Taylor Definitions, Chapter 3 “Digital Churnalism”
The term “churnalism” was first coined in 2008 by BBC journalist Waseem Zakir. It refers to the trend in journalism where reporters cobble together stories from wire copy and press releases rather than doing the actual investigation, research and fact checking. They may add a few quotes or comments and then “churn” it out to their readers.
While not limited to digital media sites, Taylor explains that because of the urgency and speed of the Internet, more journalists resort to these shortcuts online than in traditional print media. Taylor interviewed Nick Davies, a journalist who has been outspoken about “churnalism,” who said that a study in Britain found that only 12% of material found in the British press contained original reporting (Taylor, 89). A report was done in Baltimore in 2011 found similar results. Most new information came from traditional print media – very little from online media.
The main cause is the pressure on digital reporters to produce stories at a faster and faster rate while spending less money. The dangers are many in that the more often a story is reposted the easier it is for facts to be distorted. There is a huge margin of error in this type of reporting. And when a person is linked from one story to another, quite often the linked article is not current, causing the reader to be misinformed, even if it was correct at the time it was first posted.
The Huffington Post boasts of publishing over twelve hundred items per day (95) and in order to do that they demand their writers spend very little time on each story. And because page views determine advertising revenue, editors are pursuing subjects that they feel will get the most page views. They study what is trending and then writers pull together whatever sources they can and then churn out an abbreviated article. The Huffington Post is a perfect example of “churnalism”.
