Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession.
Bias accusations have eroded trust in journalism to impartially check facts. Traditionally journalists have avoided responding to such accusations, resulting in an imbalanced flow of arguments about the news media. This study tests what would happen if journalists spoke up more in defense of their p...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2018-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208600 |
| _version_ | 1819018709910421504 |
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| author | Raymond J Pingree Brian Watson Mingxiao Sui Kathleen Searles Nathan P Kalmoe Joshua P Darr Martina Santia Kirill Bryanov |
| author_facet | Raymond J Pingree Brian Watson Mingxiao Sui Kathleen Searles Nathan P Kalmoe Joshua P Darr Martina Santia Kirill Bryanov |
| author_sort | Raymond J Pingree |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Bias accusations have eroded trust in journalism to impartially check facts. Traditionally journalists have avoided responding to such accusations, resulting in an imbalanced flow of arguments about the news media. This study tests what would happen if journalists spoke up more in defense of their profession, while simultaneously also testing effects of doing more fact checking. A five-day field experiment manipulated whether an online news portal included fact check stories and opinion pieces defending journalism. Fact checking was beneficial in terms of three democratically desirable outcomes-media trust, epistemic political efficacy, and future news use intent-only when defense of journalism stories were also present. No partisan differences were found in effects: Republicans, Democrats, and Independents were all affected alike. These results have important implications for journalistic practice as well as for theories and methods of news effects. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T03:23:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-15f5d26e95be4c4692208b93bf0128f1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T03:23:44Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-15f5d26e95be4c4692208b93bf0128f12022-12-21T19:17:38ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-011312e020860010.1371/journal.pone.0208600Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession.Raymond J PingreeBrian WatsonMingxiao SuiKathleen SearlesNathan P KalmoeJoshua P DarrMartina SantiaKirill BryanovBias accusations have eroded trust in journalism to impartially check facts. Traditionally journalists have avoided responding to such accusations, resulting in an imbalanced flow of arguments about the news media. This study tests what would happen if journalists spoke up more in defense of their profession, while simultaneously also testing effects of doing more fact checking. A five-day field experiment manipulated whether an online news portal included fact check stories and opinion pieces defending journalism. Fact checking was beneficial in terms of three democratically desirable outcomes-media trust, epistemic political efficacy, and future news use intent-only when defense of journalism stories were also present. No partisan differences were found in effects: Republicans, Democrats, and Independents were all affected alike. These results have important implications for journalistic practice as well as for theories and methods of news effects.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208600 |
| spellingShingle | Raymond J Pingree Brian Watson Mingxiao Sui Kathleen Searles Nathan P Kalmoe Joshua P Darr Martina Santia Kirill Bryanov Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession. PLoS ONE |
| title | Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession. |
| title_full | Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession. |
| title_fullStr | Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession. |
| title_short | Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession. |
| title_sort | checking facts and fighting back why journalists should defend their profession |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208600 |
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