How does media stop plagiarism?

Mallary Jean Tenore in Poyntner.com writes about ways to prevent plagiarism at college newspapers and maybe in real-world newsrooms, too.

Penn State’s student newspaper The Daily Collegian, suspended a writer for plagiarizing and fabricating quotes by Sue Paterno, the widow of former coach Joe Paterno. This was the paper’s second plagiarism case this year. 

In September, Arizona State University’s State Press and Columbia University’s Daily Spectator both revealed that their students had plagiarized.

Problems include:

Taking information from another source, which may have plagiarized the information.

Relying heavily on source material rather than getting the information first-hand.

Quoting what a person says on TV.

Some colleges are requiring their student newspaper’s reporters to provide sourcing notes with their stories and then send out the story to the sources quoted asking if the quotes are accurate.

Some train their reporters about plagiarism, although plagiarized quotes were in stories written by reporters who had been trained.

Some use plagiarism-detecting software to see if identical or similar wording is used elsewhere on the Internet.

The author suggests that some of these tactics might be used in mainstream newsrooms, too. Plagiarized stories appeared in NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time, CNN and The Boston Globe.

To read the full story, click on http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/journalism-education/190754/10-ways-to-prevent-plagiarism-fabrication-at-college-newspapers-and-in-any-newsroom/