Triangulation

While listening to Dan Gillmore, Director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, I really liked his comments about “triangulating” your knowledge by reading both sides of a viewpoint.

I have a friend who is an avid reader. He has very strong, well defined points of view. And it’s important to understand, his points of view are created from reading everything he can on a particular subject and then deciding for himself what he believes. When Gillmore stated he purchase both the Telegraph and Guardian newspapers to “triangulate” his knowledge on British establishment, it reminded me of what my friend has said to me. He told me once that he always reads everything he can about an issue, both the far left and far right sides, so that he can decide for himself where the middle is.  Also, by doing this he can easily justify his position by saying, “I understand where you are coming from, I understand why you believe what you believe, however…”. Often times, he is considered the “source of knowledge” because he is educated on both sides.

I was also encouraged to have someone who may not agree with the position of a story read and edit that story to find out where the weaknesses are.

As Gillmore said, go outside your comfort zone to seek information and knowledge.

Linda Hopson

Adviser, Three Penny Press

Bellaire High School

Bellaire, Texas