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Article: A downward trend in use of anonymous sources: surveys of journalists and public opinion place the use and need for anonymous sources in a broader context.(Words & Reflections)
- Article from:
- Nieman Reports
- Article date:
- June 22, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Harvard University, Nieman Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Tom Rosenstiel, who directs the Project for Excellence in Journalism, spoke about some findings on the use of anonymous sources that are in the 2005 State of the Media report issued by his project.
We examined 16 newspapers of varying sizes and, in that sample, seven percent of all the stories contained at least one anonymous source. That is down from 29 percent that we found in a similar sample a year ago. With front-page stories, it's 13 percent, also down from last year. The bigger the paper, not surprisingly, the more prevalent anonymous sourcing is. If we examined just Washington stories, my hypothesis is that the number would be even higher. In looking at ...