Thesis on "Ethics in Journalism"

Quoted Instructions for "Ethics in Journalism" Assignment:

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ETHICS EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS

Introduction: Please read the "case study" carefully. Then, consult sources available to you: codes of ethics, books on journalism and broadcasting ethics, books on libel and privacy law - including, of course, your textbook which is Law of Mass Communications: Freedom and Control of Print and Broadcast Media, 12th edition by Teeter and Loving. Then assume the role of a news executive or public relations executive (depending on the nature of the "case study") and decide:

1) Would you publish the article or material?

2) Explain why, in detail. (Is it legal? Is it ethically supportable?)

3) Or, would you withhold this article or material from publication or broadcast?

4) If so, explain why, in detail. (Give reasons based on your research, NOT personal editorials. If you want to explain something by saying "I feel...," then chances are you haven't done enough research to find useful evidence to support your conclusions.

NOTE: You cannot rely on discussions of ethics codes by themselves. And as suggested in 4), above, you can't simply rely on your own gut feelings about this. Do research. Your decision must be based on sound legal and ethical reasons. And you must cite sources to support the points in your argument for or against publishing the material involved. Supply evidence.

Use the attached set of guidelines for citing sources in your paper. Do NOT create your own style for citing sources, and DO NOT USE "INTERNAL REFERENCES" IN PARENTHESES IN THE TEXT OF YOUR PAPER.

For citation style, follow instructions for footnotes OR endnotes from The University of Chicago Style Manual or ***** L. Turabian, A Manual for *****s of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations.

Your paper should be about five typewritten double-spaced pages, plus single-spaced end notes or footnotes. Don't write much more or much less, and use only one side of each page.

Endnotes are suggested, footnotes are fine, too, if you are comfortable doing them with Arabic, not Roman numerals. Citation numbers in the text should be one after the other, with no duplications: 1,2,3,4,5, etc., not i,ii,iii,iv., etc. Primary and secondary sources to which you refer must be properly cited. No bibliography is needed, because you will provide sufficiently complete information in your endnotes or footnotes.

ETHICS SOURCES

Here are some "starters" to consult in preparing an ethics exercise. I'd begin by downloading appropriate Ethics Codes as listed in Appendix E in your textbook. If a URL has changed since the text was published in 2008, then google, say, Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. This will provide some ethical guidelines. Then, run a google search on Journalism Ethics Sources, to see what turns up. That will lead you to web sites of universities and organizations such as The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

In your readings as you begin research for an ethics paper, you are likely to find references to important scholarly publications in mass communications, including:

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Journalism Educator

The Journal of Advertising Research

Journal of Broadcasting

Public Relations Quarterly

Media Law Reporter

The News Media and the Law

Journal of Communication Research

Student Press Law Center Reports

Quill Magazine

Columbia Journalism Review

American Journalism Review

Communication Law and Policy

Plus, law reviews, available in the Law School Library:

California Law Review

Columbia Law Review

Cornell Law Quarterly

Harvard Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Tennessee Law Review

Texas Law Journal

Yale Law Journal

CITING SOURCES

1. Do not use "internal citations such as this: "The quick brown fox jumped a fence." (Leiter, p. 16)

2. Do use end notes or footnotes. Footnotes go at the bottom of the page. Endnotes go at the end of the paper. They are not alphabetized.

3. Both footnotes and end notes are numbered sequentially. Start with the number 1 and continue with subsequent numbers: 1,2,3,4,etc. Do not repeat source numbers in the text of your paper.

4. Once you cite a source fully on first reference and want to cite that source again, here's how it should be done.

1. Kelly Leiter, Julian Harriss, Stanley Johnson, The Complete Reporter, 7th ed., Boston, Allyn & Bacon, 2000, 16.

If your next citation comes immediately from that same source, same page, it should be cited this way:

2. Ibid.

If the next cite is same source, different page, make it:

3. Ibid., p. 22.

If, however, a different source is cited as endnote 2, and you want to cite Leiter, et al., again, make it:

4. Leiter, Harriss, and Johnson, p. 23.

5. If you cite a court decision, use this style, but only if you have read the case itself, complete with correct page numbers, either in the Law Library or as located on the internet. If you simply read the case from your textbook, you should acknowledge where you found it, citing the textbook, too, and the relevant page(s).

Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 429, 40 S.Ct. 17, 22 (1919).

6. If you did not read a court decision in the Law Library, but found it, say, on the internet, provide URL with your first citation of that case so your readers can look up the same source. And to cite from your textbook:

Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 621, 40 S.Ct. 17, 19 (1919), as cited in Dwight L. Teeter, Jr. and Bill Loving, Law of Mass Communications, 12th ed., New York, Foundation Press, 2008), pp. 26-27.

Otherwise, you are wrongly claiming research you did not do.

7. If you are citing an academic or professional journal, use this style:

Don R. Pember, "The Pentagon Papers Decision: More Questions Than Answers, Journalism Quarterly 48:3 (Autumn 1971), p. 404.

Or

Diane Zimmerman, "False Light Invasion of Privacy: The Light That Failed," Quill, March, 1977, p. 15.

Or

Dwight L. Teeter, Jr. and Don R. Pember, "The Retreat from Obscenity: Redrup v. New York," Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 21 (Nov. 1969), pp. 175-189.

For a popular magazine:

Richard Schickel, "Dream Work," Time, April 28, 1980, p. 76.

And for a newspaper cite:

Tony Mauro, "Journalist may need taped evidence of quotes," USA Today, June 21, 1991, p. 8A.

8. Don't simply download sources from the internet. You should do a substantial amount of library research for each exercise. Internet citations need to be annotated: tell whose website it is, provide the URL, give page numbers whenever possible, and list when you visited that site.

If you do your endnotes or footnotes properly, there is no need for a Bibliography.

9. DO NOT USE BLIND QUOTES IN YOUR TEXT. USE ATTRIBUTION BECAUSE IT LENDS CREDIBILITY TO YOUR WRITING. For example:

"President Barack Obama will need to preserve the gains in Executive Branch power achieved during the George W. Bush administration."

Quotes should have a name or source attached to them. For example:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said, "President Barack Obama will need to preserve the gains in Executive Branch power achieved during the George W. Bush administration.

Do you agree with this blind quote?

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a great man to be elected president of the United States."

But use attribution:

German dictator Adolf Hitler said, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a great man to be elected president of the United States." (NOW do you agree with that statement? See the differences that attribution makes?)

Then in the endnotes or footnotes give the complete citation: author, title, publisher or publication, edition, date, page number(s).

REMEMBER: In citations, COMPLETENESS counts: Author, title, publisher or publication, place of publication if it's a book, year, volume number, and page number(s).

ETHICS EXERCISE NO. 1

The Situation:

You are the managing editor of the Portland Post, a large general circulation daily with a rapidly expanding web presence. Your top political reporter, Woodward Bernstein, has been investigating rumors that your state's U.S. Senator, Harry Berry, had molested a number of women in recent years. Senator Berry is running for re-election to another six-year term.

Those rumors included stories that he had drugged women before molesting them. Bernstein's checking of the rumors included talking repeatedly to a former Berry aide, Mabel Mosby. She finally told Bernstein that she had left Berry's senatorial office because she had been drugged and molested last year, and that she believed that the public needed to know about Berry. Mosby swears to that information in an affidavit, and tells Bernstein he may use her name when he breaks a story on Senator Berry's illegal and immoral behavior.

Four other women who have suffered similar mistreatment are named by Bernstein's first source. They offer confirming details, but do not want their names used in his story. Reporter Bernstein doggedly stays on the story, finally convincing the women that they will be identified only in general terms. These women finally agree to sign affidavits, including that they would testify in court if Senator Berry sues the Portland Post for libel.

About four months before the general election, the newspaper is ready to break its story. The managing editor tells his publisher and the corporation's lawyer that it has evidence of immoral behavior by Senator Berry from five trustworthy women. The account is proposed for publication, using no names but only brief listings of information about the women, their ages, job categories, education, and so forth.

Journalistic codes of ethics - see, for example, the Society of Professional Journalists Code - say that before a story attacking someone is published, that individual should be given a chance to respond. The day before a story is to be published, Senator Berry is telephoned about noon by reporter Bernstein, who tells him the nature of what will be published. Does Senator Berry wish to comment?

Senator Berry replied angrily, "No comment, you sleazy _____(epithet deleted). You choose to ruin my life and my career as a public servant with words you say come from nameless accusers...hypothetical accusers who don't dare show their faces."

Look at relevant libel and privacy decisions, and also at a journalistic yardstick such as the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. Considering the legal and ethical ramifications of this situation, should the newspaper:

1) Publish the story? Why or why not?

2) Is it ever proper to publish a story based on anonymous sources?

3) If the senator resigns, is the story still newsworthy?

4) What if Senator Berry calls the newspaper before a publication, threatening suicide if the story is published? So you still publish the story?

5) Does the public need to know this information?

6) What impact would use of anonymous sources have on the newspaper's reputation for accuracy and fairness?

7) What steps would you take to make sure that the women accusing Senator Berry are telling the truth?

8) What legal ramifications (if any) might result from the newspaper publishing this story based on its confidential investigation of confidential courses?