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A majority of the public believes the media can’t be trusted.

Which global news sites are most transparent about their operations? Not necessarily the ones you would think….

Openness & Accountability: A Study of Transparency in Global Media Outlets

Main Results

Study Conclusions

Understanding Results

Why Transparency?

Study Methodology

Authors

The study used five categories to evaluate the news outlets:

Corrections: Willingness to openly correct mistakes.

Ownership: Openness about corporate ownership.

Staff Policies: Openness about conflicts of interest.

Reporting Policies: Openness about editorial guidelines.

Interactivity: Openness to reader comments and criticism.

	Excellent
	Very Good
	Average
	Poor
	Not Acceptable

	Overall Score	Corrections	Ownership	Staff Policies	Reporting Policies	Interactivity
12. Daily Telegraph	1.2

Ranking: Poor (tied with ABC News, Fox News and the Economist).
Details of Findings:
	There is no corrections page. Even doing a search on the web site does not bring up corrections.
	The owner information can be found, but it is difficult. It takes more than two clicks or is linked to or from an obscure address. Site’s pages may be copyrighted to an owner, but no information about the owner is linked.
	The code of ethics/conflicts of interest policy is vague.
	No News Values anywhere on the web site or on a Google search. Even prolonged searches on search engines like Google returned no relevant results and instead returned stories with the phrase “News Values” in them instead of actual News Values.
	The outlet had no ombudsman. There is no link for letters to the editor. The outlet does not list any specific e-mail addresses for reporters. Blogs by reporters are available, but there were no live chats on the site. There is the ability to comment on specific stories.
(Lauren Vitrano)

About The Daily Telegraph

Circulation/Audience

2.2 million daily, 2.6 million Saturday (NRS 2004)

Online Access

No log-in needed.

Parent Company

Telegraph Media Group http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pressoffice/index.jhtml

Other Relevant Ownership and Interests

The Sunday Telegraph, The Weekly Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pressoffice/index.jhtml

Parent Company Revenue

Not Available

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