There is a common saying “fools
rush in”, but is it only fools who rush? That is why Kahneman and Prose hit so
close to home. The writer is responsible for the quality and
ultimately, readability of their own work. When time is involved, however, the
readability of one’s work may be limited.
At one particular station, I was
responsible for providing research for on-air talent during live updates. The
updates happened so quickly, that I just could not double check my findings.
During this series of updates, I ran across a headline that I gave to the
talent. However, the article I took the headline from had multiple stories
under the same headline. So I ended up giving the talent a headline from one
story and the information from another story. The headline was from a story
about a cross country runner who was injured. The information was about a
soccer player who was arrested for murder. In essence, the story I gave the
talent was that the cross country runner had been arrested for murder. Needless
to say, had the talent read the story as I presented it to them, our station
may have been liable for a massive lawsuit. Thankfully, the anchor caught the
error and stopped before they went on air. This story came to mind while
reading Kahneman’s work. Because I was rushed, I ended up using my
system 1 and not doing the analysis that comes with system 2.
System I is like the marines. It goes in
first. According to Kahneman (2011), system l is processing the world around us
(p. 35). Kahneman says system 1 works
automatically. It’s working to adjust and make judgments on its own. The job of
the writer is to mainline the system 1 and activate system 2. This is because
the writer has to put forth their best effort. For journalists, system 1 is the
only option they can use sometimes.
Kahneman speaks of availability
bias. His take on availability bias was that we use the information available
to make determinations. However, I believe there are other biases. The
experience with the errant story update above, along with others has led me to
an awareness of something I have termed “Crunch Bias”. Crunch bias occurs when
a reporter, author, editor, or blogger is so limited by a deadline, that they
don’t have the ability to spend immense time verifying claims. Because of this,
the reporter is forced to use their best judgment. The lack of time to verify
leads to crunch bias. The end result is a story or article that features the
publisher’s best approximation of various facts. However, as Prose would argue
that it is irrelevant. When you present information, you are responsible for
that info.
Prose (2006) suggests that we have
to have solid information and sentence structure because it makes it easier for
the reader to digest our information (p. 49).
Ultimately, both Kahneman and Prose encourage anyone presenting
information to take the time to make sure the work presented is of a high
standard. It is always best to make sure something is done right, even if you
are on a deadline.
