You’ve aced your first journalism class, and you’re ready to write for the student newspaper.
But when you approach the editor with your ideas, he turns them down. Instead, he asks you to take on an investigation. The editors have a tip that the university’s admissions office is turning down otherwise acceptable new students because they’ve posted what university officials call “distasteful” photos on Facebook. The editors’ source refuses to be named in the story, so the editors want you to pose as a student worker for the admissions office to spy on admissions counselors and get the story. Do you accept the assignment? Is it ethical to misrepresent yourself for this story? If so, why? If not, in what cases – if any – is it acceptable for a journalist to misrepresent himself in order to get a story?
Your roommate, a member of the university women’s racquetball team, said her coach mentioned in a locker room chat that the top-scoring members of the men’s racquetball team would be getting free cars – at the university’s expense. You know this would make a great story for the student newspaper, but neither coach will comment. Your editor suggests running the story using your roommate as an anonymous source. Do you run the story with the anonymous source? Why or why not? If not, how else could you go about confirming the story?
But when you approach the editor with your ideas, he turns them down. Instead, he asks you to take on an investigation. The editors have a tip that the university’s admissions office is turning down otherwise acceptable new students because they’ve posted what university officials call “distasteful” photos on Facebook. The editors’ source refuses to be named in the story, so the editors want you to pose as a student worker for the admissions office to spy on admissions counselors and get the story. Do you accept the assignment? Is it ethical to misrepresent yourself for this story? If so, why? If not, in what cases – if any – is it acceptable for a journalist to misrepresent himself in order to get a story?
Your roommate, a member of the university women’s racquetball team, said her coach mentioned in a locker room chat that the top-scoring members of the men’s racquetball team would be getting free cars – at the university’s expense. You know this would make a great story for the student newspaper, but neither coach will comment. Your editor suggests running the story using your roommate as an anonymous source. Do you run the story with the anonymous source? Why or why not? If not, how else could you go about confirming the story?
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