Checking facts and fighting back: Why journalists should defend their profession

Abstract

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.

Misinformation and herd behavior in media markets: A cross-national investigation of how tabloids’ attention to misinformation drives broadsheets’ attention to misinformation in political and business journalism

“…([71] page 334). In fact, a higher diversity of actors who are involved in media accountability and media governance activities-for instance, different types of fact-checkers [72][73][74]-might facilitate the containment of misinformation in journalism [75].…”

“…However, “media accountability and media governance […] must be seen as a process of different but interrelated practices […]” ([ 71 ] page 334). In fact, a higher diversity of actors who are involved in media accountability and media governance activities–for instance, different types of fact-checkers [ 72 – 74 ]–might facilitate the containment of misinformation in journalism [ 75 ].…”

More top-down than peer-to-peer: talking to Australians about their ideal news source

“…Journalists can also effectively restore trust by publicly defending their profession. In one 5-day field experiment involving an online news portal in the United States, fact-checking heightened levels of trust in the media, but only when accompanied by the publication of opinion pieces defending journalism (Pingree et al, 2018). In other words, articles that defend journalism can raise trust levels.…”

Vertrauen in Journalismus unter Online-Bedingungen

“…wahrnimmt, weil sie ihnen vertraut. Wirth (1999, S. 54) Pingree, Quenette, Tchernev, & Dickinson, 2013;Pingree et al, 2018;van Duyn & Collier, 2019;Meier & Reimer, 2011). Theoretisch ist Vertrauen aber als langfristige, stabile Einstellung konzipiert, die sich durch einen einmaligen experimentellen Stimulus kaum verändern sollte (Tsfati & Cappella, 2003, S. 507).…”