The job of a journalist has always been highly scrutinized. For years, the question of what and how a journalist should deliver information has been analyzed. However, despite the many theories, it has always been a clear consensus that journalists have an obligation to truth above all. However, there are many cases where a journalist may not know how far to go in order to deliver that truth. Of course, a journalist must always operate within legal limits, however, again some cases have blurred lines. A case that demonstrates these blurred lines between the legal and illegal, as well as the need to deliver truth, is a case between the Rolling Stone and their use of illegal music links. The case is a perfect case that presents an ethical dilemma. It is actually a resource used by the Society of Professional Journalism (SPJ) to help foster debate and discussion on such an ethical dilemma. The case involves the American magazine Rolling Stone that focuses on pop culture and also English Indie pop due “The Ting Tings.” The case occurred in 2012 when 10 songs from their album were leaked online, according to the SPJ. Where the dilemma arises is in the fact that Rolling Stone quickly covered the story on their online platform and included a link to the leaked music. The case is important because it belongs in a very new category of journalism. Online journalism, which has been established with vast technological advancements, poses many different advantages and disadvantages
Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).
The election of Donald Trump as the new President, and his animosity towards the journalists and Press in general, has challenged the news media with threats, describing news as fake and calling journalists’ liars and terrible people. The documentary shows how Trump’s strategy corresponds to that of Thiel’s supporting the Hogan case and also the purchase of Las Vegas Review-Journal by Sheldon Adelson, a powerful business magnate and investor. The documentary spends a significant extent of time showing interviews of reporters at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who reported the story that their own publication had been purchased by Adelson. Through this, Knappenberger highlights an alarming issue that threatens freedom and future of the
Journalism and technology go together especially in our modern-day society. Ethics is a guideline that journalists uphold their obligation to the public and their profession to report the truth. Unfortunately, in this digital age, we have the resource that can verify one’s original work but also to plagiarize. Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. Journalists should also test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error (“Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics”, 1996). In this paper I will discuss what role did digital technology play in the Jayson Blair scandal, how can it be regulated, and what guidelines can be put in place to prevent future incidents.
In today’s day and age, mass media has completely changed the way in which we consume news. The truthfulness of the millions of blogs and web pages makes it hard to trust what is true and what is not. Newspapers are often an overlooked form of news, which is surprising considering that it is a accurate, curated source of media. What sets newspapers apart from all the countless blogs and web pages is the set of ethics that the reporters and editors are required to follow. In State of Play Cal McCaffrey, a reporter for the Washington Globe, did not act in accordance to the code of ethics. McCaffrey knowingly broke the law whilst trespassing, clearly knew McCaffrey had a conflict of interest, and unethically recorded someone while falsely promising anonymity.
Journal article “The Ethics of Leaks” by Jon Marcus addresses the broad topic of leaks in journalism. Although the journal primarily focuses on political leaks and government information, it provides really good information on the idea behind leaked information as an element that has become a major element of modern journalism. (Marcus, 2017) Even though leaked music is not the same as leaked documents, both are still valuable to journalists. The journal mentions that leaked information should always be verified before being used online.
Trust in media has been a very concerning topic for the modern area. It is quiet common for media to be construed and twisted to manipulate the viewer’s opinion. It doesn’t take much to change the headline of an article to convey completely different meanings or standpoints. One issue in particular, which seems to be one of the most common, is plagiarism. Plagiarism can be very tempting to certain individuals considering how readily available and seemingly limitless virtual text that can be accessed. One case I want to discuss is the one of Benny Johnson, a fairly well known politics editor who started making unethical decisions in 2015 while working for BuzzFeed. According to Poynter, Johnson was accused of 41 examples of plagiarism. We
It was perplexing time for The New York Times; a chapter, in their long-run, of fabrications that are now consider fabulists and egregious plagiarism. Hard News by Seth Mnookin, recounts the time a narcissistic and pedantic executive editor, named Howell Raines took took charged of the steering-wheel of one of the most reliable and prominent newspapers in the nation. It is described how Raines and other high-profiled and important figures for the paper, such as managing editor Gerald M. Boyd, dealt with the Jayson Blair’s scandal. The Jayson Blair scandal is about the terrible repercussions when plagiarism and fabulism is committed by a reporter. It not only tarnishes the reporter’s reputation but the newspaper’s transparency as a whole. I
In journalism, an ethical dilemma is a complex issue or situation that often involves an emotional and psychological conflict between moral obligations and duties, in which to obey one would transgress the other. Within the media there are many stories that can be deemed an ethical dilemma; some more so than others. One of the most recent and prominent ethical dilemmas was the worldwide coverage surrounding the shooting of two American WBDJ journalists, Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Despite the fact that the shooter filmed the ordeal clearly showing the two slain journalists being shot, news outlets had picked it up and ran with the story, which ultimately went viral in minutes. This essay will analyse and thoroughly examine the reporting
The newspaper industry is undergoing a radical change in three primary areas caused by technology. First, the underlying two-sided business model is changing. With the Advent of internet, news content is easily and freely available from various sources but lacks quality journalism and credibility. Revenues from online advertising are not large enough to compensate for decline in revenues from print advertising & subscription. Newspaper industry is experiencing new realm of new content delivery and in process of understanding and establishing sustainable sources and
Above all, a journalist’s job is to seek the truth, and report it to the public. Occasionally a journalist will act deceptively in pursuit of that truth, causing for some of the most famous cases of undercover journalism—see Nellie Bly and PrimeTime Live—as well as the most infamous—James O’Keefe (Marx). When discussing undercover journalism, we must pose the question: can undercover journalism also be ethical journalism? And, regardless of the previous answer, is it ever justified? I will address both of these questions through the analysis of Shane Bauer’s 2016 Mother Jones’ piece on private prisons.
This research has been conducted due to the fact that some researchers have claimed that “journalism is dying” whilst others have argued that “journalism is not dying but is simply evolving” (Blatchford: 2014). This has been a much contested debate triggered by the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources i.e. newspapers, television and radio together with the technological advances of the internet and social media (Cub Reporters: 2010). This has raised many questions and firstly, this dissertation will assess whether the rise of social media has led to the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources. Secondly, this paper will look at what the advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a news distributor are for professional journalists and the general public. Lastly, this study aims to investigate
In today¡¦s society journalism is under close scrutiny and is losing its credibility. Sensationalism effects both those who receive it in addition to those who report it. This essay will review the history of sensationalism in the media, clearly demonstrate how sensationalism effects ours views on journalism, and confront the ethical dilemmas that journalists must face between reporting objectively and reporting what sells. This will be accomplished by investigating various sources, including articles published on the Internet as well as those published in newspapers and magazines.
The film Shattered Glass presents the ethical issues of fabrication and the deception of the writer, Stephen Glass, to his editor and co-workers. He deliberately sensationalized his stories in order to gain his reader’s attention. His facts were partially, if not completely, inaccurate and he presented notes that he fabricated as facts for each of his pieces at the New Republic. Journalists in the media have a duty to the people to report the truth and follow an ethical code whenever reporting stories.
The overview of the subject matter is that the big worry is that quality will decline Journalists are employed to check their facts and they get checked in turn by editors who question the reliability of their sources; we trust the paper’s brand not the individual journalist. Social media could be reliable, but how would we know? This is equally true then it comes to bias. But the fact of the matter is journalism is more credible and if we lose credibility in the information we get everything could fall for speculation. The authors’ thesis is we should not stand for the decline of journalism as a profession but support our right to have valuable information
To wholly have a grasp on how this new founded approach to journalism has changed alongside technology—as well as understanding the dangers such openness brings forth—one has to understand what exactly those changes are. Primarily, those that are writing for the sake of offering information have, whether willingly or not, fed into the usage of social media as it has become a centralized method of distribution that is relatively inescapable with the current times. As such those framing the news for the masses find an authentic avenue to stay in contact via social media that has benefits ranging from, “its extraordinary newsgathering potential; its potential as a new tool to engage the audience; and as a way of distributing our news” (Eltringham, 2012), all of which are deeply different from the presentation of reporting that occurred during earlier eras. Days of strongly structured instances of journalism that could not travel with such speed have been replaced as, “social media has trashed many of the foundations on