When I checked my Macalester e-mail account this morning, I stumbled upon an interesting "Bulletin Flash". Apparently, the Mac Weekly miscalculated data. "Rather than 45%, as reported in the article, 66.2% (321) of the 485 first-year students who matriculated in fall 2007 qualified for need-based assistance," Brian Linderman says.
This related perfectly to our talks of accuracy being the first priority in a newspaper. A blunder in a story like this lessens the credibility of a paper. It's also pretty embarassing to have the Director of Financial Aid correct your numbers in an e-mail to the entire school. I can only imagine how damaging an error like this would have been in The New York Times or any other major metropolitan newspaper. If it was a big issue, it would most definitely be televised and the paper would experience some financial hardships afterward (readers would most likely turn to a different paper for reliable news).
The article has a great concept, but I was a bit skeptical when I read such a huge drop in financial aid packages.
Here is the link:
http://media.www.themacweekly.com/media/storage/paper1230/news/2007/09/28/News/Financial.Aid.Numbers.Dip.For.A.Second.Year-2996295.shtml#more
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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