Media watch: Accuracy takes a blow for ratings

Dubai: It's been a challenging week for journalism. In the bid to break news first, several international media outlets declared US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords dead from a shooting and then retracted.

CBS, NBC, CNN, National Public Radio, Fox News Channel and The Washington Post reported that she had died only to withdraw the news flash.

It begged the question: Has the need for speed thrown accuracy to the wind?

Butch Ward, managing director and Distinguished Poynter Fellow at The Poynter Institute, told Gulf News: "The desire to be first has caused some organisations to cut corners, but there is no question that the speed of the Web — coupled with large-scale newsroom downsizing — has exacerbated the situation.

"Editors who once required all work to be edited by multiple editors now allow work to be posted directly to the Web by the reporter. The rationalisation goes: ‘If something is inaccurate, we can correct it immediately.' Of course, those inaccuracies live forever on the internet — and sometimes in the reader's memory."

Poynter is a US-based journalism school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders.

Kelly McBride, senior faculty member at Poynter who focuses on ethics, feels that accuracy has definitely been compromised.

She said: "I'm not defending this, but we live with it because we can correct mistakes as quickly as we make them. Competiveness has brought this on ... Just because you can report something immediately doesn't mean you have to."

Unintentional error

Dr Mario Garcia, CEO and Founder of Garcia Media, a media consulting firm from the US, felt that the deterioration is not intentional.

He said: "We live in a 24/7 news cycle. When breaking news happens, we now have to cope with the fact that ‘everyone is a journalist' in the sense that everyone with a smart phone can take photos, make videos, and do all of those essential things that we have always considered to be the tools of ‘traditional news coverage'. No news organisation wants to be beat by the competition, but now the competition can be your own potential audience. This, in turn, leads to perhaps a rush to go with what you have of the story."

Ward agreed: "The role of social media in this is undeniable. Twitter and Facebook allow you, me, anyone to be the source of news. So newsrooms feel they must compete with that ... however, at some point, people will choose a source of information they can rely on for accuracy — even if it's not first. How many mistakes does it take for people to dismiss you as unreliable?

"It's not easy competing in this environment, but the importance of accuracy and fairness to good journalism is crucial. We can't let our desire to be first destroy our need to be right."