COMP 2903
A31 – False Reporting on the Internet
and the Spread of Rumors
Danny Silver
JSOCS, Acadia University
Paul Hitlin
gnovis, April26, 2004
• B.A. Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
• M.A. from Georgetown University's Communication, Culture,
and Technology program
• gnovis is a peer-reviewed journal and academic blog run by
graduate students in the Communication, Culture, and
Technology program at Georgetown University
• The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in
Journalism (PEJ) dedicated to understanding the information
revolution
• Hitlin supervises PEJ's content coding operations, assists with
the design of content analysis research, and helps to write the
weekly New Media Index
The Internet: The New Rumor Mill
• Stephen O’Leary (2002):
– “the social functions of rumor are virtually
indistinguishable from the social functions of ‘real
news’ … [people] are trying to make sense of their
world”
– Every medium of news has had a history of
misreported stories
– However, the internet allows a far greater number
of persons to be involved in the production/
editing/dissemination of news
Internet Errors Die Hard -1
• How are errors in Internet journalism corrected
online?
• Jim Hall (2001) feels they are not addressed properly
– Errors are buried and never is really corrected
– Because they propagate so rapidly
– Interesting but erroneous story becomes folklore
• This article examines Hall’s assertion, the reasons
why Internet reporting leads to errors and 3 case
studies
Reasons for Cyberjournalism Errors
1. The need for speed
– Always-on news means the new deadline is “now”
– Timeliness trumps accuracy (Drudge Report)
– Less time for fact-checking
2. Desire to attract website visitor “hits”
– “News is infotainment” (Hall, 2001)
– People can get there news from anywhere
Reasons for Cyberjournalism Errors
3. Political Gains
– Rumors are sometimes premeditated
– To advance particular ideology
4. Attraction to Scandal
– A report that a plane was brought down by a
missle is more exciting than a mechanical failure
– The spectacular catches reader attention
– We all love a scandal
Internet Errors Die Hard - 2
• The complete replacement of an erroneous story
with a correct one is unique to electronic publication
• Works only for those who come to the site after the
correction – no audit trail, no notice of correction
• “Social cacade” - an error can propagate quickly
• Information can become entrenched even if it is
incorrect - legitimacy through comm. and repetition
• Online participants of new media are more likely to
be influenced as compared to newspaper readers
Three Case Studies
1. The Crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996
2. Sidney Blumenthal versus Matt Drudge:
Internet Libel
3. The Suicide of White House Aide Vince Foster
!!! Break into teams and examine each of these.
Conclusions
• The Internet is a significant channel for rumors
versus news
• How can the positive democratizing aspects of the
Internet be balanced with the potential for false
reports and social cascades?
• The most probable method is to promote the use of
traditional standards of journalistic conduct (check
the facts, ensure multiple sources)
• Else reliability/quality of Internet will be questioned