Under the guidelines, AP members will be given more attribution as story sources and attribution for information not gathered or confirmed by AP will be given to the source
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US news agency the Associated Press (AP) will make greater efforts to credit other news sites and sources featured in its reports, according to new staff guidelines.
The new policy sent to staff covers attributing other organisations for information that the AP hasn't independently reported and crediting third parties that have broken stories later reported or advanced by the agency.
Under the guidelines, AP members will be given more attribution as story sources, for example on breaking news items. "Many members have been asking for this change as they seek to drive traffic to their websites," says the agency.
Attribution for information not gathered or confirmed by the AP on its own should be given to the source, whether its a newspapers, website, broadcaster or blog, and an AP or non-AP member, say the new rules. This should be included in the body of the piece and not just as a link at the end of a story, say the guidelines.
"The attribution doesn't always have to be at the start of a story or script; it can sometimes be two or three graphs down. But we do need to say where the information came from. If some information comes from another organisation and some is ours, we should credit ourselves for what's ours and the other organisation for what's theirs. (If the material from the other source turns out to be wrong, we'll cite them in any corrective we do later.)," says AP senior managing editor Michael Oreskes in a memo to staff .
"It's important to note that we shouldn't use facts from a non-member news organisation, even with credit, so frequently that we appear to be systematically and continuously free riding on that organisation's work."
With stories that have been initially broken elsewhere, the AP should still credit the original source even if the agency's report goes far beyond the first story and "is substantially our own work".
"In the age of the web, the sourcing and reliability of information has become ever more crucial. So it is more important than ever that we be consistent and transparent in our handling of information that originated elsewhere than our own reporting," says Oreskes.
The policy applies to all AP reports across print, online and broadcast.
