Study: Use Of Anonymous Sources Peaked In 1970s, Dropped By 2008

Newspaper ombudsmen and media critics complain often about excessive and unnecessary use of anonymous sources, and yet the press uses them less frequently now than in the so-called “golden age” of journalism.

The use of unnamed sources peaked in the 1970s in the wake of Watergate. By 2008 it had dropped to the same relative frequency as in 1958, according to a paper to be presented at AEJMC this week.

“Going into this, I really did think that I was going to find that anonymous sourcing was used more than in the past,” said Prof. Matt J. Duffy, a professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi who worked on the study with Prof. Ann E. Williams of Georgia State University.