A screenshot of the study. (Credit: MediaPolicy.NewAmerica.net, screenshot)

The New America Foundation released its study “Misinformation and Fact-checking: Research Findings from Social Science,” which examined “how people perceive the accuracy of information — and how misinformation spreads and takes root,” the Knight Digital Media Center reported.

The foundation identifies itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas.”

The study included advice for handling corrections and errors in the media, including publishing corrections “as quickly as possible” and letting anyone who re-reported the information know about the error.

Specifically, the study recommended transparency and clear corrections:  “media outlets should correct online versions of their stories directly (with appropriate disclosures of how they were changed) rather than posting corrections at the end (which are likely to be ineffective).

See the study here.