A survey of 4,800 news sources cited in fourteen newspapers provides a cross-market assessment of newspaper accuracy and the effect of errors on newspaper credibility. Sources found errors in 61% of local news and feature stories, an inaccuracy rate among the highest reported in nearly seventy years of accuracy research. Newspaper credibility, as perceived by news sources, significantly declined in relation to frequency and severity of errors. Inaccuracy negatively affected source willingness to cooperate with the press. Subjective errors were considered most egregious, suggesting that how a story is conveyed is at least as important as getting the facts straight.

A content analysis of 3,900 news stories examined how online news differs in coverage from newspapers, network television, cable television, and radio, finding that 60% of the top stories on news Web sites covered the same topics as covered by legacy media. But fewer than a third of news stories hyperlinked by blogs and social media corresponded with mainstream media top stories. The results indicate that journalism's agenda-setting role, though dissipating, remains viable in the fragmenting media universe. Audiences turning to news Web sites will find the dominant stories of the day plus fresh perspectives on national and world events.

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Journalism b Mass Communication EducatorResearch seeks contributions that support a community of faculty and student discovery; the acquisition of knowledge and skills: and their creative application to issues of import, both within and beyond classroom and Website. The journal focuses on learning and teaching, curriculum, educational leadership, and related exploration of higher education within a context of journalism and mass communication. Submissions may draw from a variety of theoretical approaches and methodological perspectives and should introduce readers to new questions, new evidence, and effective educational practices.Scholarship is encouraged that is grounded in knowledge about the complexity of learning and respectful of student needs for multiple paths toward understanding: rooted in the disciplinary content of the professional and academic specialties we ask our students to master; and cognizant of the discipline's long-standing commitment to the arts of liberty, not through vague aphorisms, but as solutions to educational, civic, and public needs.

Drawing from psychological research, the study examines how story form influences reader reaction to news accounts of mass violence in Africa. An online survey with embedded experimental conditions was administered to a US Internet panel (n = 638). Results show that how the story is told affects reader emotional response and, indirectly, charitable giving. Story personification had the strongest influence, followed by stories with photographic images. Use of statistical and mobilizing information had only a small effect on reader response. The straight news story – the predominant form of news reporting – evoked the weakest emotional response. The findings underscore that simply ‘reporting the news’ is often insufficient to arouse audience response. The reader needs empathetic connection, especially when dealing with large-scale distant suffering. Applying psychological principles to practical journalism, the study is intended to guide media practitioners and activists as they seek better ways to bring attention to the world’s most deplorable conditions.