Are journalists in denial about an increase in their errors?
4/27/11
by Dana Liebelson
There has been a renewed debate recently over the level of accuracy in newsrooms— some writers claim newspapers are in denial about the problem.
For AP reporter Jonathan Stray, the problem of accurate coverage isn’t new: in the last seven decades, about half of all American newspaper stories contained at least one factual error.
So why isn’t the problem getting better?
Knight News Challenge Winner Scott Rosenberg says that news accuracy won’t improve until journalists stop making excuses and start holding themselves accountable.
Do you think newsroom/journalists are in denial about the number of factual errors? How do you think journalists and editors can improve their accuracy?
Photo by: Ostrich Head in Sand
Technology has made it that
Technology has made it that information can be transferred in a matter of minutes. Sadly human error is also transferred and because of the volume of the work that newsrooms around the world are handling these days factual errors do Occur. It is now about get the stories out at all costs. Breaking the story first does not always mean breaking it in the best way. Sometimes it's better to break the story later so as to cover all aspects of the story. Cross the t's and dot the i's
it's constructive criticism
Why talk about errors now? Because
a) we have the possibility of correcting them, more and faster than ever before
b) by survey, media trust has been declining for decades. If professional journalism wants to prove its worth, it needs to demonstrate that it's better that random blogging in some fashion -- perhaps by being obviously more accurate.
maybe
I don't know that journalists are making more errors but why is this such an issue, now? Why fire on journalists when so much is shooting them down anyway...there are more important things to discuss like how people will be getting information and how it will be paid for this is just a really side issue that proves how much people now don't trust the profession and will do anything to say bad things about it
yes!
There's never been a time of so much media scrutiny -- and anybody with half a brain can find errors by searching for them digitally...Back in the days of pen and paper, it took someone with patience and maybe an agenda to try to correct htem.
It's up to the media to find ways to re-instate public trust and a correction system that is in step with technology.
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