Preliminary Notes on A Study of Newspaper Accuracy

The numbers game: A case study of mathematical literacy at a South African newspaper1

“…There have been a number of studies and accuracy surveys in the US and Canada, documenting the frequency of mathematical errors in the news media (see, for example, Charnley 1936;Berry 1967;Bailey 2001). Other studies have documented how the inability of journalists to understand and interpret numerological or statistical data led to misleading coverage of topics such as the homeless (Hewitt 1996), race and poverty (Gilens 1996), and HIV/AIDS and AIDS orphans (Ziehl 2002).…”

Images of Essence: Journalists’ Discourse on the Professional “Discipline of Verification”

“…Despite this enduring professional norm of verification, empirical studies have long suggested shortcomings in efforts toward, and achievement of, actual accuracy in ordinary news reports (Charnley, 1936;Jones, 2009;Lewis, Williams, Franklin, Thomas & Mosdell, 2008;Machill & Beiler, 2009;Maier, 2005;Owen, 2003;Stepp, 2009). Professional practice appears to strive for a higher standard in investigative reporting (Cribb, Jobb, McKie & Vallance-Jones, 2006;Ettema & Glasser, 1985;Hunter, Hanson, Sabbagh, Sengers, Sullivan & Thordsen, 2009;Ruvinsky, 2008), while newsroom guidelines emphasize balance, fairness and a hierarchy of "reliable sources" with official sources at the top and the lowly single anonymous source at the bottom (Chepesiuk, Howell & Lee, 1997;Ericson, 1998;Ericson, Chan & Baranek, 1987;Rosner, 2008).…”

News Accuracy in Switzerland and Italy

“…To compare newspaper accuracy in Switzerland and Italy to longitudinal accuracy research in the United States, the study closely followed the methodology pioneered by Charnley (1936) and adapted by Maier (2005). As part of a larger investigation of media quality and profitability (Meyer, 2004), Maier's U.S. news accuracy study included a cross-section of 14 newspapers 2 in markets with existing data on local trust in newspapers available from the Knight Foundation community surveys.…”

“…Each news source was asked in the questionnaire to identify errors, if any, in the news story and to classify inaccuracies according to type and perceived severity of error. A checkbox of error categories closely followed the factual error classifications established by Charnley (1936) and the subjective error classifications developed by Berry (1967) and his successors. When the questionnaire was not returned within two weeks, another questionnaire was delivered.…”