Scott Maier, associate professor at the University’s School of Journalism and Communication, earned a prestigious award for his research on newspaper accuracy, which revealed that newspaper inaccuracies are at an all-time high.
Maier teamed with Philip Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina, for the project, which showed local and feature stories to news sources to test the accuracy of the stories. News sources contacted by Maier and Meyer identified errors in more than 60 percent of the articles examined.
The pair won the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for 2005 for the research.
The rate of inaccuracies is the highest it has been in more than 70 years of research on the issue, Maier said.
“Inaccuracies are as prevalent and even worse than it ever has been,” Maier said.
The research also revealed the accuracy of a paper affects its credibility and its circulation.
Going into the project, Maier expected to uncover many errors in the stories because errors are seen by readers all the time, he said. But because journalists are more professional, better trained and receive a better education now, he said, he was surprised to find that they occur more now than ever.
Maier attributed the high rate of errors to newspapers being squeezed to make a profit and journalists being called on to take heavier work loads.
Newspapers should not strive to be free of errors, however, Maier said. A paper without mistakes is a sign of timidness and journalists simply acting as stenographers.
The study done by Maier and Meyer, who headed the project, is the first newspaper accuracy research that looked at newspapers from all over the nation, Maier said. He hopes that the project will spark friendly cooperation between papers nationwide, with publications vying to produce the fewest errors.
Maier said the question to look at now is how often an error is reported, and, when it is, how often it results in a correction. His research found that only one of every 10 news sources reported the error to the newspaper.
“News sources were found to be remarkably forgiving of factual errors, with the majority saying they were ‘eager’ to be in the newspaper again,” Maier and Meyer wrote in a submission letter for the Sigma Delta Chi award. “What really riled them were ‘errors of interpretation,’ information technically right but considered misleading.”
They say that a forthcoming study is expected to show that newspapers fail to correct a majority of factual errors reported to them.
The prestigious award will be presented at an annual banquet July 14 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Maier, however, won’t attend the banquet because he will be traveling in Europe. Meyer will attend the event.
“This award is a great personal honor,” Maier said according to a University press release. “But more importantly, it shows that the journalism profession values news accuracy and seeks to do a better job at getting the story right.”

Contact the people, faith and culture reporter at [email protected]