LINK TO AUDIO
TRANSCRIPT
Anchor: Wayne Young
SLUGLINE: Who cares
if it's true?
Timecode: 02:06
INTRO: This is Reflections on Online Media. The date is November 20,
2016. A rare rainy afternoon in Phoenix, Arizona. I am Wayne Young.
WY: Today I’ll be speaking about truth in reporting in the Internet
age. Does it matter anymore and if so, how do we achieve it. Let’s take a look
at one successful example of reporting via the Internet, and it is Buzzfeed.
WY: From its start,
Buzzfeed’s journalists shared the idea that the quicker a story was put out the
better, even if it had not been thoroughly vetted. They felt that the internet
was self-correcting and that the truth would emerge through open trial and error.
While still maintaining much of this philosophy, Buzzfeed has decided that
convincing its readers that its posts are true makes good sense regarding both
journalism and business. In order to do so, they have started to use
journalistic tools that have been derided as “old-school”, and one of the most
fundamental of these tools is the copy editor.
WY: This philosophy falls
in line with a primary concern that veteran reporters have. The old guard holds
that reporting is a quest for truth and for what the readers need to know to stay
informed. Their process was all about verifying the facts and only then
presenting them to the public.
WY: Adding some of the old
tools doesn’t mean Buzzfeed is going to be slavishly following the “rules” of
the past. Instead of insisting that stories have at least two source, one
really strong and credible source is enough to see it to publication. The
editor in chief, Ben Smith prefers to rely on smart reporters and on Twitter,
fixing stories as they develop.
WY: For more information
and other stories, go to wayne-young-online (dot) blogspot (dot) com.
OUT-RO: Thank you for listening to Reflections
on Online Media. Be sure to keep listening.
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