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ethics final study guide

Terms in this set (14)

3.Describe an intelligent corrections policy for print and Web.
If the mistake was on the front page, the creation should run on the front page. the correction should run the next circulation day. It should include a description of the story, what the mistake was, the correction, and an apology. Online, the story should be flagged. There should be an editor's note at the top of the story saying there are corrections. the corrections should be added at the end of the story. It should be made clear what the mistake was and what the correction is.
4.Discuss the role of advertisers in mainstream (newspapers, TV, radio) media economics, and describe how media funding might become a larger ethical issue as the use of the Internet continues to displace old media.
•The shopper model, native adverting that looks like articles. The consumer reports model, paying for subscriptions for the promise of no ads.
•Advertising pays for 69%, the audience pays for 24%, mainly through subscriptions and cable fees, news companies ancillary enterprises such as event hosting, marketing services, and web consulting pay for 7 %
•Staff reductions reduce a paper's ability to cover the news. And they raise the question of a paper's obligations to its community.
5.When should you identify a news subject by race? What are the criteria for the decision?
when it's relevant, has the relevance been explained? if it free of coded language? are the racial identifiers used evenly? should i consult someone of another race/ethnicity? race is often needed as physical descriptions of suspects of crime but make sure it includes more than just race.
6.What steps should you go through to decide whether to invade someone's privacy with a news story (page 246)?
1. Assess the information
2. calculate the likely harm
3. weigh those two factors against each other to arrive at the decision
7.What steps should you go through to decide whether to go undercover as a reporter?
• The info is vital to the public interest
• There is no other way to get the info
• Tell the audience
• The deceptions do not put the innocent in danger
• The journalists apply excellence
• Any harm caused by the deception is outweighed by the benefits
8.What are the arguments for and against using anonymous sources?
• For- keeps the source protected if they share dangerous information. The source trusts you, may give more information, not as likely to hold back.
• Against- audience may not trust you, not as credible.
9.What is plagiarism? Why should mass media professionals care?
•Plagiarism is one of two offenses that journalists regard as egregious sins of worthy dismissal. Plagiarism takes credit for phrases, sentences, paragraphs or even an entire story that someone else created. Fabrication is making things up and passing them off as genuine. Not destroy credibility of the journalist and news organization.
10. Describe the difference between an actual conflict and interest and an apparent conflict of interest. Give examples.
• A conflict of interest is when journalists allow self-interest, or a loyalty to a person to another person or org, to take precedence over their duty to audience which is a violation of trust.
• An apparent conflict of interest is when it appears to the audience that there's a conflict of interest, even if the job their doing is honest work. (political contributions)
• An example is if a physician offers you a drug that they honestly thought would be best for your condition but later you find out they earned a free vacation if they wrote a certain number of prescriptions.
11.Give three guidelines for a mass media professional's use of social media.
1. assume everything you write online will become public

2. always identify yourself as a journalist

3. engage with readers but be professional
12.Apply the lessons of the Hutchins Commission and the Kerner Commission (from the first half of class) to the ongoing issues of the portrayal of race in the United States. Link this to our understanding of the importance of diversity (chapter 17).
•the media needs to bridge a gap with minority communities especially black and brown communities, there should be more discussion about how racial and ethnic groups are presented. We need more minority reporters covering these stories. We need transparency about news gather tactics and questions asked, to ensure that no group is presented in a false light or is presented as under educated. We also need a discussion on what photos are used to represent deceased minorities.
13.Who is Richard Jewell? Stephen Glass? Janet Cooke? (Three names every mass media professional should know.)
• Richard Jewell was a janitor in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. Jewell reported a mysterious bag to police and started moving visitors away from it before it exploded. Jewell was considered a hero but three days later The Atlanta Journal named him as the focus of police detention which lead to several searches by the FBI and reporters. By October of 1996 he was cleared of all suspicion but the damage to his reputation was already done. He won sued several major news media outlets and won settlements from NBC and CNN.
• Stephen Glass was a writer for the New Republic. He had a short but prolific career until 1998 when he published a story called "Hack Heaven", a story about a 15-year-old hacker who had extorted a high-paying job w Jukt Micronics in exchange for not penetrating its databases. When his editor asked for proof he gave him his brothers number who acted as a Jukt exec and also created a Jukt website. Once it was discovered it was fabricated he was fired and it came out that 27 of his 41 stories were fabricated.
• Janet Cooke was a reporter for The Post who won the Pulitzer prize for her article about an 8-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy. When the Associated Press published a feature story about her life and education her former coworkers in Toledo at The Blade, called The Post that her statements about education were false. After questioning Cooke broke down and admitted her story about Jimmy was false as well.
14.Explain the FCC definitions of offensive content (p. 272)
• Obscenity: an average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to prurient interest. The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law. The material, taken as a whole. must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Indecent: has been defined by the fcc as language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organ or activities. Profanity: has been defied by the ccc as language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.
15.Explain how an application of the Golden Mean might lessen the risks of using offensive content in print, television, and web.
-The Golden Mean allows you to choose a moderate median between two extreme alternative choices. The Golden Mean can help you make the decision to publish something without the gruesome details or post a smaller scale image.
16.Describe (list is OK) the four ways to illegally invade someone's privacy.
• Intrusion into a person's solitude or private affairs
• Publication of embarrassing private facts
• False light
• Appropriation
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