By: Steve Outing Because those who produce printed newspapers, magazines, and news Web
sites
are human, nearly all such publications contain at least some errors
-
misspellings, typos, grammatical gaffes, factual inaccuracies, etc.
(Odds
are, this column will end up with an error that I or my editors don't
catch.)
It's a commonly held belief that Web news sites contain more errors than
printed news publications. This is a topic that arises periodically on
the
Internet discussion lists that I host (Online-News and Online-Writing),
and the prevailing complaint you hear is that online news sites are
sloppier than printed newspapers and news magazines.
That makes sense. Web news sites often have smaller editorial staffs
than
their print counterparts, and Web news often goes online as fast as is
humanly possible, with less time allowed for editing than at a daily
newspaper.
An experiment
But is Web news really sloppy compared to print news publications? I
decided to conduct a modest experiment to find out. I bought several
U.S.
print newspapers and pored over a sampling of their pages, circling
errors
I spotted. (Grammar goofs and typos are easy to spot, but of course,
errors
of fact aren't so easy for the casual reader to identify.) Then I went
to
those publications' corresponding Web sites and did the same thing, to
compare error rates between the two. I also reviewed a sampling of pages
at
some online-only news Web sites.
Now, earlier in my career I was a newspaper copy editor, and I'm pretty
good at spotting errors in others' copy. (As any editor can tell you,
it's
easier to spot goofs in other writers' work than your own.) To make it
easier to find errors, for the online news sites I printed out their
pages
before scanning for errors. It's well known that editing on paper
instead
of on a flickering computer screen will allow you to spot more
errors.
Web editors are doing OK
Overall, I was surprised to find that on news sites of major media
companies, the error rates are reasonable - and roughly comparable
to
print newspapers. It's rare to find an article or page on a news site
that
doesn't contain at least a minor error or two, but I didn't run into
many
that were chock full of slip-ups. Web news editors seem to be doing a
reasonable job.
Let's start with the front page of the Chicago Tribune print
edition. On the day I tested it, I spotted three minor glitches - a
comma where there should have been a semi-colon; a bad hyphenation
break;
and an inconsistency on a byline. Now, as is typical at newspapers, the
front page tends to be more closely edited than other pages. So I also
repeated my error-scanning on the MetroChicago section front, where I
found
only one error - a comma where there shouldn't have been one.
For comparison, I looked at copy in the Metro Daywatch area of
ChicagoTribune.com. Daywatch is the site's breaking local news section,
which features articles written and edited by an online-exclusive news
staff. Its 'front page' consists of a series of short items about
breaking
Chicago-area news. On the day I reviewed this page, I couldn't find a
single error.
I also pored over a couple breaking full stories linked to on the main
Daywatch page, and found one error - an acronym ('CTA') used in a
story but with no explanation of what it stands for. On the main news
page
of the overall site, which consists of a couple dozen headlines and
summary
blurbs, I found two errors (an extraneous 'in' inserted in a sentence,
and
a 'the' that should not have been there).
Next, I picked up two of my local papers, the Denver Post and the
Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo. Perusing their print-edition front
pages, I found not a single error on the Post, and three small
errors on the Camera (a bad page jump, a missing comma, and a
missing period). As a loyal reader of the Boulder paper, I've long
noticed
a propensity toward typos and errors - but this is a smaller paper
than the Post or the Tribune, with a smaller editorial
staff,
so this is to be expected.
Looking at those papers' online 'front pages,' the error rates are
similar.
Denver Post Online's home page, on the day I reviewed it, contained only
a
single error - a headline with a letter-case inconsistency.
TheDailyCamera.com's home page matched that, with a single miscue -
using a word in a sentence that didn't make sense.
Finally, I did the same test with the Seattle Times and its Web
site, with pretty much the same results. The Web site and print pages I
reviewed had five and three errors, respectively.
Online-only news sites' performance
Sites like CNN.com publish news quickly, so you might expect to see
regular
errors. I did find that to be the case, but the slip-ups appeared
infrequently and were minor in nature. When I checked the main Local
News
page on CNN.com, I spotted a single error in a headline link. On a
sample
breaking-news article, there were three errors - an unneeded 'the,'
a
misplaced comma and a wrong-case problem in an accompanying headline
link.
CNN.com has the backing and experience of a traditional news media
company,
so you would expect its content to be high quality and well edited. How
about online-only news sites?
I also conducted my review at CNET's News.com technology-news site. Its
home page was perfectly clear of errors when I checked, and I pored over
a
couple full-text stories and found no discernable boo-boos.
MSNBC.com also fared well, with its home page clean of errors. I
reviewed
two hastily written articles about yesterday's Air France Concorde
crash,
and found one article clear of mistakes, and the other with three errors
(all in the same paragraph).
Little difference from print
Are there mistakes lurking out there on the Web? You bet, there are
lots.
If I'd expanded my review to smaller news Web sites, I'd have found many
more examples of error-laden pages and questionable writing quality.
This
is largely a matter of resources, as many smaller Web sites don't have
the
luxury of having large copyediting staffs. You'll find the same thing at
understaffed small newspapers, whose staffs often consist of
journalistic
rookies.
The good news for high-profile Web news sites seems to be that their
quality control is similar to that at print newspapers.
Let the people decide for themselves
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Northeast Tarrant (suburban)
edition
recently found itself in a controversy with a local school
superintendent
over what was said in an interview with an S-T reporter and at a
school board meeting. The schools chief was quoted in a series of
articles
that the newspaper ran about mismanagement of school construction
projects.
To set the record straight, and help dispel notions that the newspaper
had
misquoted the superintendent, S-T Tarrant editor Lois
Norder
put the transcripts, audio and video tapes of the school board meeting
and
the interview on the Web for all to hear and view. The
schools-controversy
site went online last Saturday, with an announcement published in the
newspaper print edition.
Here's
the
page containing the transcripts and audio/video.
Other recent columns
In case you missed recent Stop The Presses!, here are links to
the last few columns:
So Many News Devices, So Little Time, Wednesday, July 19
The Next News Platform: E-book Readers, Wednesday, July 12
Small Daily Paper, Big Online Profit Goals, Wednesday, July 5
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Got a tip? Let me know about it
If you have a newsworthy item about the online news/interactive news
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