“Accuracy is More Important in Journalism than Ever.”

In the article “Why journalism professors should teach accuracy checklists”, the author, Steve Buttry, makes a point of why it is importunity for journalist to use checklists, similar to those of other professions. Buttry then gives his own checklist. If this checklist, or one similar, would have been utilized by all journalist, then mistakes like Sabrina Erdely’s Rolling Stones article would not have happened. It seems very unethical for one to not use on because of the time it takes. Something small that someone can do to make sure they do not mislead readers seems like an obvious thing to do. But with media today, everything is updated within hours of the event. The competition to have stories up before their [a news organization] competitors is more prevalent than ever before. The author of the article of “Column: Dangers of Speed vs. Accuracy” brings up the loopholes of the Communication Decency Act. To me, as a reader, this is terrifying. How easy it is for news outlets to put out information that can easily be so incorrect. Criag Silverman of Poynter.org seems to be saying, it is alright to make mistakes as long as journalists correct themselves when they find out that they posted something inaccurate. Although I agree that posting corrections in a visual way is important, it is more important to do the research, make sure everything is as accurate as possible before one posts an article.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *