Journalism & Fact Checking

One of the underlying themes throughout many of the classes in the Journalism department is the need for vigorous fact checking -- the verification that what is being reported is factual. In her article "Confronting the Culture," Lori Robertson "considers the newsroom culture as the culprit behind the recurring cases of plagiarism and fabrication scandals. The journalism industry has continued to posit a number of perfectly legitimate cures for the recurring spates of ethical transgressions: We need new ethics codes, a system of fact checking, tougher editors who ask hard questions of reporters, lectures for new hires and, if all else fails, the latest plagiarism detection software. But as the recent round of cheating cases cropped up there was a decided lack of excuses put forth. Those who espouse taking a look at the journalism culture as a possible cause of ethics ills say a fix requires drawing clear distinctions between what is acceptable and what isn't, getting rid of double standards and drastic inequality, and making accuracy as big a rallying cry as beating the competition."

To read the entire article click on the link below.

Robertson, L. (2005). Confronting the culture. American Journalism Review, 27(4), 34-41.