There was a time before I went to college that I thought wikipedia was a reliable online source. After reading The Reconstruction of American Journalism by Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Shudson, it has come to my attention that the same could be said about online news reporting.
This article stated newspapers were previousy run by the governement, therefore, the newspapers reflected the views of those who owned them . “Accountability Journalism” was obviously not present when newspapers first begun if they were influenced by one groups opinion. This accountability is a law that was later enforced for publications to verify the validity of their reporting. I for one do not want to read a news story in the paper and believe it is true when it is false, but at the same time how legit is legit?
Let me explain what I mean. Newspaper X is run by a Boss. The people who work at Newspaper X are simply reporters under the guidance of the Boss. If a reporter approaches the Boss to run a story and is against what the Boss believes, he has the authority to reject the article. To me this is like a person who purposely doesn’t tell you something and then says they didn’t lie because they never said anything.
No matter how accountable journalism is, it is almost impossible to not put a spin on it. Yes, accountability journalism keeps writers from completely going off the deep end with incorrect details and exaggerations, but what we read is still not 100% accountable. It is influenced by the writer, the editor, the Boss and the owner.
So my questions once again is, how legit is Accountability Journalism?