Corrections and Online News

John D. Thomas

January 24, 2012

https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/corrections-and-online-news

"AutoCorrect's Not Enough For Online News "

First Impression:

The title reminds me a bit of myself: I tend to correct people from time to time depending on what mistake they made. In the title's sense, it reminds me of my usual habit of correcting someone's grammar or pointing out the fact that someone misspelled something in his or her work; in the online world, I guess that's a pretty common habit.

Quote: 

" If a change is made to an article that originally appears online and did not come from the print edition, if that change is not called out prominently then the reader assumes the mistake or error never occurred in the first place."

Reflection Proper:

Let's face facts: we tend to correct other people. It's ironic though, for the person that tends to correct others doesn't tend to correct himself or herself, which is funny. In the subject of media or rather in the world of journalism and reports, corrections is a really big deal. In newspapers, some creators don't like to make such things, but most do with gusto and with complete diligence. In the online world, it's a different story, for according to the essay, and I quote, in the author's words, "if a change is made to an article that originally appears online and did not come from the print edition, if that change is not called out prominently then the reader assumes the mistake or error never occurred in the first place." It practically means that most readers never notices a mistake or error occurring in an article that they have read regardless of whether print or not, due to the fact it was never called out widely and also it's only one-sided since it was changed online and not offline. Sure, there are some websites that calls out its "corrections", each with its own special timestamp and what not, and others that encourages readers to contact them if they see any errors in the article they have read, but others don't, even if they are well-known throughout the community, like CNN for one, in accordance with the essay, who doesn't seem to create corrections in their articles or rather does it for a long period of time after the errors have been pointed out. To sum it all up in a way, I say regardless of whether news articles are made digital or not, making corrections to its numerous and various errors is truly a time-consuming, ultra-difficult process that usually requires the audience's reviews and observations, for if the creators of such articles doesn't do well in its works, not only it will lose and make its audience incredibly mad, but also they will eventually lose their business or something worse can happen to them; rather, I would say a certain lesson such as "doing it right the first time" comes to mind, and also in addition to that: "always double-check your work before execution".

5 Things Learned From Article: 

1. I learned that corrections play a big deal in news, especially online.

2. I learned about some websites taking critical measures and doing corrections to their articles with diligence.

3. I learned about most websites not handling corrections or rather just doing it for a long period of time after the errors were pointed out.

4. I learned that correcting journalism errors is a difficult and time-consuming process that requires the audience's participation. 

5. I learned that journalists should most likely do articles right the first time and also double-check for errors before execution in order to avoid certain consequences like having to do a correction process afterward some errors were pointed out.

5 Integrative Questions:

1. How do you take care of correcting your works?

2. What's your take on correcting journalism mistakes in the modern era?

3. Why do most websites don't even do corrections or rather just being plain lazy about it?

4. What suggestions can you give to journalists when it comes to corrections in their articles?

5. How do you tend to convince lazy journalists online to do their articles correctly?