Ethos

Ben's post today (in combination with the chapter we just read in the book) really got me thinking about ethos. Ben's post was about a video on how wasteful meat is, and Ben wrote that the guy in the video is a New York Times' food critic, and that makes him very likely to believe whatever this guy has to say. I have to agree, credentials are a big deal. It does matters where someone works, where they went to school, etc.

However, it also got me thinking about how this reliance on credentials can be potentially dangerous. Sure, if someone writes for the New York Times, they probably have their stuff together, and their posts are going to be well researched. And if someone is a Harvard professor, they probably know what they're talking about, too. But it's also possible for people to make mistakes, and this just reminded me of how important it is to be a skeptical consumer of media and information. However, after one big mistake, that New York Times writer or Harvard professor is probably going to get a lot of flak, and be much much more careful in the future with what they report, teach, or publish.

Sometimes we forget how delicate ethos is. It's very easy to screw it up with just one misstep. Thinking about this reminded me of Onward State's April Fool's Day joke posts. I'll be honest... I believed the one about Carly Rae Jepsen opening for Day Glow.... Whatever. But some of the posts were tasteless and not funny, like the one reporting a student's death. These April Fool's Day joke posts (along with other garbage articles) ruined Onward State's credibility for me, and I'm sure for many others.

It goes to show how careful you have to be if you want to be a reputable source for information.