Scroll through a news portal in the morning and you may find articles under different newspaper names with nearly identical headlines and opening sentences. When even the numbers and quotes match word for word, the stories usually come from a single press release. This practice, in which journalists lightly edit press releases or wire copy instead of doing their own reporting, is called ‘churnalism’.
Churnalism, put simply, means ‘news churned out from press releases’. The word combines the English phrase churn out, meaning to produce in large quantities, with journalism. It is generally credited to BBC journalist Waseem Zakir and spread widely around 2008.
This article looks in turn at where the term came from, how stories get ‘churned’, what research has revealed about the scale of churnalism, and how readers and newsrooms can spot and reduce it.
How Press Releases Become News Stories: Churnalism
1. Where the Term Churnalism Came From
Churnalism is used less to criticize one reporter’s laziness than to describe a change across the whole news industry. One book played a major role in spreading the term.
(1) Nick Davies’s ‘Flat Earth News’
In his 2008 book ‘Flat Earth News’, British journalist Nick Davies exposed how often British newspapers reprinted other people’s material without checking it, and brought the word churnalism to a wide audience.
(2) Fewer reporters, more stories
As advertising revenue fell, newspapers cut reporters, yet the number of stories needed to fill both print and online editions actually grew. With fewer people writing more stories, it became easier to lean on press releases that were already written up.
(3) Speed ahead of checking
In online news, whoever posts first gets the clicks. Because pasting in a press release takes far less time than making a single verification call, speed has increasingly come before checking.
2. How Stories Get ‘Churned’
Churnalism stories usually follow a similar path. Press releases from companies, governments and other organizations arrive in the newsroom along with wire copy, and a reporter pressed for time changes a few sentences and sends the story out.
- Press Release: Material that a company or institution sends to the media, written in news style, about something it wants publicized.
- Wire Copy: Stories that a news agency supplies to many media outlets at once; in Britain, PA (Press Association) is the best-known example.
- Original Reporting: Reporting based on information a journalist has newly confirmed by going to the scene or speaking directly to the people involved.
- Cross-checking: The process of comparing one source’s claims with other material or with opposing views.
(1) Press releases already shaped like news
Press releases arrive in news form, complete with headline, summary and quotes, so with only small edits they can go straight into print.
(2) Checking is the first thing dropped
What churnalism skips is mostly the verification stage: hearing opposing views, confirming where numbers come from and weighing the interests of whoever made the announcement.
(3) One source, many stories
When many outlets carry the same material at the same time, readers feel it has been confirmed in many places, but there is really only one source.
3. The Scale of Churnalism Revealed by Research
Concrete figures on how common churnalism is came from a study by researchers at Cardiff University in Britain. Davies’s book also relied on this research as key evidence.
(1) An analysis of 2,207 domestic stories
A team including Justin Lewis examined 2,207 domestic news stories in the Guardian, The Times, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, and published the results in 2008.
(2) 60% relied on press releases and wire copy
Of the stories analyzed, 60% relied wholly or mainly on press releases or wire copy, and Davies summarized that only 12% were stories reporters had generated themselves.
(3) Signs of checking in only about half
Only about half of the stories showed signs of an attempt to verify the main source’s claims or add context, and large corporations were about three times more likely than civic groups to be the main source.
4. How to Spot and Reduce Churnalism
Press releases are not bad in themselves. Passing on official announcements quickly is part of the media’s job, but it matters to make clear how far the content has been checked.
(1) Compare with the original
In 2013 the US-based Sunlight Foundation and the UK’s Media Standards Trust jointly launched churnalism.com, which showed how much of an article overlapped with press releases once you entered its address.
(2) Look at sources and opposing views
By checking whether a story has sources other than the one making the announcement, whether the origin of its numbers is stated and whether it includes opposing voices, readers can weed out copied stories to some extent.
(3) Beware of excessive pessimism too
Some, like former Guardian editor Peter Preston, see these worries as overblown, arguing that there never was a golden age when the press did not rely on press releases.
In the end, the power to reduce churnalism comes from journalists who check and readers who know how to doubt. The simple idea that the same sentence appearing in many places does not mean the same fact has been confirmed many times is the first step to understanding churnalism.
