News and Media Ethics Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes about the news and media ethics

Fred Friendly

A CBS producer who worked with Edward R. Murrow to start the TV documentary show called "See it Now."

Edward R. Murrow

Radio broadcaster who first had a radio show on CBS called "Hear it Now" but later moved to TV with the same show called "See it Now."

Lee Harvey Oswald

An ex-Marine and a trained sharpshooter who worked in the building where he shot President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Newsreels

Short films, usually around 10 minutes long, and were the first sound films containing current news, human interest features, and sports events. First newsreel = Charles Pathe, 1909

Residual News

Stories about events that are recurrent or long-lasting like floods or natural disasters

March of Time

Combined film news with interpretive news and dramatizations

Press-Radio War

When radio began to gain popularity, the newspaper industry saw it as competition so they cut down their coverage of radioby not reporting on exciting broadcasts or printing broadcast times (unless the radio stations paid them to). The newspaper industry also pressured wire services (like Associated Press) to stop providing info to the radio

The Hindenburg Incident

A milestone of radio reporting from 1937 of an exploding blimp; was important because it was the first instance of eyewitness news accounts of catastrophic events that were reported as it was happening

Stringers

Independent, self employed journalists, integral for film crews in important locations to get information from other places

Pseudo-Event

Planned events by public relations working with businesses or government organizations to get their own points of view across, said to create a further distortion of news values

Documentary

A long-form recorded examination of a social problem or historical subject; Murrow and Harvey produced documentaries like Harvest of Shame on mistreatment of migrant farm workers AND The Case Against Milo Randulovich A0589829 on McCarthyism (Good Night, and Good Luck)

Credibility Gap

The difference between what the Lyndon Johnson administration was saying and what the public believed to be true, coined during the Vietnam War

24-Hour-A-Day All-News Cable Network

Launched initially by Ted Turner, CNN (Cable-News-Network) was the first live 24-hour all-news cable network in response to how 60% of Americans were watching the big three networks (CBS, ABC, NBC) every day

Fox News

A Conservative alternative to CNN, launched by Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes in 1997. Often to be considered “fake news” because of its biased reporting and promotion of right-wing viewpoints, using “the power of a question mark” to justify outrageous and non-sensical questions

Nexis

A full-text newspaper database started by Mead Data Central in 1978 to allow subscribers paid access to newspaper archives, typically weeks old at the time (and took 10 minutes to download one) with a monthly subscription fee of $40

Bulletin Board Services (BBSs)

Innovative newspapers that began to offer their content to online subscribers starting 1980s, like The Fort Worth Star-Telegram being first online this way in 1983

Video on Demand (VOD)

Enabled users to call up video clips of news events, current and archived

Videotext

An experimental system for delivering electronic newspapers to homes via television sets attempted in the 1980s but never caught on

News On Demand

Providing information that users could access whenever they wanted; Nexis was an example of such

Citizen journalism

The act of everyday citizens playing an active role in collecting, reporting, and analyzing the news through modern technology and global distribution, AKA participatory journalism

News values

Characteristics that define news, including timeliness, importance, and interests

News

The presentation of information that is timely, important, and interesting to its audience

Pegs

An angle to make important, timely information interesting to audiences

Proximity

A peg based on location, meaning the news has something to do with where the audience member works or lives

Prominence

The news relates in some way to someone well known to the audience

Correspondents

On-camera reporters in the field, often reporting with the news scene in the background

Satellite News Gathering (SNG)

Reporting the news equipment that entails transmission via an antenna and satellite

Electronic News Gathering (ENG)

Reporting that uses portable field equipment to videotape interviews that are later edited

Anchors

The primary newsreader, who appears in the broadcast news studio

Backpack Journalists

Television correspondents who work alone with a laptop computer and a handheld camera in the field, filing their stories through the net

Media Surveys

A tool used to gather information and insights from journalists, influencers, and the general public about media consumption, preferences, and opinions

Impending War

Selling newspapers for decades, in the form of impending war, famine, pollution, disease or economic collapse to get more sales (like clickbait but for newspapers)

Embedded Journalists

Nonmilitary reporters attached to a military unit that are given equipment and minimal training to provide the public with accurate information about the 2003 Iraq War

Biltmore Agreement

The radio networks would air only two 5-minute segments per day, not before 9:30 AM and not before 9:00 PM, with no breaking news from wire services and no sponsors to not interfere with newspaper sales. Lasted for less than a year and did not forbid commentaries (which were discussions about the news)

Bias

Skewed opinions in media meant to persuade or convey a specific point

Liberal Bias

Point of view that is generally anti-big business, pro-big government, antireligion, and anti-Republican

Conservative Bias

Point of view that is generally pro-big business, anti-big government, proreligion, and anti-Democrat

Centrist Bias

Failure of the news to report on radical points of view

Creeping Bias

A subtle form of slanting that manifests itself in understated ways

General Stanley McChrystal

Commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, fired by President Barack Obama in June 2010 after a leaked controversial Rolling Stone story in which McChrystal spoke poorly of the Obama administration

Donna Reed

Actress who plays a stay-at-home mother who fills her days with housework in the Donna Reed Show, with a traditional portrayal of femininity stereotyped gender roles that continue to thrive in mass media

Who is South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford?

Controversial Governor that admitted to flying to Argentina to visit his mistress and had used public funds for his private travel ONLY AFTER taking a weeklong disappearance in June of that year, he resigned from his office as the chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association

Seth Ackerman

Media analyst that said the right-leaning Fox News network reports news stories that favor the Republican Party, shows the Democratic Party in a negative light, and how Fox’s panels of pundits who offer commentary after the news tend to be politically conservative or moderate far more often than liberal

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement Colored People, organized protests alongside the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) to boycott minority exclusion and stereotypes in media

2008 newsroom census

Journalists, editors, and reporters are still predominantly White. The study showed a percentage of minority journalists working at daily newspapers was a scant 13.52 percent

Plagiarism

Using someone else’s information, writing, or speech without properly documenting or citing the source

The New York Times

An American daily newspaper founded in 1851 surveyed students at 23 college campuses and reported that 38 percent of students admitted to having committed copy-and-paste plagiarism within the previous year in 2003

Jayson Blair

NYT news reporter that plagiarized 36 of 73 articles that he wrote for the paper and made up falsified stories in several others

News Aggregators

News aggregators profit from providing links to journalists’ stories at major newspapers without offering financial compensation to either the journalists or the news organizations which causes a loss of profit in traditional newspapers

Society of Professional Journalists

Stipulates that journalists should refuse gifts and favors and avoid political involvement or public office if these things compromise journalistic integrity and avoid inflating stories for sensation and be as transparent as possible about their sources of information so that the public can investigate the issues further on their own

Committee of Concerned Journalists

An independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, citing that the central purpose of journalism is “to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.

Watergate Scandal

The Washington Post’s linked government agencies and officials to the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex that caused Nixon to be the first president to resign from office.

Objectivity

Journalists act independently and that they remain neutral in their presentation of information; not being involved with the material that they report on

Factual Errors

A mistake or inaccuracy concerning facts, enforced by The Huffington Post which requires all of its pass-holding writers to fact check and to correct any factual errors within 24 hours or lose their privileges to prevent the spread of misinformation

International Federation of Journalists

Gave a rough guideline in cases where privacy is in danger of being violated; focuses on the nature of the individual’s place in society, the individual’s reputation, and his or her place in public life

Center for Excellence in Journalism

Organizations dedicated to improving the quality and ethics of journalism through training, research, and support for journalists; has called the news industry today “more reactive than proactive”

TMZ

Stands for "Thirty-Mile Zone," a term used in the film and television industry to refer to a specific geographical area in Los Angeles; celebrity gossip website

Cookies

Text files that web page servers embed in users’ hard drives help search engines like Google and Yahoo! track their customers’ search histories, buying habits, and browsing patterns to customize users’ searches and third-party ads based on a particular user’s demographics and behavior

Digital Dossiers

A superset of all your online data that includes secure private records as well as your public online identity and a collection of data streams tied to a serialized product or products, including your contributions to the dossier, as well as other people's contributions to your dossier with pictures and other

The Patriot Act

A law that was passed just 6 weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, expanded the federal government’s rights to access citizens’ personal information

Socialization Agents

Describes mass media as the way that people learn about the norms, expectations, and values of their society

National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

An advocacy group for Hispanic Americans, partnered with the NAACP to protest minority exclusion and stereotypes in media

Copyright Law

A form of protection provided by U.S. law, under which the creator of an original artistic or intellectual work is automatically granted certain rights, including the right to distribute, copy, and modify the work

Blogging

The act of writing a blog: news and commentary entries from one or more authors

Who is Mark Zuckerburg?

The founder of Facebook and current owner of META (Instagram, Whatsapp), discusses privacy issues on a regular basis in forums ranging from his official Facebook blog to conferences

Privacy Policy

Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced changes to the site’s privacy policy - Concern grew that some of Facebook’s default privacy settings allowed everyone, regardless of their level of connection to a user, to access some personal information

Federal Trade Commission

Ensuring that advertisements make verifiable claims and do not overtly mislead consumers, primarily dedicates itself to eliminating unfair business practices and established in 1914

Bureau of Corporations

President Theodore Roosevelt created to investigate the practices of increasingly larger American businesses in 1903

Trading with the Enemy Act

Restricted trade with countries in conflict with the United States, resulting from President Wilson frequently turning to the FTC for advice on exports and trading with foreign nations

Federal Radio Commission

Established in 1914 and is designed to “protect America’s consumers” and “prevent unfair methods of competition in commerce.”

The Federal Communications Commission

Part of the New Deal (President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Great Depression–era suite of federal programs and agencies), worked to establish a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service in 1934 to regulate interstate and international communications

Media Bureau

One of the four key bureaus; oversees licensing and regulation of broadcasting services; the other 3 are the Wireline Competition Bureau, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and the International Bureau

Standard Oil

First company to form a trust, 1880s

Sherman Antitrust Act

Originally intended to dissolve the monopolistic enterprises of late-19th-century industrialists, 1890

Clayton Act

Makes it unlawful for one company to “acquire…the whole or any part of the stock” of another company when the result would encourage the development of a monopoly, also allowed the government to regulate the purchase of a competitor’s stock

Privacy Act

Works to guarantee privacy to individuals and controls how personal information is used. Defamation in the written form (libel) or the spoken form (slander) is illegal in the United States.

Libel Law

Refers to written statements or printed visual depictions

Slander Law

Refers to verbal statements and gestures

Freedom of Information Act

Requiring full or partial disclosure of U.S. government information and documents, the act “helps the public keep track of its government’s actions from the campaign expenditures of city commission candidates to federal agencies’ 617 Understanding Media and Culture management of billions of dollars in tax revenues”, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966

Section 315 of the Communications Act

Requires radio and television stations to give equal opportunity for airtime to all candidates

Fairness Doctrine

FCC established a rule stating that if broadcasters editorialized in favor of a position on a particular issue, they had to give equal time to all other reasonable positions on that issue in 1949

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Congress passed in 1998 to establish a protocol for online copyright matters

Terms of Services

Legally binding rules that an individual must adhere to in order to use a particular piece of software or service

Digital Democracy

Engages citizens in government and civic action through online tools, AKA e-democracy

The Great Train Robbery

The use of editing, camera pans, rear projections, and diagonally composed shots that produced a continuity of action by Edwin S. Porter, a projectionist and engineer for the Edison Company, established the realistic narrative as a standard in cinema and was the first major box-office hit in 1903

Hays Code

Censorship in the 1930s - 1940s in film

Film Rating System

Established by the MPAA and successor of the MPPDA, made to help alert potential audiences to the type of content they could expect from a production

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Claims that the DMCA has become a serious threat that jeopardizes fair use, impedes competition and innovation, chills free expression and scientific research, and interferes with computer intrusion laws"

Megan Meier Case

Court case arose regarding TOS violation in 2008, Lori Drew was accused of using a fake MySpace account to convince 13-year-old Megan Meier to commit suicide

KDKA

Became the first station to broadcast election results from the Harding-Cox presidential race on November 2, 1920 in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)

Created to protect authors of literary and artistic works, including computer programs, original databases, and fine art