MMC 4203 Media Ethics Test 2 FSU
Plato
believed that real truth can be found only through enlightenment by study and reason
Aristotle
believed that truth can be found by observation and categorization and testing by others
paraphrasing
may cause problems with interpretation, some off-color words also become part of modern vernacular
the ban on freebies
may seem unfair because it mostly applies to journalists who are not making a lot of money (e.g. beginning reporters)
reasons for cheating
obsession with money, easy way of dealing with problems, fall prey to temptation of taking shortcuts, handle competitive pressures, norms of journalistic writing makes reporters' life too difficult
suspicions of the public
if a journalist accepts freebies, the public may suspect that their reporting is biased
intrusion, publicity of embarrassing private facts, false light, appropriation
legally:
reluctant
media is __________ to publish juvenile offenders
indifference
objectivity does NOT mean _____________, and it doesn't necessarily mean treating all sides equally
rationalists
posit that senses are fallible; one needs to use reason and experience
the first to deliver the bad news
prepare for the possibility that you will be:
freebies
rose in America through the 1930s and 40s and reached their height in the late 1950s and early 1960s, then dropped slowly through the 70s and 80s and into the 90s
ASNE (American Society of Newspaper Editors)
says it's essential for journalists to be compassionate
lazy journalism
simply reporting different sides of a story without sorting through the evidence
advertisers' materials
small newspaper journalists can be asked to write stories using ______________ _____________
decline, increase
the __________ in freebies was promoted by the ______________ of professionalism among journalists
acceptability
the ability to manipulate sound and video made broadcast journalists look for new standards of ___________________
space, time
the amount of ______ and _________ allocated to different political candidates can be driven by the tactic chosen by the candidates
images
the audience often relies on images to see events as they are, but photographers often engage in benign staging of the news
Internet
these factors acquire new importance with the importance with the emergence of the ______________ with its search opportunities and the indefinite time information stays online
look-lives
tv reporters sometimes simulate a live report by engaging in so-called "____________" to satisfy the public's preference for live coverage
truth-telling and fair, balanced, and objective reporting
two commitments of the American media:
Smith CH 11
Compassion, Privacy, and Ordinary Citizens
Smith CH 15
Freebies and financial concerns
Kowlton and Reader CH 7
How close is too close when the subject is a little girl?
large, concise
In modernism, news had to be produced quickly and transformed to _______ distances in a _________ form
public relations
In the 1920s, with the rise of ______________ ___________________, government and businesses were advised to seek publicity in the media
Knowlton and Reader CH 8
Keeping cool when you get a hot quote
Knowlton and Reader CH 17
Sex in the elevator: legitimate news or sophomoric titillation
pretend
TV reporters may pretend to be at a scene when they are not
exact words
a journalistic norm is to put source's ______ ______ in quotation marks or paraphrase them
time constraints
_____ ___________ often stay in the way of thorough fact checking
media consumers
_______ ____________ may blame media for biases if the stories do not correspond to their views- liberals accuse media of conservative bias, conservatives- of liberal
competitive pressures
_____________ ______________ may prevent showing compassion
immediate, long-term
______________ and ____________________ embarrassment of those involved in the story is also a factor because they all have friends and families
compassion
_______________ can make reporters weak-willed and make them forget about responsibility to inform the public
bargaining
_______________ usually applies to politicians, entertainers, athletes and other public figures
compassion
________________ runs counter to objective reporting because reporters are considered spectators not participants
judges and police
_____________________________ often push journalists to publish names of juvenile offenders
are public officials entitled to private lives? celebrities? private citizens who voluntarily enter the public spotlight? private citizens who involuntarily enter the public spotlight?
a key question: is the information in the public interest and essential for democratic life?
experience, expertise
a common newsroom policy is to rotate journalists from beat to beat because they become too friendly with sources, the downside of this policy is that it sacrifices __________________ and ____________- it takes time to learn about a beat
don't publish names or pictures of suspects before they are convicted
a common rule when naming people suspected of crimes
balanced
a problem with _____________ stories is that they tend to present all sides as equally credible, which is not the fact in climate change discourse, for example
plagiarism
a surprisingly widespread problem among journalists
the appearance of hypocrisy
accepting gifts from the people in power will make reporters look like a certain type of person who exposes corrupt politicians but accepts bribes themselves
direct pressure from gift givers
accepting gifts may lead to direct pressure from givers to provide favorable coverage
encourage
acknowledge that reports on suicide may ______________ people at risk to make an attempt
subjective, active, neutral
after McCarthy's situation, journalism became more ____________ and _________ instead of being ______________
blogs
an important part of online media that are evolving and changing in nature, from personal diaries to original reporting; best ones are limited to niche expertise, open about their motives, transparent about their sources, and willing to admit mistakes
protect
another rule is to _________ the names of accused in sex crimes if they haven't been convicted
empiricists
argue that one can find truth by using senses
permission
ask ___________________
benign staging
asking people to pretend to talk on the phone
alert, impact
be __________ to the special __________ of photos, graphics, and overall presentation
accurate
be ________________
sensitive
be especially ________________ in placing blame
adhere to the public's right to know
but the media are in the information business:
objectivity
came into being after WWI as a possible cure for problems besieging journalism: life and government were becoming complex, birth of PR, psychiatry taught us that people were not nearly as rational as had been believed, reaction to yellow journalism
bloggers
can faster respond to events because they are not required by editors to verify facts
cash awards
can only be accepted from journalism organizations, foundations, or universities
moonlighting
can present ethical problems for journalists
Joe McCarthy, civil rights movement
challenges to objectivity
less sensitive
college audiences are usually ______ ______________ to seeing such stories and student reporters feel encouraged by this attitude
community newspaper
college newspapers are a brand of a _________________________________ with more relaxed rules that may depend on who their student editors are
freebie problem
comparatively new in American Journalism
considerations that may prevent journalists from showing humanness
compassion runs counter to objective reporting because reporters are considered spectators not participants, compassion can make reporters weak-willed and make them forget about responsibility to inform the public, competitive pressures may prevent showing compassion, some reporters want to get a good story to advance their careers
freebies
considered a serious threat to journalistic integrity
balanced reporting
controversies over ___________ ___________ often occur in regard to the coverage of military operations or politicians running for office
Jack Kelley
correspondent of USA Today, wrote a lot of captivating stories about Palestinian terrorists, Kosovo Liberation Army, a school for suicide bombers, etc that won him 5 Pulitzer Prize nominations and a wide respect among fellow reporters, a lot of his stories ended up being exaggerated or fabricated
power, control
grant victims and their families a sense of ________ and _________
continued
demand that vital sources of information about suicides (autopsies and official statistics) are ________________ and study them
violation of privacy
detailed reports are seen as a:
logical positivism (aka modernism)
developed from the development of technology and science in the 19th century and early 20th century
reasonable, unreasonable
dilemma: where to draw the line between ____________ and ________________ conduct
privacy, confidentiality
discuss issues of ____________ and ________________________ at the beginning of the interview
entertainment
don't report suicide as __________________, glamorizing or glorifying suicide as the ultimate flight from life, the great getaway
"I know how you feel"
don't say __________________________________
Hutchins Commission on Freedom of Press (1947)
established that it was "not enough to report facts truthfully," it was necessary to "report truth about the fact"
asking the right questions
ethical decision-making means:
not all cases fall neatly into these categories
ethically:
media organization
experienced journalists insist that a ________ _________________ must know their audience before making a decision to cover suicides
Smith CH 6
faking the news
balanced reporting
following the principle of __________ _____________, journalists created confusion about the risks of smoking by equally covering both scientific research and the information supplied by smoking industry PR experts
names were news
for a long time, reporters assumed that:
the motives of givers
freebies are offered to influence the coverage
early American newspapers
frequently funded by political parties and therefore opinionated and partisan
a privileged class
getting a privileged treatment in-debts reporters and antagonizes the public
The Victims and Media Center gave the following advice to reporters interviewing victims and their families:
grant victims and their families a sense of power and control, discuss issues of privacy and confidentiality at the beginning of the interview, prepare for the possibility that you will be the first to deliver the bad news, ask permission, keep your remarks simple, don't say "I know how you feel," be accurate, be especially sensitive in placing blame, be alert to the special impact of photos, graphics, and overall presentation
moonlighting
holding a second full- or part-time job, has become common in modern society
public's interest
how to balance the individual's interest in privacy against the __________ ____________ in accessing information about others
nationally, local
if the crime is _____________ known, the victim's name is more likely to be published than when the crime is ________
more than 3/4ths of suicides still went unreported, readers resented the paper's new policy, there were concerns that reports on suicide could encourage those who were suicidal, reporters were selective in reporting suicides missing important trends
in 1976, a New England paper, The News, decided to tell the full truth and publish information about suicides based on coroner's reports, the policy failed because:
frequency, quantity
in a society fixated on the young, don't suggest by the ____________ and __________ of prominent coverage that suicide almost exclusively happens to bright teens and tweens
prominence
in making decision on whether to include profanities in a quote, reporters may consider the prominence of a person who say them
different
in modernism, it was accepted that truth and facts are:
the unthinking reporter
in the early 1950s, sen. McCarthy started a campaign to expose communist spies in American politics and media, used media to make reported publicize his accusations
manufacturing
in the early days of American journalism, newspapers liked ____________________ news
truth-telling
included in the code of ethics of the SPJ, what does truth mean in the context of journalism?
euphemisms
it is common to use ____________________ for sex crimes, like "criminally assaulted" or "molested"
broadcasting
it is hard for broadcast journalists to keep two jobs related to ____________________
behave
it is hard to predict how people would _________ if tragedy happened- some want to be alone, some want to talk
credit
it is important to give ______ to the sources of information
hard news reporters
it is sometimes believed that the ban on freebies is only written for _______ ______ _______________
rely first and foremost on verifiable fact
journalism and scientific method:
decisions
journalists and their editors and news directors make dozens of ____________ about every story they publish and broadcast
consequences
journalists cannot just report different sides without putting their words in context because of how important ________________ of their reporting can be
objectivity
journalists disagree about its meaning, SPJ dropped the word from their codes of ethics, editors and journalists consider that is means avoiding your personal biases in reporting which can be an ideal goal
ethical dilemma
journalists face an ethical dilemma of whether they can clean up such comments and still put them in quotation marks
becoming
journalists usually try to stay away from ______________ part of the stories they cover because they should be as honest as possible
simple
keep your remarks ___________
rules
many large newspapers now have ________ that limit the types of contests their writers can join
policies
many news organizations try to establish ___________ to deal with the ethics of photo-imaging technology
Does compassion improve journalism?
many reporters want to humanize social issues and provoke sympathetic response from readers, journalists must show they have feelings
pay their own meals and travel
most American news reporters:
fair, balanced, and objective reporting
most Americans want this, journalists are expected to right the wrongs of society (i.e. pass judgment)
pick up checks for their sources
most news organizations encourage reporters to:
advertising departments
most newspapers and news magazines keep journalists away from ______________ _________________ of their organizations
objectivity
mostly a North American ideal, many European papers are allowed to take political sides
free samples
music, wine, or dental product critics may be expected by their organizations to get _____ _________ of products from the industries
fair, honest, consistent
news outlets not only need to be fair, they need to be perceived as _____, __________, and ___________
hyphens, euphemisms
newspapers may use ___________ or ____________ instead of vulgarities
conservative
newspapers remain _____________ in their protection of readers' modesty- they can change words, pictures, and even offensive facts
Jason Blair (The New York Times), Stephen Glass (The New Republic)
notorious deceitful journalists
technology
now ______________ can be used to quickly access and copy stories or quotes from other outlets
commit suicide
now news media usually do not include the cause of death if people:
sports reporters
often found to violate codes of ethics by accepting tickets
the right to be left alone or to control unwanted publicity about one's personal affairs
one common view:
reporters cannot be bought
one of the common justifications for accepting freebies:
contests
organized by industry sponsors as a rule seek articles that would favorably cover the industry
"the scientists of the news"
over time journalists began to see themselves as _________________________________________________________________ - they had to observe, collect and report only facts
freelancers
particularly vulnerable to pressures from the givers of freebies because of low earnings, have no editors to turn to in problematic situations
their names in the news
people often don't want:
freebies
problem in other industries like pharmaceuticals and lobbying
different
public's view of what should be public is very ____________ from that of reporters
influence news decisions
recognizing the principle of banning freebies is important because free gifts are ways to __________ _____ ____________
modernism (aka logical positivism)
reliance on science and facts
Janet Cooke
reporter for the Washington Post, wrote a story about an 8 year old heroin addict Jimmy, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the article, a local paper found out she lied about her education and this exposed a number of lies including her confession that Jimmy's story was fabricated
information, secret
reporters are in the _______________ business, not _____________ business so they must appear fair and open
vultures
reporters as ____________
true
reporters in other countries see nothing wrong with accepting gifts from companies, political parties, or governments
freebies
reporters saw it as compensation for notoriously low salaries
rational, assisted
reporting suicide, don't try to sell so-called _______________ suicide or _____________ suicide as ultimate civil rights appropriate for all
living
reporting suicide, make emphasis on the _____________ who might be able to help a suicidal person or those who struggle with the loss
more inclined
research finds that journalists who received freebies were ______ _____________ to publishing favorable coverage of the givers
judging panels
should be dominated by respected journalists or journalist educators
contests
should not imply favorable treatment of a cause or subject
why don't some things make it into the story?
some details are unimportant, irrelevant (e.g. weather); there is a legitimate reason to keep it out (e.g. SSN); the source tells something newsworthy but doesn't want to be identified as a source or doesn't want the information to be public (e.g. corruption)
impractical
some editors found bans on gifts for all journalists ____________
subjective
some experts in journalistic ethics argue that photographers manipulate the reality by the very act of taking a photograph from their __________________ perspective
do some policies reinforce the stigma of rape?
some journalists and activists think so, others say that the policy is right because rape is an intimate humiliation
agendas
some media in the U.S. also admit to pursuing political _____________ like the Washington Post or Fox News
crediting
some reporters can use others' work without ___________ the source
direct
some reporters create "_______" quotes that a person never said or combine sentences said at different times
advance
some reporters want to get a good story to ______________ their careers
difficult to prove
some say it's not right because rape crimes are:
acknowledging them
some small tv and radio stations have been known to read the news directly from local newspapers without:
direct
sometimes a person's _______ words are grammatically clumsy or accompanied by gestures that explain them
the real deal
special treatment prevents getting accurate information
less believeable
stories without names are:
Knowlton and Reader CH 18
suicide: important news or a grotesque invasion of privacy?
don't report suicide as entertainment, glamorizing or glorifying suicide as the ultimate flight from life, the great getaway for eternity; in a society fixated on the young don't suggest by the frequency and quantity of prominent coverage that suicide almost exclusively happens to bright teens and tweens; reporting suicide, don't try to sell so-called rational suicide as ultimate civil rights appropriate for all; demand that vital sources of information about suicides (autopsies and official statistics) are continued and study them; reporting suicide, make emphasis on the living who might be able to help a suicidal person or those who struggle with the loss; acknowledge that reports on suicide may encourage people at risk to make an attempt
the 6 rules The News and others suggest regarding reporting suicide
reasons why freebies are bad
the motives of givers, suspicions of the public, a privileged class, appearance of hypocrisy, the real deal, direct pressure from gift givers
benefits of less objectivity in journalism
the news media might attract a larger audience, interest in politics and voter turnouts are higher in countries with more partisan media and were higher in the US before the principle of objectivity was introduced in reporting, if journalists admitted their views openly and were trying to pretend to be "objective" it would decrease criticism of the media
relying on the written record still important but no longer enough, truth in human affairs can never be nailed down
the notion of objectivity had to be redefined:
sex/rape victims
the policy is not to print names of:
before
the reporter and the source have to agree that the information is off the record ___________ the information is passed to the reporter.
seriousness of the crime
the use of names often depends on __________________________________ or whether it is moved to the adult court
35
there has been an increase of ____% in cheating in colleges
one of the greatest journalistic sins
to get too close to a source or become friendly with a news source which can result in playing down a negative aspect of a story out of personal friendship
computer software
today, images can be completely altered with _____________ ______________ without indication that it is a fake image
truth-telling, trust
today, this attitude of manufacturing news changed as news organizations realize that lying violates the principle of _______________________ and undermines ________ between reporters and their audience
Smith CH 3
truth and objectivity
philosophers
understood truth differently
manipulate
unlike in the past, newspaper photographers are not supposed to __________________ scenes anymore, but occasionally they may rearrange props or recreate scenes
suicide
until early 20th century, _____________ would have been considered prime news, but then it was reversed for religious and reputation reasons
"off the record"
used by journalists and experienced sources in the meaning that the source doesn't want their words to go public, BUT only if the reporter agrees
treat victims as human beings, respect their dignity, honor their feelings and requests
what is the key to covering tragedy?
intrusion
what public sees as _______________ on the life or tragedy of others, reporters often see as news
objectivity
when comments are inflammatory and deal with high-profile situation, journalist's ______________ is challenged in many ways
freebies
when journalists are offered all kinds of gifts for covering services and products by manufacturer companies and owners
what Dillon learned from the custody case
when moral right or wrong comes into conflict with a journalist's professional right or wrong (i.e. staying away from a case), it is the moral right that should always prevail; media have a power to serve as a court of last appeal; reporters are responsible for how they depict people in their stories
because something is interesting does not mean it is important
whether the story was newsworthy at all is a big part of the debate
convenience, to improve quality, or change the readers' understanding of the story
why photographers manipulate photos
public figures
with ________ ____________ who know how to interact with journalists, striking a deal beforehand is very important
conflict of interests
writing promotional materials or acting as a photographer for companies or businesses can be viewed as:
