BLOG: Publishing corrections is good for journalistic transparency

The dilemma of if and how to publish corrections in journalism has been an issue since journalism’s inception, and the rise of social media has only further complicated it.

Corrections are typically issued if inaccurate information gets through the editing process and is either said in a broadcast or published in a print or online article. Publishing corrections poses a series of ethical questions for newsrooms: What is severe enough to warrant a correction or retraction? How should the company go out about issuing the correction or retraction? And so on.

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When to issue a correction?

According to the Committee on Publications Ethics, editors should consider issuing a correction if:

• A small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (especially because of honest error); or

• If the author or contributor list is incorrect (i.e.: a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included)

When to issue a retraction?

According to the Committee on Publications Ethics, editors should consider issuing a retraction if:

• They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct of honest error;

• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross referencing, permission or justification;

• It constitutes plagiarism; or

• It reports unethical research

Possible solutions

“The general rule of thumb is to correct errors in the place where the audience that experienced the mistake is likely to see the fix,” Kelly McBride wrote for The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Increasingly, people consume the news via social media with nearly two-thirds of American adults reporting occasionally using social media as their main source of news behind television broadcasts, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

Often, publications post corrections in obscure and hard to find places including the bottom of an online article, back pages of print publications or at the end of a broadcast. This does not go far enough.

In the Internet age where social media allows for content to go viral instantaneously without any verification, journalists need to consider the most visible ways to publish corrections and/or retractions to prevent the spread of what is commonly dubbed nowadays as "fake news." This is the level of transparency needed for journalistic integrity and credibility in an age where people increasingly distrust the news they are reading.