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A trend in recent years among news organizations is to prioritize speed over accuracy and fact checking when getting a story out. This has led to the publication of hoaxes, many retractions, and a public outrage at the trustworthiness of the press.
From Buzzfeed to NowThis, many companies that focus on digital content make their money on how quickly they get content out. In an article titled Who Cares if It's True, NowThis says they produce up to 50 videos a day for various social media platforms. One way that they are able to do this is that they do not work on their own fact checking. If a story has run elsewhere, such as the New York Times, then whatever information is being presented is taken as already proofed. This can backfire however, when an organization is too concerned with speed and not concerned enough with the truth.
In the same article, Buzzfeed gets caught up in a scandal after they posted and propagated a hoax. From that scandal, they have since improved their business practices in an attempt to become more trustworthy. The company now hires fact checkers and copy editors in what is seen as an odd, but respectable move on the part of the internet conglomerate.
In an article titled Dirty Big Secrets, discussion of why news organizations do not take responsibility for their mistakes is discussed. Cnn and FOX are notorious for trying to cover up their mistakes, and they do not take the proper course of action when it is found that a story of theirs in false. In comparison to the constant pressure the New York Times feels to maintain truthfulness, these news organizations fail to consistently be transparent about why they failed and how they plan to rectify their mistakes and prevents them in the future.
Transparency is the most important factor in assuring news stories are true. This means that organizations need to take responsibility when they mess up, and they need to be as transparent as possible about how they came to the stories they publish.
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