News Accuracy in Switzerland and Italy

Abstract

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Credibility and the Media as a Political Institution

“…We use the term "relatively" because other studies using the source-survey method have reported a much higher percentage of objective errors. Porlezza, Maier and Russ-Mohl (2012) found factual inaccuracy in 60% of Swiss newspapers and 48% of US papers. However, Porlezza, Maier and Russ-Mohl also mention an Irish study that found objective errors in only 3.4% of the news items investigated and a study of news agencies that found only 10% inaccuracy.…”

“…Why Danish media differ from US media is difficult to determine, but in Denmark many reporters send quotes to their sources to get them cleared for any factual mistakes, such as mistakes in names, titles and use of figures. And indeed, in the study by Porlezza, Maier and Russ-Mohl (2012), it is factual mistakes such as incorrect names, or dates, that make up the bulk of the objective errors. But though the sources found relatively few objective errors, they still, on a general level, displayed mistrust in the media in the sense that many of them found the media to be politically biased.…”

Do Not Stand Corrected

“…The study showed that liberals would be more welcoming toward corrections that reinforced liberal worldviews, but the same was not the case with corrections with a more conservative angle (and vice versa). Although user perspectives on sources have been studied (see Blankenburg, 1970;Maier, 2002Maier, , 2005Maier, , 2007Porlezza, Maier, & Russ-Mohl, 2012), it is far more common to focus on corrections per se and their role for journalists and journalism (Barkin & Levy, 1983;Hindman, 2005;Joseph, 2011;Kampf & Daskal, 2014;Karlsson, 2010;Porlezza et al, 2012). From previous research, we know that sources seem very sensitive toward even minor errors that affect their perception of news credibility (Maier, 2002;Porlezza et al, 2012).…”

“…Although user perspectives on sources have been studied (see Blankenburg, 1970;Maier, 2002Maier, , 2005Maier, , 2007Porlezza, Maier, & RussMohl, 2012), it is far more common to focus on corrections per se and their role for journalists and journalism (Barkin & Levy, 1983;Hindman, 2005;Joseph, 2011;Kampf & Daskal, 2014;Karlsson, 2010;Porlezza et al, 2012). From previous research we know that sources seem very sensitive towards even minor errors which affect their perception of news credibility (Maier, 2002;Porlezza et al, 2012) From empirical research on the content of online news we know that errors are published and are sometimes, but not always, corrected (Kampf & Daskal, 2014;Karlsson, 2010;Maier, 2007). We also know that online production conditions affect content, so that a journalistic text can be profoundly changed over time, including swapping headlines, factual errors and large ideological shifts amongst other things (Karlsson, 2012;Kutz & Herring, 2005;Salaverria, 2005).…”

“…Since accuracy 'is the foundation upon which everything else builds' (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2001, p.43) we utilized factual objective errors (Blankenburg, 1970;Kampf & Daskal, 2014;Maier, 2005;Porlezza et al, 2012).…”