Abstract
This article analyzes news media scandals as critical incidents in journalism. A critical incident can be broadly understood as an event or development that reflects 'the hows and whys' of journalism. A part of the research into critical incidents studies these as occurrences that are made scandalous by journalistic misdeeds or ethical lapses. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, theoretically, to link this understanding of critical incidents to the study and theory of the scandal. Second, empirically, to analyze how different types of news media scandals lead to reflection and debate about journalism. To achieve this purpose, the article focuses on two specific types of news media scandals: the fabrication scandal and the erroneous information scandal. The two types of scandals bring into question fundamental standards and practices of journalism, such as 'telling the truth' and basing stories on 'facts.' They also lead to reflections on 1) increased competition between news media, 2) the pressure to produce more stories inside the individual newsroom, 3) the drive to get a 'scoop,' 4) journalism's relationship to powerful and/or anonymous sources, and 5) the problems of a 'trust, not supervise' culture in the newsroom.
Highlights
News media scandals occur in many different countries and often become global news stories when they are uncovered
To analyze how different types of news media scandals lead to reflection and debate about the standards and practices of journalism
We have tried to answer the following RQ: Which type of debate, criticism, and reflections about 'the hows and whys' of journalism did the coverage of the fabrication scandals and the erroneous information scandals from 2004 to 2021 cause in Danish news media?
Summary
News media scandals occur in many different countries and often become global news stories when they are uncovered. In the US, both the Stephen Glass scandal (1998) and the Jayson Blair scandal (2003) involved reporters who were caught fabricating or plagiarizing their stories. In Great Britain, Sky News reporter James Furlong fabricated a news story that showed a fake live firing of a cruise missile at sea in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War in 2003. In 2011, the British Tabloid News of World had to shut down due to a phonehacking scandal. The latest global media scandal to hit the headlines is the so-called 'Spiegel-gate' (2018). A prizewinning reporter of the famous German news magazine was caught fabricating both stories and sources. Various kinds of news media scandals have always existed with the Moon Hoax, a series of six articles about the people living on the moon, published by New York Sun in 1835, often referenced as one of the first news media scandals (Thornton, 2000)
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