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No time is wasted when news is produced and published on the net. This means increased risk of errors, but also that errors can be corrected. Articles can be altered within minutes and the time of the latest change is displayed. However, research at Karlstad University, Sweden, shows that the public has high expectations on the accuracy of news from the start and has little patience with errors.
The Swedish study measured Swedes' attitudes to errors and corrections of news in digital media, and if attitudes were affected by the gravity and frequency of the inaccuracies and to what degree digital media users had trust in the media in general, in relation to factors such as age, gender, educational level and media habits. Users were also asked to state if they accessed the news via their mobile phone, computer or tablet.
"People expect things to be correct from the start. Journalists should report accurate and relevant news and whether this is done digitally or speedily makes no difference. Even when journalism is attacked and false news spread, the public has high and traditional expectations on the news media," says Michael Karlsson, researcher in media and communication studies at Karlstad University.
The users' background and media habits do not affect their attitudes to errors and corrections in any significant degree, according to the study. But there is one difference: those who already had a greater trust in the media than the average user is the group that appreciated corrections of the news on the net the most.
The researchers used Kantar Sifo (formerly TNS, Sifo) and a web-based questionnaire was sent to nearly 8 000 persons in Sweden aged 16 and older. More than 2 000 persons responded, half of them women. A majority of the respondents (60%) had a negative attitude to inaccuracies in news reporting.
Correct rather than fast news
The gravity of an inaccuracy affected the respondents’ tolerance. More than half of the respondents (around 66%) accepted minor errors that were quickly corrected, and were positive to transparency to errors, that is, when journalists corrected mistakes and noted this in the margin. Users were negative to errors not being corrected and nearly all (90%) disapproved of grave errors.
For those who already had great trust in the media, correcting mistakes and openly stating this could actually strengthen the trust further. But the differences are small and corrections do not compensate for bad journalism.
“It is more important now than it has been for a long time that journalists do not cut corners, particularly in view of Trumps' gestures against the media and a debate about alternative facts. Transparency carries little importance for the general public and for journalistic credibility. An additional example of resentment of false news is that Facebook is now launching a new way of handling erroneous news spreading via the site,” says Michael Karlsson.
The study is reported in the article ”Do Not Stand Corrected: Transparency and Users’ Attitudes to Inaccurate News and Corrections in Online Journalism”, published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1077699016654680
Michael Karlsson
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Michael Karlsson
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