Internet sources, generally, as well as blogs and Wikipedia.
Objective 4-5
Understand the issues of credibility that arise in advertising.
Be able to assess what claims an advertisement is really committing itself to and what grounds it is giving you for accepting those claims.
Be able to distinguish between ads that offer reasons and those that offer attractive rhetoric and packaging instead of reasons.
