Verification and Misinformation

Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings will be a case study in the practice of verifying information before publishing. In the chase for breaking news, media consumers were bombarded with conflicting and confusing information about what was going on. Wild assumptions, such as the one CNN correspondent John King made about the bombing suspect, does more harm than good.

Josh Stearns, author of the blog Groundswell, has accumulated a number of links to various pieces that tackle the issue of verifying information before sharing it with the masses.

I’ve been guilty of assuming in my writing also, so I’m no saint. But as Professor Dawers has stated numerous times, “Just get the facts right”. Consumers trust journalists to give them accurate accounts of what is happening in society. Let’s not betray them.