IP: Study: Fewer facts in media coverage

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> To: dave () farber net
>
>
>
> http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/01/28/media_coverage/print.html
>
> News coverage immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks was based on
> solid sources and "just the facts," but media standards have since
> slipped, a journalism think tank says.
>
> Researchers for the Project for Excellence in Journalism examined
> 2,496 television, magazine and newspaper stories from mid-September,
> mid-November and mid-December.
>
> Every assertion in the stories was categorized as either fact,
> analysis that could be attributed to reporting, or unattributed
> opinion or speculation.
>
> The researchers analyzed stories from four newspapers -- The New York
> Times, The Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Fresno
> Bee -- as well as Time and Newsweek. The survey also covered a variety
> of national TV programs.
>
> "The news media reacted to the terrorist attacks of September 11 with
> great care about not getting ahead of the facts," the report
> said. Three-fourths of the coverage was strictly factual and just 25
> percent was involved some level of interpretation.
>
> By December, however, when the war in Afghanistan was well under way,
> the share of factual coverage overall had fallen to 63 percent -- a
> level "lower than those seen in the middle of the Clinton-Lewinsky
> scandal," according to the study. Analysis, speculation and outright
> opinion picked up the slack.
>
> The researchers identified a stark difference between newspaper and
> magazine stories and television reports: 82 percent of print accounts
> were factual, compared to 57 percent of what was on TV.
>
> The study said government restrictions imposed on journalists could be
> a cause for the decline in factual reporting. Researchers also cited
> newsroom cutbacks and the competitive, 24-hour pace of journalism.
>
> The study also concluded that coverage has heavily favored
> U.S. positions. About half of the relevant stories contained only
> viewpoints in line with American or Bush administration
> policy. Television news was measurably less likely than print stories
> to include criticism of the administration, the study found.
>
> The report was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
>
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