Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Arianna Huffington on accuracy

I realize Arianna's visit was over a week ago, but I have just answered some questions for ICView on the subject, so she is fresh in my mind.
I was so happy to hear her talk about good reporting. Online journalism seems to get a lot of uncertainty as to how accurate it is, because it is so easy to post something online. A blogger doesn't have fact checkers and editors filtering through their material before it is published. But at the Huffington Post, Arianna explained how although they are an online newspaper with a lot of information coming from outsiders, they do have very strict guidelines. Such as if a mistake is made in a blog post, the writer has 24 hours to correct it or take it down. If not, their password as a Huffington blogger is revoked.
It makes a point that if there is a mistake on an online media outlet it is much easier to correct than a newspaper. If I make some editorial mistake in this blogpost I can go back and correct it minutes later. In a newspaper once it's printed, it's done. And the corrections have to wait until next issue. So who really is more accurate?

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