Yesterday I posted on a BBC story that provided links to some of the source material, including long reports, that went into the writing of it. Today, another good example comes along. To be sure, since the web began some news stories on line have including hyperlinks to supporting information. But is it a growing practice at major outlets? Seems so. Can’t be sure. Welcome if so.
Here is another such buttressed piece from a major news outlet:
- AP – Seth Borenstein: Fire and rain: Fed scientists point to wild April ; Several sources, not all in agreement, discussing whether there is any underlying reason for such severe storminess, drought, flood, and wildfire to have hit the country in just one month. Maybe its El Niñ0-Southern Oscillation, in part, but that isn’t the whole answer, says here. At the bottom are links directly to a pair of NOAA reports.
A question is whether articles such as that in the Guardian recently from Ben Goldacre have sparked more on line publications to include direct access to the reports or other base material that reporters used. A subsidiary question is whether reporters ought to include a link to any press releases they consult. We do it here at the Tracker, often enough, but that is to share with colleagues, as well as those members of the public who read us, a glimpse of what reporters had to work with (and also to reveal reporters who rely mostly or entirely on press releases). Some releases are sublime. But for a news outlet to routinely circulate press releases, in light of the traditional high-end opinion among reporters that they are good as news tips but subject to deep doubt regarding their objectivity, might be a poor idea.
– Charlie Petit
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