Video 1: DID YOU KNOW 2025:
- We know their name, but we don’t really know who this person is, their credibility, or their credentials.
- Links for their sources are named on screen in the bottom left corner for each fact they are presenting, though not all of them are reliable and some may be unreliable. Information may also be outdated and the video was posted in 2024. Key definitions such as year, unit, or place are mostly clear.
- Limits or uncertainty are not admitted and there aren’t any counterexamples or alternative views.
- Their main claim is that “There has never been a bigger force for change than technology.”
Ethos Verdict: Their ethos is weak because we don’t know who this person is and both him and his sources are likely unreliable.
Logos Verdict: The logos is mixed because most of their claims are true and lots of evidence is given but they don’t really have any reasoning and some things are unclear.
Claim Check:
Claim at 1:44 says +132 million people will be born this year. Our World in Data reports that it is estimated that there will be 132.40 million births in 2025 for year 2024.
Verdict: Accurate
Source: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-births-per-year
Video 2: How Search Works:
- The person who is hosting this video, Matt Cutts, says he is an engineer in the quality group at Google. He talks about how a google search works, and since this video is from google, he is likely a reliable source.
- They don’t really give any evidence to support their claim, but they work for Google and also give some examples to support their claim. Some visual effects are used which could distract from evidence.
- They claim that they never accept payment to add a site to their index, update it more often, or improve its ranking.
- Since they work for Google, they may be lying or giving biased information. They don’t say any bad things about Google. The video may also be outdated since it was posted 15 years ago.
Ethos Verdict: This video has strong ethos because the person hosting the video works at Google, which is a big company and the topic of the video.
Logos Verdict: This video has mixed logos because while Google is a big company and someone working for google would likely give reliable information, the video is outdated and they could also be giving biased information.
Search Habit Change:
After watching these videos and doing this assignment, I will be more careful about trusting the information I find online. I learned that you should double check to make sure the source you are getting your information from is a reliable one and should also make sure to do some research about the information to make sure it is true.
Recommendations:
I would recommend the first video, “Did You Know 2025,” to anyone interested in learning some facts about this year. I would recommend the second video, “How Search Works,” to anyone interested in how Google searches work.
