Straight to the source : an exploratory study of Australia's regional newspaper journalists' checks on validity and accuracy of sources

This paper reports on an exploratory study that examined whether journalists<br />undertake the vital role of checking the validity and accuracy of information<br />supplied to them in media releases. It also monitored how much information<br />journalists used from press releases in their published work. The study followed Gandy's information subsidy theory by surveying 10 local government media relations officers who regularly issued media releases via<br />electronic mail or facsimile to a sample of 14 rural/regional newspapers. The data analysed found that rural/regional journalists were not adequately verifying information supplied in media releases and using a significant amount of this information verbatim.<br />