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JOURNALISM ETHICS & ISSUESCLASS #10 | JRNL 4650 | FALL 2016
• Instructor: Bill Mitchell • bmitch (at) gmail (dot) com• 727-641-9407• 11 October 2016 | Northeastern Univ.
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WHAT WE’LL DO TODAY • Cultural Values Shape Media Coverage by Ruobing
• When the Government Says Shh to the Media by Jodie
• Ethical issues in the Presidential Campaign
• A Verification Process
• Review of Foreman’s Chapter 12: Getting the Story Right and Being Fair
• Checklists: Atul Gawande’s and Yours
• Assignments for Thursday Oct. 13
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CAMPAIGN COVERAGE ETHICS ISSUES, THE ONGOING SERIES
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• Sourcing on the leak of the Access Hollywood tape to the Washington Post
• Ethics principles in tension?
• Taste and tone questions about language choice: What to use, what to bleep
• Ethics principles in tension?
HOWARD KURTZ INTERVIEW WITH WASHPOST REPORTER DAVID FAHRENTHOLD
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TO BLEEP OR NOT TO BLEEP: POLITICO REPORTS WHO DID WHAT
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IN THE SPIRIT OF A “THIRD OPTION:”
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NEW YORK TIMES EXPLANATION: THE WORDS THEMSELVES WERE THE STORY
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BIG WEEK FOR THE F WORD AT THE TIMES:
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WHAT DO THE GUIDELINES SAY? HERE’S THE NYT’S POLICY (UPDATED 2014:
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FOREMAN CHAPTER 12: GETTING THE STORY RIGHT AND BEING FAIR
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• Framing
• Finding alternatives to such usual suspects as conflict
• Scientific method as antidote to falling in love with a story:
• Your task: Test a hypothesis to see if it’s valid
• Not to prove the hypothesis
FOREMAN CHAPTER 12, CONT.
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• Increasing your chances of being right:
• Getting closer and closer to what actually happened
• Getting comfortable with being wrong:
• Corrections as part of the journalistic process
• Declaring what you won’t report:
• But acknowledging that “it’s out there” and that you’re working to verify or debunk
STORYFUL: HOW AN IRISH JOURNALIST CREATED A COMPANY OUT OF THE
JOURNALISTIC IMPERATIVE OF VERIFICATION
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• Storyful founder Mark Little:
• “Authority has been replaced by authenticity as the currency of social journalism… The key to engaging with a community is to seek out those closest to a story.”
• A Storyful case study on verification: http://blog.storyful.com/2012/10/09/find-that-fireball-when-journalist-turns-stalker/#.V_rBGZMrLof
HOW STORYFUL GOT AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO 1) A DRAMATIC WEATHER EVENT OR 2) A HOAX
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VERIFICATION PROCESS: INITIAL STEPS
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• The video on youtube revealed little: No location, no recording date, but it was uploaded on Oct. 5 (2012)
• There was a name associated with the upload -- Rita Krill – but no discernible accent indicating where Krill might live.
WATCH (AND LISTEN TO) VIDEO AGAIN, THIS TIME IN PURSUIT OF CLUES
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A SEARCH OF SPOKEO.COM TURNS UP RITA KRILLS IN SIX STATES
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BUT WHAT WAS THE WEATHER IN NAPLES, FL ON OCT. 5, 2012?
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• There’s an app for that!
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ADDRESS & GENERAL SATELLITE IMAGE VIA SPOKEO
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CLOSER SATELLITE IMAGE OF ADDRESS
VIA GOOGLE MAPS
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PHONE NUMBER VIA SPOKEO
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DURING PHONE INTERVIEW, REPORTER ASKS HER TO SEND A CELL PHONE PHOTO OF TREE
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VERIFYING WEATHER EVENTS: A CLOSER LOOK IN SLOW MOTION
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VERIFIED AND BROADCAST ON GOODMORNING AMERICA
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YOUR OWN REPORTING CHECKLIST
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• Values undergirding it?
• Specifics of your list?
DETROIT FREE PRESS ACCURACY CHECKLIST
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• 1. Have you double-checked all names, titles and places mentioned in your story? Have you tested from the screen and CQ’d ALL phone numbers or Web addresses?
• 2. Are the quotes accurate and properly attributed? Have you fully captured what each person meant?
• 3. Is this story fair? Who or what might be missing from the story? Have they been called and given a chance to talk?
• 4. Have you run spell check and checked the math?
• 5. Have you fact-checked your information given to graphics or photography? Have you seen the completed graphic or photo?
ASSIGNMENTS FOR THURSDAY OCT. 13
• Read and perhaps post a comment to posts by Anita & Maddie
• Read Chapters 14 & 15 in Foreman: Making News Decisions about Privacy and Taste
• Ethics in campaign coverage: Send me your examples (optional)
• Note: Personal Ethics Code due Oct. 13 (end of day Thursday) as a post on your blog
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