NationStates Jolt Archive

Nick Davies, a Guardian journalist and author of 'Flat Earth News' says that only 12% of the news is new news. 88% is just the better copy/paste work.

70% of the foreign stories come from a press agency like Reuters and only 1% of the journalists are admitting this in their writings. So the rest is pretending it's news from their own bare hands.

He investigated the quality of the news in his book.

Are there people around who have read this book? It seems very interesting.

http://www.flatearthnews.net/about-nick-davies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/nickdavies

Seems about right unless it happens locally in the USA, and then it is over reported.

Seems about right unless it happens locally in the USA, and then it is over reported.

I think that local papers copy/paste their articles as well. Also in USA.

I haven't read his book. I don't look at the news more than once every couple of weeks, though, because it's always the same.

And lately (like in the past 10-15 years) it isn't really news anymore, it's tabloid-type celebrity stalking.

I think that local papers copy/paste their articles as well. Also in USA.
I think he meant "local" local news as opposed to national or world news reported locally. Crime, fires, stuff like that.

I think he meant "local" local news as opposed to national or world news reported locally. Crime, fires, stuff like that.

I meant the same. But even in such case, I'm rather sure they copy/paste their events as well.

The editoral pages are longer than 10 years ago and they write those pages with less journalists. The result is less checking, less own work, more copy/paste which is resulting in less quality.

Working in politics in Australia, I can tell you that the ALP sends out bucketloads of media releases to the various media organisations. Many, if not most, are ignored. Of the rest the media outlets simply summarise what's in the media release (without even checking them out). Only some prompt deeper investigation.