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Evaluation of breaking news content online

Because the Internet makes it possible for newspapers to report breaking news online as they occur, both the online local news users and newsroom editors were asked to evaluate the quality of breaking news content on the website they visit more frequently in terms of timeliness, accuracy, depth and thoroughness, volume, and coverage (For the general public, website was defined as those that they visited most frequently; for editors, it was their newspaper's website).

Although 31% of the public users rated "timeliness" excellent and 52% good, editors seemed to be more critical of the timeliness of their breaking news content online, as 21% thought it was excellent and 46% good. On the other hand, 25% of the editors rated "timeliness" fair and eight percent poor, compared to 15% and one percent in the public, respectively.

In evaluating "accuracy," 50% of the editors thought it was excellent, 47% good, and three percent fair. In comparison, slightly more than one-fifth of the public (22%) rated it excellent, 58% good, and 19% fair.

As for "depth and thoroughness" of the breaking news contents online, both groups gave similar ratings, as shown above.

Ten percent of the users rated "volume" excellent, 48% good, significantly higher than the scores of 17% and 30% given by the editors. In addition, 38% of the editors thought "volume" was fair, and 15% poor, compared to 36% and five percent given by the general public for the two categories.

Next, both groups were asked to rate the coverage of what journalists think is important versus what they (the general public) think is important in the website's breaking news content.


Both editors and the public users of online local news were similar in their evaluation of the coverage of what journalists think is important and what the general public thinks is important in the website's breaking news contents.

TABLE II: Mean scores regarding quality of breaking news content online

Question Items Public Mean Score
(n = 161) 		Editor Mean Score
(n = 1,251)
1. Timeliness3.132.80
2. Accuracy3.023.46
3. Depth and thoroughness2.762.61
4. Volume2.642.49
5. Coverage of what journalist think is important2.642.76
6. Coverage of what you think is important2.622.72

Notes:

The question items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (poor), 2 (fair), 3 (good), to 4 (excellent).

n (general public) = 161; n (editors) = 1,251


© 2008 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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