Accuracy matters: A cross-market assessment of newspaper error and credibility

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 82, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 533-551

  Maier, Scott R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OREGON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

MEDIA INDUSTRY;

EID: 29744434375     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900508200304     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. The code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists states: "Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible." Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, 1996 (revised), 9 February 2004.
2. Michele McLellan, "Accuracy Must Be Our Journalistic Grail," Nieman Reports (summer 2001): 58.
3. Mark Gillespie, Public Remains Skeptical of News Media, The Gallup Organization, 2003, 16 March 2004.
4. American Society of Newspaper Editors, Newspaper Credibility: Building Reader Trust (Washington: ASNE, 1984);
5. Cecilie Gaziano and Kristin McGrath, "Measuring the Concept of Credibility," Journalism Quarterly 63 (autumn 1986): 451-62;
6. Chris Urban, Examining Our Credibility: Perspectives of the Public and the Press (Washington: ASNE, 1999), 11.
7. See, for example, Bonnie Bressers, "Rebuilding Trust," Quill Magazine, July 2003, 8-10;
8. Jill Rosen, "We Mean Business," American Journalism Review, June/July 2004, 22-29.
9. Michael R. Fancher, "Newspaper Bringing Back System of Accuracy Checks," Seattle Times, 15 June 2003, p. 2.
10. Mitchell V. Charnley, "Preliminary Notes on a Study of Newspaper Accuracy," Journalism Quarterly 13 (December 1936): 394-401.
11. See, for example, Scott R. Maier, "Getting It Right? Not in 59 Percent of Stories," Newspaper Research Journal 23 (winter 2002): 10-24;
12. Philip Meyer, "A Workable Measure of Auditing Accuracy in Newspapers," Newspaper Research Journal 10 (winter 1988): 39-51;
13. Charles Brown, "Majority of Readers Give Papers an 'A' for Accuracy," Editor & Publisher, 13 February 1965, 63;
14. Fred Berry, "A Study of Accuracy in Local News Stories of Three Dailies," Journalism Quarterly 44 (autumn 1967): 482-90;
15. William B. Blankenburg, "News Accuracy: Some Findings on the Meaning of Errors," Journal of Communication 20 (December, 1970):375-86;
16. William A. Tillinghast, "Newspaper Errors: Reporters Dispute Most Source Claims," Newspaper Research Journal 3 (fall 1982): 14-23.
17. Berry, "Study of Accuracy";
18. see also Gary Lawrence and David Grey, "Subjective Inaccuracies in Local News Reporting," Journalism Quarterly 44 (autumn 1969): 753-57.
19. Michael Ryan, "A Factor Analytic Study of Scientists' Responses to Error," Journalism Quarterly 52 (summer 1975): 333-36.
20. Berry, "Study of Accuracy";
21. Maier, "Getting It Right";
22. Brown, "Majority of Readers";
23. Charnley, "Preliminary Notes";
24. Blankenburg, "News Accuracy";
25. Hal Marshall, "Newspaper Accuracy in Tucson," Journalism Quarterly 54 (spring 1977): 165-68;
26. Tillinghast, "Newspaper Errors." In a 1988 study, Meyer reported a 25% inaccuracy rate, but his investigation was based on a different and much smaller selection of error categories than other accuracy surveys.
27. See Meyer, "Workable Measure."
28. Gilbert Cranberg, "Do Accuracy Checks Really Measure What Respondents Think About News Stories?" Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors 697 (July/August 1987): 14-15.
29. Maier, "Getting It Right," 15.
30. American Society of Newspaper Editors, Why Credibility Has Been Dropping (Washington: ASNE, 1998), Table 1.
31. Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of News Media 2004 (Washington: Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2004). Available online at .
32. Eleanor Singer, "A Question of Accuracy: How Journalists and Scientists Report Research on Hazards," Journal of Communication 40 (4, 1990): 102-17;
33. James W. Tankard and Michael Ryan, "News Source Perceptions of Accuracy of Science Coverage," Journalism Quarterly 51 (summer 1974): 219-25;
34. Phillip Tichenor, Clarice Olien, Annette Harrison, and George Donohue, "Mass Communication Systems and Communication Accuracy in Science News Reporting," Journalism Quarterly 47 (winter 1970): 673-83.
35. Michael Ryan and Dorthea Owen, "An Accuracy Survey of Metropolitan Newspaper Coverage of Social Issues," Journalism Quarterly 54 (spring 1977): 27-32.
36. J. Richard Cote, "A Study of Accuracy of Two Wire Services," Journalism Quarterly 47 (winter 1970): 661-66.
37. Larry L. Burris, "Accuracy of News Magazines as Perceived by News Sources," Journalism Quarterly 62 (winter 1985): 825-27.
38. Gary Hanson and Stanley T. Wearden, "Measuring Newscast Accuracy: Applying a Newspaper Model to Television," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81 (winter 2004): 546-58.
39. For a study of the influence of the elite on public opinion, see Paul Lazerfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1944).
40. See Scott R. Maier, "How Sources, Reporters View Math Errors in News," Newspaper Research Journal 24 (4, 2003): 48-63;
41. Meyer, "Workable Measure";
42. Tillinghast, "Newspaper Errors."
43. In 1970, William Blankenburg urged accuracy investigators to ask news sources to rate the seriousness of each distinct error, a call that went largely unheeded. See Blankenburg, "News Accuracy."
44. D.L. Pulford, "Follow-up Study of Science News Accuracy," Journalism Quarterly 53 (spring 1976): 119-21.
45. Project for Excellence, State of News Media, 10.
46. Gaziano and McGrath. "Measuring the Concept."
47. Urban, Examining Our Credibility," 11.
48. Robert J. Haiman, Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists (Arlington, VA: Freedom Forum, 2000).
49. Haiman, Best Practices, 9.
50. Urban, Examining Our Credibility, 7-8.
51. ASNE, Newspaper Credibility;
52. Gaziano and McGrath, "Measuring the Concept."
53. Maier, "Getting It Right," 18-19.
54. Lori Bergen, Sue A. Lafky, and David Weaver, "Local News Source Opinions of Their Newspapers," Newspaper Research Journal 21 (summer 2000): 14-26, 24.
55. Hanson and Wearden, "Measuring Newscast Accuracy," 556.
56. See Philip Meyer, The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004).
57. The Knight Foundation invests in the vitality of twenty-six communities where the communications company founded by the Knight brothers published newspapers. The foundation, which funded the study, is wholly separate and independent of those newspapers.
58. The fourteen newspapers: Aberdeen American News, Boulder Daily Camera, Charlotte Observer, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Grand Forks Herald, Lexington Herald-Leader, Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post, Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News, South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
59. The four newspapers not owned by Knight Ridder are the Boulder Daily Camera (E.W. Scripps), the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Tribune Company), the Palm Beach Post (Cox Enterprises), and the Detroit News (Gannett).
60. Charnley, "Preliminary Notes";
61. Berry, "Study of Accuracy."
62. See also Lawrence and Grey, "Subjective Inaccuracies."
63. ASNE, Newspaper Credibility. After the ASNE suggested that the survey instrument serve as a "model" for future credibility research, several researchers analyzed the ASNE data and concluded that the survey's questions provide a coherent measure of credibility (though the researchers differed over which items best serve that purpose). See Gaziano and McGrath, "Measuring the Concept";
64. Philip Meyer, "Defining and Measuring Credibility of Newspapers: Developing an Index," Journalism Quarterly 65 (autumn 1988): 567-74;
65. Mark Douglas West, "Validating a Scale for the Measurement of Credibility: A Covariance Modeling Approach," Journalism Quarterly 71 (spring 1994): 159-68. As suggested by Meyer, three negative-positive items were reversed to make the semantic polarities consistent.
66. In Detroit, where the two dailies operate under a joint agency, and in Philadelphia, where two dailies are jointly owned, the morning and evening newspapers were combined into a single 400-person sample.
67. Primary sources were selected based on Blankenburg's operational definition of a "significantly mentioned" news source. As Blankenburg explains, a person making an appointment of a civic committee would be considered "significantly mentioned" and so would the chairman of the committee if he were quoted or present at the time of the appointment. The new members, if merely listed, would not be deemed significantly mentioned. Blankenburg, "News Accuracy," 376.
68. Past studies indicate that the return rate and perhaps validity are improved by having accuracy surveys administered by independent academic researchers rather than by editors. See Cranberg, "Do Accuracy Checks Really Measure What Respondents Think About News Stories?";
69. Meyer, "Workable Measure."
70. In an experiment, sources in ten newspapers were given the option to respond using either a Web-based survey or the mail-back survey. Responses from the experimental group were almost identical demographically and substantively to responses from the control mail-back group. For further discussion of this study's methodology, see Scott R. Maier, "Comparing Internet vs. Paper in Newspaper Source Surveys," Newspaper Research Journal 26 (spring/summer 2005): 57-71.
71. American Association for Public Opinion Research, Standard Definitions: Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys, Ann Arbor: AAPOR (2004), 28. Available online at 29 June 2004.
72. This index, which draws from the ASNE 16-item semantic differential scale, is a close variation of the newspaper believability index developed by Meyer (see Meyer, "Defining and Measuring") and found by West to be reliable and empirically valid (see West, "Validating a Scale"). This approach provides a cohesive measure of credibility (Cronbach alpha = .95) and eliminates items of the ASNE scale that are arguably superfluous (i.e., whether a paper is "patriotic" and "moral").
73. See Maier, "How Sources";
74. Meyer, "Workable Measure";
75. Tillinghast, "Newspaper Errors."
76. Pulford, "Follow-up Study."
77. Meyer, Vanishing Newspaper.
78. For methodological consistency, this study adheres as closely as possible to the objective and subjective error categories established by Charnley and his successors. In The Vanishing Newspaper, Meyer took a different approach to classifying objective and subjective error. So, while Meyer and I draw from the same data set, our analyses and accuracy rankings differ.
79. Maier, "Getting It Right," 19.
80. "America's Best Newspapers," Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 1999, 14-16.
81. David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist in the 1990s: U.S. News People at the End of an Era (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996);
82. The Face and Mind of the American Journalist, Poynter Online, 2003, 20 March 2004.
83. In a separate analysis of the survey data, Philip Meyer found that copy editor staffing affects the incidence of math errors. For each additional reporter whose work a copy editor has to watch, the math error goes up two percentage points. Meyer, Vanishing Newspaper, 102-103.
84. This notion is supported in a study of quality control and other practices at large daily ewspapers. See Kathleen Hansen, Nora Paul, and Betsey Neibergall, "Survey of Large Newspapers Studies Information Practices," Newspaper Research Journal 24 (fall 2003): 44.
85. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 43.
86. For example, political scientist Robert D. Putnam has identified a linkage between the decline of newspaper reading and watching television news with the erosion of voting rates and other measures of civic engagement. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000).
87. In a related study, researchers found no significant relationship between frequency of error and number of sources cited, though perceived credibility was greater when more sources were cited. Scott Maier and Twange Kasoma, "Information as Good as its Source: An Examination of Source Diversity and Accuracy at Nine Daily Newspapers" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, New York, 2005).
88. Meyer, Vanishing Newspaper.