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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

About those anonymous comments

Some 70 percent of editors surveyed said requiring commenters to disclose their identities would support good journalism, while only 45 percent of the public did. Similarly, 58 percent of editors said letting journalists join online conversations and give personal views would harm journalism, but only 36 percent of the public agreed.

Most editors and the public agree that local news online should follow longstanding journalism standards, such as verifying information. But views of the two groups diverged on whether users of local news Web sites should post comments without giving their real names, according to a new survey.

You may remember that this blog posted a question by Bill O’Connor last December 20 about unsigned comments on the blog. There were a half dozen comments. So we thought viewers might be interested in this study.

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), in partnership with the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME), conducted the comprehensive study of credibility of online local journalism between August and October 2007. The purpose of the study was to examine opinions of the general public as well as newsroom editors regarding the credibility of online local news content, interaction between newsroom and readers, and the attributes that comprise good journalism practice online.

Five hundred interviews were randomly completed with adults 18 years of age or older throughout the United States, as well as 1,251 interviews with newsroom editors of U.S. daily newspapers. The surveys were conducted by RJI's Center for Advanced Social Research (CASR) at the Missouri's School of Journalism.

Click on the headline to read the article on the suvery or read the full report on the Associated Press Managing Editors website. The complete report is 49 pages in a PDF file

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