JMU SMAD 101 Exam 5 SPRING 2024

Media Ethics

Helps us determine what we should/shouldn't do when creating media

Aristotle: Golden Mean

Ethical behavior comes from hitting a balance between inaction/timidity of cowardice and recklessness of foolhardiness

3 Individual Musts of Golden Mean

Know what they are doing

Select their action with a moral reason

Act out of good of character

Kant: Categorical Imperative

Morality lies in the act itself and not in the character of the actor of the intent behind the action

What would be the result of everyone acting the same way they themselves wish to act

Mill: Principle of Utility

That ethical behavior arises from that which will provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people

Rawls: Veil of Ignorance

Justice comes from making decisions that maximize liberty for all people and without considering which outcome will give us personally the biggest benefit

Hutchins Commission: Social Responsibility Ethics

Press had the responsibility to give voice to the public/society

The free press was not living up to that responsibility to the public because of its need to serve its commercial masters

4 Code of Ethics: Journalism

Transparent and Accountable

Seeking truth and Reporting

Minimize Harm

Act independently

Who called the Hutchins Commission

Henery Luce

What was the first jounalist's ethical approach

Hutchins Commission: Social Responsibility Ethics

Bok 3-Step Model

Consult your conscience

Seek alternatives

Hold an imaginary ethical dialogue with everyone involved

Janet Cooke

Worked for the Washington Post - wrote about a 8-year boy, Jimmy, who was a Heroin Addict, however the whole story was fake

Jayson Blair

Worked for the New York Times - was a famous plagiarizer

Stephen Glass

Worked for The New Republic - was a famous fabricator, caught misreporting/making up whole stories/events

Jose Antonio Vargas

Journalist who is an undocumented immigrant - and told his storying about being undocumented in American, put himself and companies in jeopardy

Conflict of Interest

A person is in a position to derive personal benefit from actions or decisions made in their official capacity

Jay Solomon

Worked for Wall Street Journal - Had secret business deals with arms dealer

Carli Loyd

Investor in Gotham FC that she publicly analyzed

Sensationalism

News coverage that ponders to audiences with lurid and highly emotional stories

Tabloid Laundering

When respectable media report on what tabloids are covering

Effects of Tabloid Laundering / Sensationalism

1. Lowers the level of discourse down to the crude and salacious

2. Pushes aside other more consequential stories

3. Appeals to our worst instincts instead of intelligence and a sense of decency

Sago Mine Disaster

News Reporters did not verify rumors of 12 miners being alive, and instead took the governors word for it

Photo Guideline Policy

1. Image should be limited to dodging and burning practices and must accurately reflect the scene that was photographed

2. No colors will be altered from the original scene photographed

3. Background can not be eliminated

Ombudsman

reader's representative/public editor - respond to criticism and look into how the news organization covered an issue / failed to cover it

Code of Ethics

Rules and standards to guide the company, its employees or all those in the industry

5 Requirements of Hutchins Commission

1. Media should provide truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day's events in a context that gives them meaning

2. Media should serve as a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism

3. Media should project a representative picture of the constituent groups within the society

4. Media should present and clarify the goals and values of the society

5. Media should provide full access to the day's news

Puffary

Exaggerated and false praise

False Advertising

Untrue or misleading information given to you to get you to buy something, or to come visit their store

Federal Trade Commission

Investigated complaints about false / misleading ads

Native Advertising

Paid media designed to match the content of a media source

#Gamergate

An attack on a female video game developer framed as a critique on ethics in video game journalism

#SJW (Social Justice Warriors)

Derogatory term for people who express progressive views - promoting women in geek culture

1st Amendment Rights

Speech, Religion, Petition, Press, Assembly (Peacefully)

Roots of American Free Speech

John Peter Zenger vs. William Cosby (1700s)

Zenger's New York Journal accused New York governor of corruption

Sedition Act 1798

It seems to contradict the 1st Amendment

Libel

Published or broadcasted communication that lowers the reputation of an individual by holding him or her up to contempt, ridicule, or scorn. Statement must also be false

Elements of Libel

Defamation - damaging a person's reputation in some way

Identification - can other people recognize person in story, even if name is not used

Publication - story is published or broadcast/seen by a third party

New York Times vs. Sullivan (1964)

Inaccurate statements in a report about how Alabama Law enforcement was treating Civil Rights Protestors

Ruled public officials must show actual malice

Actual Malice

Acted with knowledge that the information was false or reckless disregard for the truth

Gertz vs. Welch

Extended "actual malice" standard to public figures

Defense against of libel

Truth

Privilege

Opinion

Intrusion

Trespass into a space surrounding a person or property under his or her control

Embarrasment

True but embarrassing facts that are not newsworthy

False Light

Untrue statements that change a person's public image

Misappropriation

Right to commercial use of name/image

Cohen vs. Cowles Media

Minnesota case regarding whether journalists can name a source after promising anonymity (burning the source). Courts ruled that journalists can name sources even if promised not to.

Food Lion vs. ABC

Producers for PrimeTime lied to go undercover to investigate Food Lion. The court said the producers' bahve was wrong but only awarded Food Lion $2.

Near vs. Minnesota (1931)

Jay Near made racist, anti-semitic chargers in paper

Minnesota Court - stopped the publishing

Supreme Court - ruled prior constraint can only be used to suppress military information in time of war/obscenity

Pentagon Papers

Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified reports on U.S. decisions and policies during the Vietnam War

Supreme Court - ruled the need for "informed and enlightened citizenry" outweighed government desire for secrecy

Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier

Supreme Court - ruled that school-sponsored papers do not have the same rights as professional press and media

Morse vs. Frederick

BONG HITS 4 JESUS

Supreme Court - ruled principle could punish speech that could " reasonably be viewed" as promoting illegal drugs

Obscenity

Sexually explicit material that is legally prohibited from being published

First court that ruled it was illegal to post nude in exchange for money

Pennsylvania Court

Roth vs. United States

3-part test

1. Whether to the average person it is obscene

2. Apply contemporary community standards

3. Dominate theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient intrest

Miller vs. California

Ruled that material that has "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" cannot be banned

Copy RIght Laws

First used in 1790 - protected work for 14 years (could be extended for 14 more)

Fair Use

Provides for using copyright-protected materials and taking into consideration how it is used and the amount that is used

Disney

Changed the copyright protection to last 95 years

Public Domain Day

New Year's Day every year when many copyrights expire

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Required V-chip in television sets

Relaxed ownership rules on broadcast stations

Attempted to regulate content on Internet with Communications Decency Act portion of law - but Supreme Court shut it down

Net Nuetrality

Idea that internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks fairly

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

Allows media and any citizen to gain access to government information

Fourth Theories of the Press (1956)

Authoritarian

Communist

Libertarian

Social Responsibility

Authoritarian Theory

Role of the press is to be a servant of the government

Controls press through regulation, intimidation, and force

Communist

Media's main purpose is to act as a tool for government propaganda

Marie Colven

Worked for the Sunday Times of London, reported on the Syrian war, and died due to a rocket attack (the Syrian president did not like her reporting on the war)

Jason Rezaian

The Washington Post employee who was detained by Iran and accused of spying

Jamal Khashoggi

Washington Post journalist killed in Istanbul at the Saudi consulate

Libertarian Model

The press is privately owned and is an independent server of the government

What is the biggest threat to the press in the libertarian model

The government

Social Responsibility Theory

Emerged out of the Hutchins Commission

Acknowledges that the for-profit nature of media skews the content it provides

Development Theory

Restrict freedom of the press in order to promote the country's industries/national identity/partnerships with other nations

Wells: 5 dimensions of media

Control

Finance

Programming goals

Target audience

Feedback mechanism