Almost half of the articles published by daily newspapers in the US contain one or more factual errors, and less than two per cent end up being corrected.<\/p>\n
The findings are from a forthcoming research paper by an associate professor at the University of Oregon\u2019s School of Journalism and Communication. The findings challenge how well journalism\u2019s \u201ccorrections box\u201d sets the record straight or serves as a safety valve for the venting of frustrations by wronged news sources.
\nThe average US newspaper should expand by a factor of 50 the amount of space given to corrections, says Scott R Maier\u2019s research. Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon\u2019s School of Journalism and Communication, describes in a research paper his findings that fewer than 2 per cent of factually flawed articles are corrected at dailies.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s central finding is sobering: 98 per cent of the 1,220 factual newspapers errors examined went uncorrected. The correction rate was uniformly low for each of the 10 newspapers studied, with none correcting even 5 per cent of the mistakes identified by news sources. While it is not plausible or arguably even desirable for every newspaper error to be detected and corrected, Maier noted, the study shows that the corrections box represents the \u201ctip of the iceberg\u201d of mistakes made in a newspaper, therefore providing only a limited mechanism for setting the record straight.<\/p>\n
Maier\u2019s findings also challenge journalists\u2019 widely held perception that errors, when detected, are commonly corrected. Previous research showed that news sources brought errors to the attention of newspapers in only about 11 per cent of stories in which errors were identified. Newspapers can hardly be expected to correct errors they do not know were made.<\/p>\n
This study, however, shows that even when errors were reported by news sources, the vast majority \u2013 98 per cent \u2013 remained uncorrected. In fact, the corrections rate for reported errors is only slightly higher than for errant stories apparently found in error by someone other than the story\u2019s primary source. This suggests that news managers should not rely on corrections as safety valve for the venting of frustrations by wronged news sources, Maier has argued.<\/p>\n
Further study is needed to understand why errors, even when reported, go uncorrected. Perhaps news sources didn\u2019t know to whom or how to properly report errors, Maier felt. Reporters and editors, understandably reluctant to make a public mea culpa with published corrections, may have ignored reported errors. Though the study examined only factual errors, differences also may exist between a journalist and a new source as to what constitutes inaccuracy, he pointed out.<\/p>\n
Considering that over 60% of all news stories used by the press are actually U.S. government agency press releases, doesn\u2019t this mean that the printed media in this country are fulfilling the same function as Pravda in the former Soviet Union?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Almost half of the articles published by daily newspapers in the US contain one or more factual errors, and less than two per cent end up being corrected. The findings are from a forthcoming research paper by an associate professor at the University of Oregon\u2019s School of Journalism and Communication. The findings challenge how well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[10,22],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}