Reports, inferences, and judgments in deceptive and legitimate news stories

Dominic L. Lasorsa, Seth C. Lewis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

A fundamental tenet of journalism is that news articles are based on facts, not assumptions or evaluations. A content analysis of recent deceptive news articles found that they contain a lower proportion of report statements (facts) and a higher proportion of both inferential statements (assumptions) and judgment statements (evaluations) than a random sample of ostensibly legitimate articles produced by the same major news organizations during the same time frame. Implications for the practice and future of journalism are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)378-392
Number of pages15
JournalJournalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume87
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

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