1) Identify the case you & partner wish to do.
2) Describe what you see as the major ethical issue or issues in the case.
3) Discuss which ethical model you plan to apply to the ethical issue or issues & why.
The response of each group (not each person, but each group) is due by 4 p.m., Sunday, March 8
No exceptions.
Teaching Notes
You must become the flame on the candle. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Monday, March 4, 2013
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Is Media Ethics Education DOA?
It sounds like a joke Jay Leno would tell during his opening monologue on The Tonight Show. Hear about the graduate students at the prestigious journalism school? They got caught cheating on an ethics exam. Ha ha ha. Except that’s actually what happened at Columbia University
No one admitted cheating despite pressure from the school’s administrators and pleas from classmates, who feared the scandal would damage the market value of their degrees. Meanwhile, the teacher of the course, New York Times columnist Samuel G. Freedman, refused to comment. But if the disgruntled posts on RateMyProfessors.com are any indication, his students hadn’t exactly been soaking up knowledge. “Maybe he could e-mail his ‘speeches’ to the students instead of making everyone suffer through the most wasted class in j-school. . . ,” one read.
There’s an old cowboy saying that goes, “When your horse dies, get off.” Journalism ethics education is a dead horse. Or else those aren’t vultures circling in the sky.
No one admitted cheating despite pressure from the school’s administrators and pleas from classmates, who feared the scandal would damage the market value of their degrees. Meanwhile, the teacher of the course, New York Times columnist Samuel G. Freedman, refused to comment. But if the disgruntled posts on RateMyProfessors.com are any indication, his students hadn’t exactly been soaking up knowledge. “Maybe he could e-mail his ‘speeches’ to the students instead of making everyone suffer through the most wasted class in j-school. . . ,” one read.
There’s an old cowboy saying that goes, “When your horse dies, get off.” Journalism ethics education is a dead horse. Or else those aren’t vultures circling in the sky.
A Question for Socrates
The question of how ethics is learned, or even if it can be, is as old as Western philosophy. In Plato’s dialog Meno the title character asks, “Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way?” Of course, Socrates, being Socrates, resists giving a definite answer. But we can’t. The sad fact is, students had better get an effective ethics education now or they may never.
Last summer I conducted an ethics workshop for some reporters and editors at the Poughkeepsie Journal, a small daily in upstate
But what I remember most is the air of defeat that clung to the staff as we sat on hard plastic chairs in the break room discussing the cases. I could hear in their voices the bitterness and cynicism of employees forced to follow corporate policies they despised. Recently, for example, the paper had started running display ads on the front page and section fronts, a much more grievous ethical lapse, their mumbled asides suggested, than anything the case studies might have to offer.
I don’t want my students to ever wear the gray, defeated expression I saw that day on the faces at the Journal. But given the downward direction in which the media are moving, and fast, how in the world can I prevent it from happening?
Teaching Media Ethics by Telling Stories
A friend of mine who teaches at a big Midwestern university recounts in class the events of her first week as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune. She was sent to Duluth to cover Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey on the campaign trail. When they were introduced, Humphrey vigorously shook her hand. “Oh yes, Susan,” he said, “I read your stuff all the time.” He couldn’t have read her stuff, though; she hadn’t written anything yet. “Just a few words,” she explains to her students, “but words that taught this fledging reporter a great lesson about pols and the little lies they tell.”
I usually find occasion during the semester to quote I. F. Stone’s dictum, “Every government is run by liars and thieves, and nothing they say should be believed,” to make the same point. But Susan’s story makes the point better. That’s because it has existential force. Her story vividly captures in a way a secondhand quote can’t the realities of a reporter’s life.
Some might think telling “war stories” is a waste of precious class time. I’ve a colleague who didn’t want to fall into the “trap” of regaling students with stories ad nauseam (“which, let’s face it, is easier than teaching or grading,” he said). So one semester he kept track. When he toted it all up at the end, he was surprised that he’d used less than an hour - out of 45 – talking about his newspaper experiences. And yet, he admitted, it was his stories that students seemed to remember most.
“Stories teach us how to live,” Daniel Taylor said in his essay, “The Ethical Implications of Storytelling.” What he meant was that stories preserve our experience for contemplation and evaluation. Although not all stories carry a heavy message, there’s an entire category of stories, so-called “exemplary tales,” that are told to convey a moral.
Our war stories are potentially just such tales. They can provide evidence, in ethicist John Barton’s words, of “how real human beings live through various crises and trials and remain human.” My colleague who kept tabs on his storytelling has described his stories as cautionary. Most, he said, deal with “screwups I learned from.”
But sometimes the storyteller and the audience can’t agree on what exactly the moral of a story is.
When Susan was a cub reporter on the Tribune, she interviewed the Beatles, who were on their second tour of the States. She got into their hotel room by dressing up as a waitress in an ugly, mustard-colored uniform and accompanying an actual room service waiter upstairs. Ringo took one look at her little plastic name tag – it read “Donna Brown” – and snorted, “What kind of name is that?” The waiter nudged her in the side. “Tell them what you real name is,” he urged. She did, as well as her reason for being there. Rather than throw her out, the Beatles politely answered her questions. They even let her phone for a photographer. The next day her story ran on the front page, with a photo of John sitting at a table and looking up at her and laughing as she poured coffee in his cup. She still has a glossy print of that photo somewhere.
Many of Susan’s students think she’s nuts for not having the photo hanging up in her office. They also think she’s nuts for saying she’d never participate in the same kind of stunt today. To her celebrity-struck students, disguising herself as a hotel waitress to get an interview with the Beatles seems soooo cool. They lose all sight of the fact that it wasn’t a story of vital public interest that demanded undercover methods.
Susan intends one lesson when she talks about her hard day’s night, but her students, living in a paparazzi-saturated culture, draw another. “It may be a lost cause,” she remarked to me.
Or maybe not. Negotiations over what the point of a story is can be part of the point of the story. In the process of negotiating, we test different interpretations, try out different themes. This is helpful. This is educational. Lawrence Kohlberg, the Harvard psychologist famous for his research on the stages of moral development, contended that “the teaching of virtue is the asking of questions. . . not the giving of answers.” Stories don’t necessarily have to yield clear moral rules to be of value. It’s enough sometimes if they just give us something to think about.
16 comments:
1) Identify the case you & partner wish to do.
Courtney Moore & Hannah Nesich
We chose "Our Unhealthy Love Of Reality TV Bullying" for our presenation.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/28/health/reality-tv-bullies/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
2) The major ethical issues presented are:
A. What the TV editors find necessary to air. They could easily cut out things that could be detrimental to the viewers (especially young ones)but they don't.
B. When people watch TV they have their guard down. They are unconsciously sucking up what's on TV while eating dinner, doing homework, or just relaxing. Soon, they are repeating what they heard on TV as "jokes" and soon jokes become reality.
C. The media mimics reality, or is supposed to. If people see semi-scripted garbage on TV and think that's how others are acting, that will become the norm.
3)The Bok model is the best way to analyze this issue. The three questions presented in the model are:
A. How do you feel about the action?
B. Is there another way to achieve the same goal without creating ethical problems?
C. How will my actions affect others?
This model will allow us to put ourselves in the position of the Reality TV show editors and producers to ultimately prove that they are concerned about ratings over presenting truth and not creating ethical issues. Bullying has become a really serious issue over the past few years.
1) Identify the case you & partner wish to do.
Caterina De Gaetano and Suzy Berkowitz
We chose "Newtown to the Media: You're Making this Nightmare Worse." We will use the following articles as references:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22210288/newtown-media-youre-making-this-nightmare-worse
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/business/media/newtown-has-mixed-feelings-about-the-media-horde-in-its-midst.html?hp&_r=1&
2) Major ethical issues
A. Reporters are over-staying their welcome and setting up camp in this town post-tragedy.
B. Reporters and media producers are harassing victims and residents for quotes.
C. Media personnel have been intrusive, calling homes, parking on private property, snapping photos of grieving people.
D. Reporters acted hostile toward those who refused to give their identity or a quote.
E. Reporters are pronouncing names wrong, which shows they are less caring of their subjects and more concerned with getting a story.
3) For this case, we can apply a few models. Two that seem to fit this case well are the Potter Box and the SPJ code of ethics.
With the Potter Box, we can evaluate the facts of this case, the values and principle the media have regarding it, and where their loyalties lie.
SPJ Code of Ethics
1. Seek truth and report it
2. Minimize harm
3. Act independently
4. Be accountable
We can use this as a sort of check- list to determine if the journalists in this case abide by these rule, thus acting ethically or not. This will help us to prove that they broke rule number two.
I am posting on behalf of my partner Jen McGreevey and I.
Jen and I plan on doing on our project on the New York Times article "50 Shades of Vulgarity." This article discusses the new wave of "vulgar" words flooding the covers of women's magazines and the ethics involved in making the decision to publish these terms. Not only is it essential to dissect this decision making process, but we also think it is noteworthy to discuss the audience's reaction to this matter. For example, after Glamour editor Cindi Leive posted a sexually explicit term on her magazine's cover, she did not receive any negative reader feedback for her decision. This transition into less conservative readership is especially interesting to Jen and I and would like to trace the history of "scandalous" content within magazines.
Jen and I have contemplated several modes of analysis for this project, though right now we seem to be gravitating towards the potter box. However, we may employ one or two more models to this debate to ensure a deeper understanding.
1. I will be working solo on the project, and my topic will be the use of political satire as a form of news.
2. I would shed a light on the history of satire and the ethicality of the format. As Howard Greely said “print (speak) the truth, raise hell.”
3. I plan to apply the SPJ’s code of ethics, since that method states to “act independently” (the producer/journalist) as well as “seek truth and report it, while minimizing harm.” Satire should encourage an audience to acknowledge “their disapprobation of the behaviors being satirized and their approbation of the satirist’s moral rules.”
Audrey Brand, Montana Wilson and myself will be basing our project on the Washington Post Brand Journalism case.
One of the ethical issues presented is that this news source is blurring the lines between advertising and news. By putting these sponsored stories in the same area as the real news, they are enfranchising the idea that these ads are just as important.
To analyze this issue we intend to use the Potter Box. We feel that this model will be best to fully detail all of the factors surrounding this case.
1) Identify the case you * partner wish to do:
Grace Noto and Kerri Morgan
We wish to do our project on the fake "Viral Video" of the pig rescuing the baby goat.
2). The major ethical issues presented in this case are:
A. The difference between what is real and what is fake--or the difference between "news" and promoting a company or organization.
3) In our opinion, the best way to analyze this issue would be the Potter Box, because it addresses the facts, values and principles of a case to decide whether or not it is ethical.
1) Identify the case you & partner wish to do.
Myself, Jenna Harris and Naomi Scher are choosing to do the case about vulgarity in women’s magazines.
2) Describe what you see as the major ethical issue or issues in the case.
The major ethical issue we see presented in this case is the use of vulgarities in magazines today. One would think that there would be an outcry from the public against this, but we as a society have become so desensitized and so used to vulgarities in our daily lives, that seeing them printed in magazines and articles doesn’t even make us blink an eye. Although there is little to no backlash about these words being printed, does it make it ethical to do so?
3) Discuss which ethical model you plan to apply to the ethical issue or issues & why.
We want to look into both the Bok model and the Potter Box to apply to this ethical issue. We like how both apply, but we want to look more deeply into both models before we decide which one is the best to use in this situation.
1. Identify the case you & partner wish to do.
Sheryl Katz, Vic Morrell, and Farris Moustafa will be addressing the case of “Stop sexualizing my grocery shopping.”
2. Describe what you see as the major ethical issue or issues in the case.
A. These magazines are in a public setting, and they display some very private pictures.
B. Not only are the images seen here offensive to some shoppers, they go one step further as they are completely airbrushed. Perfection, through computerized manipulation, is an idea that cannot realistically be attained, but in photographs such as the one on the magazine cover, people strive to achieve perfection even though they know it is unachievable.
C. Photoshopped images have an extreme impact on the public, especially when they cannot be avoided - even shopping at the super market results in a conversation with children about body image.
3. Discuss which ethical model you plan to apply to the ethical issue or issues & why.
The Best Model for this case is the Potter Box, We could discuss the facts of whether or not this picture is considered a normality in today’s society, the values that the magazine is portraying as important, the social principles of today’s culture, and to whom the loyalties of publications and supermarkets are.
After discussing with Professor Good and Caterina De Gaetano, I will be working in her group.
1. The case we (myself and Natalie Farina) are going to focus on is the article that was in the New York Times about Facebook sharing, and how it comes at a cost. We will focus on the controversies with paying Facebook to promote things to get likes and shares.
2. The major ethical issue is that Facebook is supposed to be a website with no economic cost to use, but when people pay for them to promote things, there is a major increase in the shares and likes and activity on that person’s profile. The main ethical issue is what does Facebook really do to get people to pay for this promotion. Since there is such a big increase, do they suppress the original posts in the first place to encourage people to pay so the make more money? That is clearly unethical if that is the case, so we will be researching more about that to determine more in depth the ethical issue.
3. The ethical model that we will use is the Bok Model. The model includes, a) to consult conscience on values and beliefs, to ask how I emote about this dilemma, b)seek expert advice for alternatives to this ethical dilemma, and determine if there is another way to achieve the goal without raising ethical issues, c)seek public discussion with or conduct a hypothetical discussion with the parties involved to establish how others respond to this ethical dilemma, and how the action will affect others. We believe this model will help break down any possible issues regarding Facebook and how it is used for promotion and allow us to come up with possible solutions an analyze the ethical dilemmas appropriately.
1.) The case that I will be working on covers violence in video games. I will focus on new media blaming tragic events on violent video games.
2.) The major ethical issues here are:
a.) Why media chooses video games as a scapegoat for violence.
b.) Where the line is drawn for what it "too much" for a video game.
c.) How video games receive more blame than violent images or movies on tv and in film.
3.) I believe using either the potter box to dissect the facts, values and principles of this topic would be the best option for analyzing this case.
Jay and myself plan to research the images used in the media of those directly effect by tragedies. Images have become such a crucial way of how we understand the media and what is going on around us. The major ethical question becomes are these images exposing those who are in them? For any reason? Are these images crucial in our understanding of what's happened to the victims? Death is a very intimate occurrence and those who are affected it deserve the privacy to grieve. We will focus on the images used in the Peter Figoski murder, Sandy hook shooting, Colorado shootings and others. We will use the BOK model because the those three questions go along with exactly what we are talking about. The last point specifically speaks to our topic because it involves having an actual conversation with those directly involved.
Here are some examples:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/nypd-pete-figoski-died-protect-pine-st-article-1.1276604?pgno=1
(page 2)
http://www.eonline.com/news/331829/dark-knight-rises-tragedy-president-obama-celebs-react-to-colorado-shooting
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/deadly-shooting-reported-conn-elementary-school-article-1.1220164
ay and myself plan to research the images used in the media of those directly effect by tragedies. Images have become such a crucial way of how we understand the media and what is going on around us. The major ethical question becomes are these images exposing those who are in them? For any reason? Are these images crucial in our understanding of what's happened to the victims? Death is a very intimate occurrence and those who are affected it deserve the privacy to grieve. We will focus on the images used in the Peter Figoski murder, Sandy hook shooting, Colorado shootings and others. We will use the BOK model because the those three questions go along with exactly what we are talking about. The last point specifically speaks to our topic because it involves having an actual conversation with those directly involved.
Here are some examples:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/nypd-pete-figoski-died-protect-pine-st-article-1.1276604?pgno=1
(page 2)
http://www.eonline.com/news/331829/dark-knight-rises-tragedy-president-obama-celebs-react-to-colorado-shooting
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/deadly-shooting-reported-conn-elementary-school-article-1.1220164
I will be working by myself for this project and I am going to analyze how the media covered Newtown after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. I will analyze it using W. D. Ross's prima facie duties because this model uses empathy which is very important after such a tragedy. The major ethical issues I plan to cover are the insensitivity to the victims families, the false information that was reported immediately, and the pressure the media put on the small town.
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