LANG 1404 - Advanced Academic English for University Studies

In general, access to information can help advance human knowledge, find solutions to societal problems, and make deliberate and informed decisions. Lack of access to information may lead to civic, economic, social, or personal losses/gains.

Information also has monetary $$ value: not all sources are freely available on the Web through Google search, Library databases can provide access to subscribed full-text contents such as Harvard Business Review, The Lancet, and Wall Street Journal.

Using newspaper as an example

• Format: Tabloid vs Newspaper of record
  • A tabloid is a newspaper that has small pages, short articles, and lots of photographs. Contents are often considered to be less serious.
  • Newspaper of record is regarded as an authoritative and complete repository of factual information.
• Political stance (objectivities vs biases)
• Types of news articles (facts vs opinions)
  • news report – inform readers of what is happening in the world around them 
  • commentaries – written explanation or discussion of a topic
  • editorials – expresses the editor's opinion on a subject of particular interest
• Evidence such as statistics, video footage… 
• Authority is contextual - impact of COVID
  • Health: World Health Organization, HKSAR COVID-19 Expert Advisory Panel
  • Business/economy: McKinsey, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (this paper has been cited 855 times in Web of Science as of 14 Sep 2022)

image credit 1	image credit 2
Tabloid Political stance: Labour	Newspaper of record Political stance: Centre-left	Newspaper of record Political stance: Conservative

image credit 1: 8th May 2020 - VE-Day 75 - Daily Mirror by Bradford Timeline, used under CC BY-NC 2.0 / resized from original

image credit 2: 8th May 2020 - VE-Day 75 - Corona Virus - Guardian by Bradford Timeline, used under CC BY-NC 2.0 / resized from original

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer) is a language model developed by OpenAI, it was released on 30 November 2022. Language models produce text based on the probability for a word to occur based on previous words in the sequence.

ChatGPT's ability to generate human-like answers in response to user input has attracted more than 100 million users within two months of its launch. However, it has many limitations and is known to sometimes write plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.

Cases of ChatGPT generating plausible but factually incorrect information (hallucinations) or fabricated references (hallucitations):

• Hallucinations in ChatGPT: A Cautionary Tale for Biomedical Researchers
• Lawyer cites fake cases generated by ChatGPT in legal brief: The high-profile incident in a federal case highlights the need for lawyers to verify the legal insights generated by AI-powered tools
• OpenAI Sued For Defamation After ChatGPT Generates Fake Complaint Accusing Man Of Embezzlement
• Tech experts are starting to doubt that ChatGPT and A.I. ‘hallucinations’ will ever go away: ‘This isn’t fixable’
• When A.I. Chatbots Hallucinate

So, let us be cautious with ChatGPT (or other generative AI tools), check whether responses from the model are accurate or not before use.

• Published information is not necessarily trustworthy or useful.
• Always evaluate the credibility & suitability of information sources.

Who (Authority)

• Can you identify the author? What are the author's credentials?
• If the author is an organization, what type of organization is it? Check the domain (the three-letter extension of the URL) for affiliation, e.g., gov (government site), edu (academic site), com (commercial site), org (organization site). 
• Who hosts or publishes the webpage? Is the webpage affiliated with a reputable organization?
• Look for the information in "about", "about us", "who we are" or "what is"... This usually appears on the top or at the bottom of the Website's homepage.

When (Currency, Timeliness)

• How up-to-date is the information listed?
• When was it published?
• When was the webpage last revised?  (last revised or updated date)

What (Objectivity & Evidence)

• What is the purpose of this book, journal, magazine, site or page? Why was it created? 
• Is it striving for objectivity? Avoid obvious bias if you are trying to report "facts", and try to cross-check.
• Is the content "scholarly" or "popular"? Is the topic covered in-depth, or is it given a general or surface treatment?
• Did the author give evidence or acknowledge the original sources of any data/figures/charts included?
• Does it suit my needs?

Cross-check and Fact Check

• Can you find the information, theories etc. backed up by other information sources (newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals)
• Cross-check statistics, news reports, etc.
• Beware of fake news circulating on social media, explore these fact-check sites
  • AFP Fact Check by The Agence France-Presse
  • AP Fact Check by The Associated Press
  • FactCheck.org® A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center
  • Google Fact Check Explorer
  • HKBU Fact Check by The Hong Kong Baptist University School of Communication

Other evaluation frameworks: