Test Your Understanding

Using your notes, write your answers to the following questions. When you finish, check your understanding to see how you did.

  1. Which of the two video clips presents the most unbiased view of the issue? Use language from the video to support your answer.

    2. Check Your Understanding

    Possible response:
    Although both videos present facts about the Supreme Court case and use the term “water wars,” the New Mexico reporter also includes phrases like “hogging water,” New Mexico’s “livelihood,” “steal,” and “bully it,” which have a negative connotation.

    Close

  2. Both of the reporters present similar information in the videos. How are the reporting styles different?

    3. Check Your Understanding

    Possible response:
    The BBC reporter (video #1) begins with music and footage showing beautiful water scenes. He also includes interviews on location in New Mexico & Texas with regional spokespersons. The television reporter (video #2) focuses primarily on the lawsuit issue and how it impacts New Mexico.

    Close

  3. Is one report more credible than the other? Support your answer with language from the videos.

    4. Check Your Understanding

    Possible response:
    Both reports cite credible statistics and give some history of the situation but the BBC report (video #1) not only interviews New Mexico officials but includes a spokesperson from Texas who explains, while showing the dry Rio Grande riverbed, why the lawsuit was filed. Video #2 only includes New Mexico’s side of the story.

    Close

  4. Which report concludes with a more powerful message?

    5. Check Your Understanding

    Possible response:
    The New Mexico report ends with a comment from the New Mexico governor saying, “We won’t cede a single inch of New Mexico water to Texas.” The BBC report ends with a quote: “As they say down here, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” Both leave the viewer with a feeling that an easy solution is not in the near future.

    Close

  5. What information could the reporters have included to better illustrate the problems both states are facing?

    6. Check Your Understanding

    Possible response:
    They could have included charts or graphs on the following:

    • The flow of water in the Rio Grande beginning in the 1930s when the law was written
    • Statistics showing the amount of ground water that New Mexico has been pumping
    • The number of farms/ranches using water in both states
    Close