Example · Journalist or public communicator
What does this reported breakthrough actually establish?
A journalist checks the scope of a communication claim before framing a story
The situation
Behind a breakthrough headline
You are writing a fictional story prompted by a headline suggesting that a BCI enables everyday communication. Before interviewing the team, you want to understand the reported application, the evidence behind it and its relationship to other published work. Your immediate decision is which claims the story can responsibly examine
What this example starts with
- Available
- You have a claim to investigate and can search published BCI cases and their source material
- Unresolved
- The headline alone does not establish who used the system, under which conditions or for how long
- Constraint
- The story must distinguish a reported demonstration from everyday availability or benefit for a particular person
Working through the question
Read the actual case
Locate the relevant published record if available, then follow the original source. Identify the task, participants, environment and reported outcome. If the case is absent from the catalogue, continue source reporting; a missing entry says nothing about whether the work exists or matters
Use the field as context
In Monitor, inspect comparable applications within a recorded scope. Check whether sources describe research, deployment or documented market entry. Do not turn catalogue counts into a claim about prevalence, or call a system available solely because it has a readiness label or a planned schedule
Prepare precise reporting questions
Separate the demonstrated result from the team’s proposed next use. Ask about assistance, setup, failed sessions and the limits of the evidence. Seek relevant independent perspectives and affected people’s experience to examine significance, while keeping what the sources establish distinct from interpretation
An illustrative take-away
A reporting brief
Your brief records the supported scope and questions to resolve before writing the story
- What exactly did participants do, and with what assistance?
- What remains untested outside the reported setting?
- What evidence supports any claim of current availability?
Written for this example to show what the reader could take into their next conversation
Catalogue classifications guide source inspection; they do not independently verify a headline or its underlying claims
Try this with your own question
Your guide explains the steps, access requirements and limits for your role