Four Benefits of Contextual Citations:
- dispel/verify cherry-picked
- feed curiosity-interest
- add “color”/entertainment
- establish trust, without verification
Why Print Needs new Ground Rules
On America This Week, Walter Kern and Matt Taibbi discussed 60 minutes‘ edit/collage of the Kamala Harris interview.
“This 60 minutes format is dead”
Walter declared the 60 minutes television format is dead because it required the good faith of the audience and the integrity of the network okay and the producers and the editors
Why Print Needs new Ground Rules:
It’s not just the 60 minutes video format. Walter says he currently avoids print media because they can take a statement you made and make it seem that it occurred in an entirely different context than than when you made it and there’s no way you know there’s no way for the audience to tell
Solution?
Would Walter be more willing to do print media interviews on the internet, if print media agreed that they would:
- publish the full interview transcript and
- use contextual citations for all their print quotes?
Donald Trump Warns of a “Bloodbath!”
Today, a lot of the media carried a quote in which Donald Trump says: if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a blood bath
. Television is seldom able to present the whole context of a quote, given space limitations. This could be an advantage for Substack writers because CiteIt enables interested readers to have the option of pursuing a quote’s context without commandeering the attention of all viewers.
CiteIt becomes like an advanced form of footnotes that works across:
- text,
- audio, and
- video.
Jack Nicholson: You Can’t Handle the Truth.
With CiteIt, writers can evoke the Jack Nicholson line:
You can’t handle the truth
! — by pulling in the context from a YouTube video.
This contextual citation doesn’t provide factual context, but rather helps the reader recall a favorable memory.
Ocsar winner “Refutes his Jewishness”!
Isn’t it outrageous that this year at the 2024 Oscars, an Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer went on stage and said: Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness
. What a disgraceful thing to say!
No, the director of Zone of Interest did not disavow his Jewish identity at the Oscars (Vox)
When Context is Stripped Away
I think that Judaism has the same problem that any thick civilization has in a world in which um as you say context is stripped away and not only is context stripped away but but attention to any one thing is is scanter and less than it used to be.
JFK: Inaugural Address
In his inaugural address John F. Kennendy said ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
.
What else did Kennedy’s famous inaugural address say?
FDR: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first Inaugural Address is remembered for the line: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself
If you cite the source with CiteIt, the reader can explore the historical context, so that the quote lives as more than just a soundbite.
The Princess Bride – “Get used to Disappointment”
Wesley tells Inigo: Get used to disappointment
Donald Trump will not protect Europe
When Donald Trump was asked whether he would protect European countries that didn’t meet military spending requirements, Trump replied no I would not protect you
.
Conservatives have been repeatedly burned by out-of-context quotations, whether by 60 minutes or elsewhere. This quote isn’t out-of-context, but readers can gain a much better understanding if they view the video context.
- Authors who use CiteIt build reader trust and make it easy for the reader to learn more about a quote’s context.