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Breaking news minus attribution
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share thisLast week I wrote about a recent study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism that took a close look at the news "ecosystem" of Baltimore, Md., over one week in July.
I wanted to further discuss a point in that study and how it relates to a situation we dealt with locally the week of Jan. 11.
In discussing how new technology is more prevalent as a way for media - both traditional (newspapers and TV) and new (blogs, Twitter, Internet, etc.) - to break news more quickly, the study presented this finding:
"In the growing echo chamber online, formal procedures for citing and crediting can get lost."
I would add that the prevalence of applying attribution to news has waned, too.
We've often noticed (and it's been commented on here) that TV news tends to present a lot of information without telling viewers who provided it. That isn't always a problem, but it sure can be.
Newspapers, we must admit, are treading on that thin ice more now that we have the means of instantaneous reporting as well via the Web, Twitter and other new technologies.
In the case of the two Northumberland County deputy sheriffs being fired on Jan. 13, we had a story holding for release online that morning, awaiting at least a second source verifying that the firings had occurred. While we waited, two competitors - one a newspaper, one a radio station - broke the news via their mobile and Web alert programs. We didn't like being beat, but we stood by our contention that we needed at least a second source. We had it soon enough, and posted our news shortly after the competitors did. And, while we didn't have any named sources, we did offer attribution to two "anonymous sources." The competitors hadn't offered any attribution for their information, although they certainly did have it right.
While I use this example to point out the potential shortcomings of breaking news reporting, I must add that, even for the next day's story, we didn't have any named sources, although we did add a third anonymous source. Sometimes it's not the expediency that prevents standard attribution practices, but the nature of the story itself.
On the issue of breaking news, watch for changes coming soon in regards to our NewsFlash service. It's a major upgrade that will allow us to offer much more through e-mail and mobile devices than what is available now.
(Heintzelman, editor of The News-Item, writes "The Week In News" for each Saturday edition.)
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