Plagiarism

● How to avoid journalistic plagiarism?

Voice & Style guide refresher training – March 2024

❖ Use nothing more than is necessary. Fair usage (not more than 15% of the original) is

taking only what is reasonable to accomplish your legitimate purpose of conveying the

news.

❖ Excerpts should be used in such a way that they do not, in effect, reproduce the

original stories or become a substitute for them. In other words, the audience should still

want/need to read the original article. An exception would be breaking news in which there

are only a few facts to report.

❖ It is not enough to simply rewrite the original story or to identify your source –

this does not render unjustified use as fair use.

❖ Err on the side of caution when the original piece is exclusive and where it is clear

that the publication/digital property has allocated substantial resources to create

the content.

❖ Allow a reasonable amount of time to lapse before you publish material from another

source. The frequency of the publication/digital property should be taken into account

when determining the reasonable amount of time before you use their information. For

example, info from a weekly magazine would require a longer lapse than a news website.

The exception would be breaking news.

❖ Attribute and do it thoroughly.

➢ When aggregating, you need to aggregate from at least three reliable, different

sources.

➢ Three reliable sources mentioned that are attribution (tweet or quote by a

spokesperson), plus an outbound link, plus at least one internal link

❖ Write in your own words and make the bulk of your article originally yours (add value).

❖ Google prefers unique information and writing.

❖ Attribute early and often.

❖ Diversify your sources to show the research.