Accuracy of coverage across sources (2005-2019)
MB: We do a lot of content analysis that can be time-intensive, where we look at word associations and the tone and language used. From that, we develop codebooks, and a team of coders – often including me – read through a sample of the larger populations to assess a specific question. In one recent paper, we examined how accurately media cover human contributions to climate change. Our top-level finding is that accuracy in news has improved, which is good. But when you look across sources, some are better than others. Our 2021 analysis of newspaper coverage (2) generated a little consternation from a journalist at the Daily Mail (it performed poorly in accuracy ratings).They wanted to see our data set, so we shared it with them. We got similar interest from an individual at The NewYorkTimes , who were kind of in the middle of the pack.They wanted to learn FEED: How do you analyse the quality and accuracy of the media and news coverage around the environment?
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
more about how they could improve. They published an article, for example, that had placed some Rush Limbaugh and DonaldTrump comments in context.While they aimed to put forward a factually accurate story, we just asked the question: was that
enough? Should those misleading statements receive any media attention at all? Given the stature of Limbaugh when he was alive and the bully pulpit ofTrump at that time, they possibly do. But these are challenges that journalists face all the time.
FEED: Are you looking at how manipulation or disinformation might be happening in some sources?
conversations, quite deliberately.There were hearings in the US in October, where the House Oversight Committee brought in oil giants, plus the American Petroleum Institute, to talk about the things they were doing that misinform, in a more benign way, or disinform, in a more malignant sense. So, language matters a ton. “MANUAL ANALYSIS IS IMPORTANT”
MB: Absolutely.That’s where that time-consuming, manual analysis is important. And we can expand beyond the news reporting and look at advertising and placement.That’s something the US journalist Andrew Revkin brought up recently – how certain articles and opinion pieces in really influential outlets also happen to have carbon-based industry advertising right next to them, some of which looks like a news article. We’re thinking critically about how those advertisements are muddling
(2) Download ‘Balance as bias, resolute on the retreat? Updates & analyses of newspaper coverage in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Canada over the past 15 years’ at iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac14eb
@feedzinesocial
Powered by FlippingBook