Abstract

Using the Egyptian Revolution as a case study, this article studies journalistic sourcing and verification through in-depth interviews with journalists in the United Kingdom. While the coverage of the event in the British media was dominated by civic, unofficial sources, interviews conducted in 2014 revealed that journalists only included these if no other sources were available. In fact, journalists voiced concern with regards to verification of online sources, and rarely included these as direct, first-hand accounts. Follow-up interviews conducted in 2020 point to developments journalism practice has undergone since, particularly in relation to open-source content verification. Overall, the picture we paint of British journalists’ handling of content sourced from social media is one wedged between expressed enthusiasm and cautious scepticism.

摘要

本文以埃及革命为案例研究，通过对英国记者的深入采访来研究新闻来源和验证。虽然英国媒体对该事件的报道主要是民间的、非官方的消息来源，但 2014 年进行的采访显示，只有在没有其他来源可用的情况下，记者才会纳入这些消息。事实上，记者们对在线资源的验证表示担忧，很少将这些作为直接的第一手资料。2020 年进行的后续采访指出了自那时以来新闻实践所经历的发展，特别是在开源内容验证方面。总体而言，我们描绘的英国记者处理来自社交媒体的内容的画面介于表达的热情和谨慎的怀疑之间。