Dalal Salamah

On March 6th 2014, four newspapers, Al Rai, Al Dustour, Al Ghad and Al Sabeel, published four stories on a ministerial meeting in which the accomplishments of the project to computerize Jordan"s health sector were presented. The stories had four different titles, and three of them were attributed to different journalists, while the fourth was attributed to the newspaper.

At first glance, they seem to be different stories written by different journalists and published by different newspapers; however, a closer look at the content reveals two surprises. The first is that what seems like different stories covering the same event turns out to be the same story, taken verbatim from Jordan News Agency (Petra) and published with slight changes to the title, slight rearrangement of paragraphs, and sometimes without mentioning the agency as a source. The second surprise is that the original story on Petra cites, verbatim, a press release the Public Relations Department at the Ministry of Health published on its website.

The problem here is not only that the newspapers failed to mention the original source, but it goes beyond that to include the space occupied by "ready-to-use" stories in the Jordanian press. By "ready-to-use," I mean stories written outside the newspaper without any contribution from its journalists, neither in gathering the information nor in writing and presenting it, and published, word for word, in more than one newspaper. A scientific monitoring of the four newspapers, conducted for the purposes of this report, showed that "ready-to -use" stories make up 62.5% of their local news content. Around 70.5% of these ready-to-use stories were taken from Petra, and 27.2% were press releases sent to the newspapers by public relations departments in various public and private establishments, while the remaining 2% are stories journalists plagiarized from their colleagues.

Indeed, citing other news agencies is a universal practice, as even the top newspapers in the world cannot have outlets covering every part of the planet, but professional media outlets cite other agencies to "complement" their work and not to provide the core bulk of it, not to mention that this practice is usually used to cover events happening outside their coverage zone.

The irony this study revealed, however, is that the percentage mentioned above pertains to local stories, many of which covered events that took place in the capital, Amman, sometimes a few kilometers away from the newspaper"s premises. In the same context, it is only normal that newspapers cite press releases published by other entities. Establishments use press releases to publicize their activities or explain their position, but usually newspapers publish different stories on the same statement, in which they use different language, arrange ideas differently, and focus on different angles reflecting the opinion of the journalist or newspaper and ultimately the editorial policies of one newspaper or another.

The monitoring exercise showed that newspapers do not do that. Instead, they publish the press release or news as is. This is evident by the identical passages published in various newspapers at the same time. Moreover, the press usually neglects to mention that the information is taken from a press release issued by the "public relations" department of the relevant establishment, an issue which we will discuss further later on in this report. This entails a risk because the majority of these statements are written in the form of news stories covering the activities of the establishments that release them. Given the weak press coverage of the various issues, these "press releases" often become the only source of information available to the public.

Methodology and Sampling

We mentioned before that a "ready-to-use" story is news content that is not developed within the newspaper, and without any contribution from its journalists, whether in gathering information or writing and presenting it. Hence, we considered any story published in the same wording, on the same day in two or more newspapers, or published one day earlier on Petra News Agency as a story not developed by the newspaper. Labeling a story as "ready-to-use" was done using a very strict criterion, which is the duplication of text, and hence we ruled out stories we suspected to be ready-to-use if the wording was not identical. Most of these were stories about accidents that newspapers usually attributed to their correspondents across the governorates, although they only included information contained in statements from the Public Security or the Civil Defense Directorate, sometimes arranged in the same way.  Since the information is worded differently, the stories were considered original. The same applied to stories about Syrian refugees going in and out of the country, stories on the disposal of expired foods, and other stories of the kind that journalists run under their own names. Journalists were always given the benefit of the doubt, as it was assumed that they went after the news, and that this is the only information they managed to find.

The monitoring exercise covered four printed newspapers, Al Rai, Al Dustour, Al Ghad and Al Sabeel, and excluded Al Arab Al Yawm, given the unstable phase it was going through during 2013 and the suspension of its operations between 17/7/2013 – 8/12/2013 because of financial difficulties. The monitoring only covered news content on Jordan, including news, reports and features, while excluding sports news to reduce the monitoring period. It also excluded Al-Marsad (Observatory/Monitor) columns, which announce upcoming events, and columns such as "Al Rai"s Eye" in Al Rai, "Al Dustour"s Fishing Rod" in Al Dustour, Al Ghad"s "Alleys," and Al Sabeel"s "Secrets," which are daily columns that feature short stories (30 words on average), basically made up of a mix of "leaks," comments on events, and announcing upcoming functions.

The duration of the monitoring exercise was determined using the "artificial week" approach. We chose seven months starting October 2013 and ending April 2014, and chose the first Saturday of the first month, the first Sunday of the second month, the first Monday of the third month and so on so forth until the first Friday of the last month. The total number of local stories published in these newspapers was 1,689.

Where Does the News Come From?

This report basically tracked the ready-to-use stories in the monitored newspapers and tried to identify their sources, as inquiring about news sources is essential in verifying their originality. Essentially, the identity of the source indicates to the reader if there was a personal interest in promoting the content of the story or not, and considering that interest readers can make an informed judgment.

Yet, the importance of quoting the source of a story is not limited to those general sources, but it goes beyond that to include the journalists and the agency they work for. That is why the byline, which includes the name of the writer and his location, is read as part of the story. One of the main factors that affect how the audience receives a certain piece of news, and their tendency to believe it or not, is the credibility that the journalist and the medium has built for themselves in readers" minds throughout their professional career.

Hence, identifying, and accurately tracking, the sources of newspaper stories was at the core of answering a very important question: Are these newspapers carrying out their journalistic mission as free channels of information and independent oversight instruments that actually report to the audience on what is happening around them?

In principle, the newspapers did not do their job while covering a huge project such as computerizing the health sector in Jordan, as the four newspapers used "ready-to-use" material to cover it. This incident, as we mentioned earlier, is no exception. The monitoring exercise revealed that out of 1,689 stories, which is the total news content in the monitored period, 1,057 stories, 62.5% of the local news content, were ready-to-use stories.

Both Al Rai and Al Dustour had almost identical percentage of "ready-to use" stories, with 67.8% and 67.3% respectively, while this percentage dropped in "Al Ghad" to 58.2%. Al Sabeel came in last with 48.2%. It is worth noting here that the news content of Al Sabeel is much less than other newspapers, as it only contributed 11.3% of the stories included in the sample. Also, we should take into consideration its editorial policy as it is closer to an opposition paper; its willingness to adopt official press releases and statements issued by public relations departments is much lower than other newspapers.

The table below shows that total stories published by each newspaper and the percentage of ready-to-use stories in each of them:

Table (1)

Ready-to-use stories covered a wide range of events including: ministries" accomplishments, monitoring procedures, deliberations among Jordanian officials and deliberations with foreign officials, economic sector and civil society, Parliament members, Senators, governmental bodies, signing of internal and external agreements, governmental plans and legislation, in addition to the activities of Jordanian civil society organizations, international organizations, public and private universities, Greater Amman Municipality, private institutions, crimes, conferences, reform initiatives, seminars on national causes, scientific and literary seminars, and others.

If most of the main events on the Jordanian scene, during the time of the monitoring exercise, were covered with ready-to-use stories, two important questions arise here:

Where did these stories come from? Who wrote them?   

The four newspapers use the same style, as they publish the story preceded by the name of the journalist or the newspaper itself. They often attribute it to "Petra" or write "Amman" in the byline without mentioning the name of the journalist or the newspaper, and very seldom they publish a story without attributing it to a person or an establishment.

The first thing this monitoring exercise revealed was that stories are not necessarily attributed to their writers, as some pieces attributed to journalists are in reality stories produced by Petra, or press releases sent by public relations and communication departments in ministries and public and private institutions. Actually, it has become customary in the Jordanian press to see the same story in several newspapers, attributed to a different journalist in each one.

According to the findings of this monitoring exercise, journalists plagiarized 19.6% of the ready-to-use stories, in addition to 2% we mentioned earlier, in which the journalists plagiarized from each other.

Although there were variations in the percentages of "plagiarized" stories between newspapers, they all used the same method, as the text undergoes minimal changes that do not go beyond the rearrangement of paragraphs and replacement of words like "praised" with "commended," "stressed" with "confirmed," and "noted" with "mentioned," etc. Also, journalists would sometimes add a 60-word paragraph to a 600-word story and attribute it to themselves without mentioning any sources. Others would combine two stories from Petra or two press releases without changing or adding anything. A funny finding we came across was a journalist who plagiarized a whole story, and only added that he tried to contact the relevant ministry to verify the news, but it was to no avail.

In fact, only 45.7% of these stories were attributed to an original source (Petra), while 28.9% of them used the name of the newspaper in the byline, 19.8% used names of journalists who did not write the story and 5.4% mentioned Amman in the byline without adding anything else.

The table below shows the sources to which the ready-to-use stories were attributed:

Table (2)

Events Are Covered by People Who Create Them:

A total of 288 (27.2%) of the stories were duplicates of press releases sent by public relations departments in establishments in the private and public sectors. The entities whose activities were covered by this news varied; the largest share went to government establishments, including ministries, independent commissions, and others; followed by news of civil society organizations; then for-profit organizations; and lastly news of international bodies and the Lower House of Parliament.

The figure below shows the percentage of PR originating stories by the bodies covering these activities:

As mentioned earlier, the normal situation is to have these stories covered by the media, each in its own way. Regardless of the form this coverage takes, newspapers have a professional obligation to inform readers that the information included in the story has come from a statement released by the organization the story is about.

We have mentioned earlier that the vast majority of press statements sent by public relations departments in these organizations are actually press releases that cover their activities, and that weak media follow-up turns these statements into the only source of information available to the reader about these activities.

Let us take, for example, news about signing water agreements, cabinet decisions, handing over of dwellings to poor families overseen by the Ministry of Development and Social Affairs, an international organization donating waste containers to the Municipality of Irbid, elections at the University of Jordan, and a workshop organized by the Independent Election Commission to educate young people about the importance of participation in political life.

All these events and others were open to the media, but the newspapers did not report on them to their readers, as is expected of them, which means that they did not send their journalists to gather information, interview relevant people, and compare the different angles of the story. Instead, they chose to publish the information sent to them.

These events were covered by those who are overseeing them. It is no surprise, therefore, that an analysis of these stories showed that they all echo the same voice and the same narrative, which is the narrative of organizers that aims to promote their institutions. The press even went a step further by allowing for such promotion in the form of news. It allows the release of information supplied by public relations departments in for-profit organizations.

Furthermore, the press does not tell readers that the story was not written in the newspapers. It may only mention that the information included in the story is available in a statement released by the entity in question, but it never tells readers that the whole story was written by the organization itself. What newspapers do, instead, is that they run the story and attribute it to the newspaper itself, one of its journalists, or write "Amman" in the dateline. Sometimes, they run the story without attributing it to anyone.

The figure below shows the distribution of stories by the entities they were attributed to when published:

Figure (2)

Hiding the identity of the story"s writer, and attributing it to the newspaper or one of its journalists, means that the newspaper is adopting its content. The average reader would expect the story to be the result of professional and independent press coverage done by the medium itself, while the truth is that the organization in question has become the only source for stories on that event.

This is very serious, especially since this monitoring revealed that 18.6% of these stories mentioned that the information included therein is taken from a press release issued by the relevant entity, while 81.3% of them neglected to do so.

However, the situation is not so bleak as we found out that 44.7% of the information mentioned in these stories was attributed to specific sources or people. Although these people are officials in these institutions, the reader in this case at least is aware of the fact that the information is the "narrative" of a biased party.

On the other hand, 33.3% of this information did not mention sources and depicted the information as "facts" and not "narratives," while 21.8% of them "mixed" information attributed to specific people and information portrayed as facts that were not attributed to anyone.

Figure (3) below shows public relations news by sources:

Figure (3)

Therefore, we have "stories" that are not produced by newspapers, which work as independent and unbiased oversight instruments, but rather by "employees" in the institution that organized the activity, the thing which raises several concerns about the credibility of the story and whether or not it has been written by the same people who are overseeing the event, especially since such stories portray these events as "accomplishments."

How can readers know that the Amman Municipality"s campaign to remove stalls and street vendors has actually been received "with satisfaction by all groups in society" if the one speaking on behalf of these groups is the campaign"s officer? How can readers realize the difference made by the rehabilitation of a health center in the Southern Jordan Valley if the residents of the area, who are witnesses to the rehabilitation, did not compare how it was and what it became to be? How can readers know the impact of an aid campaign to Syrian refugees organized by the Engineers Association if the journalist did not interview any of the beneficiaries or ask them about what they received and how they received it? How can readers know that events reported as accomplishments are actually perceived as such if they are not covered by a professional and independent journalist who left his office and went personally to inspect the location?

About "Petra" News

Petra has the lion"s share in terms of being the source of ready-to use stories published in the press, as 70.5% of them were taken from it. However, determining that "Petra" is the source of the story is not as simple as it seems, as we cannot conclude that the story carried by Petra and other newspapers was written by the agency"s journalist just because it was published on its website first.  

We mentioned earlier the story about the "computerization of the health sector," which turned out to be a statement released by the "public relations" department at the Ministry of Health. This case is not an exception. A discerning reader will realize that many of the stories published by Petra and by newspapers the next day are actually parts of ready-to-use texts; the complete version of these texts is published by the newspapers the next day.

Let us take, for example, a story on the vision of the Greater Amman Municipality and its future plans. A comparison between Petra"s version and the stories published by Al Ghad and Al Dustour shows that the story by Petra is actually part of the statement sent by the Municipality to media outlets. Al Ghad and Al Dustour published the statement in full.

Another example is a story on a literary event where we discovered that the coverage of Al Rai and Al Ghad had a paragraph of 80 words at the end of the story, which Petra clearly deleted from the original story. Al Dustour, on the other hand, published Petra"s story and added a few lines from the omitted paragraph that appears in the story in Al Rai and Al Ghad. Amusingly, the same spelling mistakes, which we can assume appeared in the original text, appeared in all three newspapers, but not on Petra"s website because the paragraph in which they appeared was omitted.

The same pattern was repeated in several stories. Therefore, when writing this report, the writer compared Petra"s stories and a number of raw statements released by institutions like the Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Development and Social Affairs, Ministry of Health, Greater Amman Municipality and Public Security Directorate. The comparison revealed that out of 29 stories published on Petra during the sampled days concerning the entities mentioned above, 27 were identical to these press statements. The slight differences between these statements and the stories on Petra were limited to omitting some parts or changing a few words here and there; none of these stories included information not contained in the statements.

There is no doubt that without access to all statements released by all entities covered by Petra during the sampled days, we cannot make any absolute judgments, but the conclusion above could be accepted with a high degree of certainty.

In the final analysis, this monitoring exercise reveals that the press has substantially abandoned its professional role and allowed itself to become a platform that depicts one-sided stories. This begs the question: If the media hands over the responsibility of relating the events to those making them, then what is it that is left for it to do?

• This analysis was based on the content published on specific dates; however, the hyperlinks will take you to the website, which may publish the story one day before it appears in the printed version.
• Most hyperlinks take the readers to the websites of Al Dustour and Al Rai for pure technical reasons, as it was difficult to access many stories on the websites of Al Ghad and Al Sabeel.