Consensus. But how did they get there?
If ever there was a topic that the mainstream press could agree on, it is that there were no space aliens attacking a mall in Miami. But how does the story fare using the Mis/Dis information test we are developing? Let’s see.
Numerous sources reported zestfully on the Miami mall space aliens, all of them denying it: Newsweek, CBS News, USAToday, NDTV, Mashable, GulfLive, NBCMiami, Rolling Stone, Politifact and the Irish Star.
Even a noted “the space aliens have visited” speaker, Jeremy Corbell, has said it is not true.
The only media outlet to give even moderate credence to the Miami space alien story is Radio Free Hub City, which simply put the doubts at the end of the article and didn’t update to include Miami Dade Police statements ridiculing the story.
But let’s take it through the analysis as a way of testing what we have come up with so far.
When news follows social media, instead of the other way around.
The Proposed Mis/Dis Information Checklist, as applied to the Miami Space Alien story
In any legal filing, has the provider of news ever claimed to be a character that is not meant to be taken at face value?
None of the above media outlets have maintained that they are only portraying characters that should not be meant to be taken seriously.
Has the provider of news ever issued a correction to one of their news reports?
Mashable and has a corrections policy but hasn’t actually corrected any of its stories. GulfLive doesn’t have either. NBC 6 South Florida News also has a corrections policy, but there is no place to find their corrections. The Rolling Stone has a way to submit a correction to the editor, but no fact-checks of their own stories, only those of other publications. Politifact has a Truth-O-Meter where errors can be sent in, and a delightful list of stories that have been corrected. The Irish Star posts a way to send in corrections to their stories.
Is the news provider a Repeater or Reporter?
A Reporter has done the field interviews and fact-checked the news themselves. A Repeater just repeats what a Reporter has said, without having done the interviews, fact-checking or writing. Often this accompanies opinion or analysis. While valuable, it will not make a Repeater into a Reporter.
In this case, a Reporter is when the writer of the story has researched the story themselves, and has not quoted what another news outlet has written in lieu of doing their own research.
Newsweek, Reporter.
CBS News, Reporter.
USAToday, Reporter.
NDTV, Repeater.
Mashable, Repeater.
GulfLive, Reporter.
NBCMiami, Reporter.
Rolling Stone, Repeater.
Politifact, Repeater.
Irish Star, Repeater.
Does the news provider claim to be “for entertainment purposes only”?
None do.
Who is paying the reporter? Are they transparent about any potential conflicts of interest?
Advertising, but no discernable conflicts of interest.
Is the report based on unnamed sources?
Yes. Nameless social media accounts are “unnamed sources.”
So this is the first attempt to use our Mis/Dis Information Checklist to help people evaluate a news story for themselves
Thoughts for improvement?