Searching, selecting, and verifying: Online journalistic sourcing strategies

This study utilises a quantitative observation study on student journalists (n=47), as well as reconstruction interviews with experienced editors and reporters in newsrooms (n=12), to understand how Dutch journalists search, select, and verify sources online. Through the recording of screen activity, we show that search strategies are heavily influenced by how the search engine sorts and ranks potential sources. Eventual selection of sources remains relatively traditional, focused on legacy media and their websites. Moreover, online news production clearly challenges the verif ication process. Results suggest that journalists use no explicit but only so-called hybrid methods of verif ications, such as background checks of websites and social media accounts, and cross-checking of sources.