Seven Deadly Sins of News Ethics

#1. Plagiarism

•What is plagiarism?

•“Passing off someone else’s work as your own.”

•Plagiarism includes straight copy and paste and even slightly reworking someone else’s work.

•It is the most shameful of the seven deadly sins, and often leads to the end of your career.

#1. Plagiarism “Walk down St. Paul’s steps and

make a right turn onto the first busy main road. Suddenly you’ll be immersed in a series of narrow streets full of shops selling clothing, Chinese art and artifacts, herbal medicines, jewelry, crafts and utensils.”

-Robert Selwitz, 1997

“Upon leaving, walk down St. Paul’s steps and make a right turn onto the first main thoroughfare. Suddenly you’ll be immersed in a series of narrow streets full of shops selling clothing, Chinese art and artifacts, herbal medicines, jewelry, crafts and household utensils.”

-Stephen Dunphy, Seattle Times, 2004

#1. Plagiarism

•How to avoid plagiarism:

•Rethink

•Attribute

•To repeat, plagiarism at the school level gets you kicked out of the program. At the professional level, it often ends your career.

#2. Fabrication

•What is fabrication?

•“Manufacturing quotes or imaginary sources, or writing anything you know to be untrue.”

•We deal with facts in journalism.

•We deal with facts that must be verified.

#3. Deception

•What is deception?

•“Lying or misrepresenting yourself to obtain information.”

•It is typically unethical for reporters to disguise their identities.

•Exceptions: Restaurant reviewers, undercover investigations

#4. Conflict of Interest

• What is conflict of interest?

• “Accepting gifts or favors from sources or promoting social/political causes.”

• There are different levels of bribery:

• Free tickets to a show

• Free alcohol

• Free dinners

• Stock market tips

#4. Conflict of Interest

•There there are things like:

•Bumper stickers

•Signs on your desk

•Appearing in rallies/marches

•You must work as hard as possible to maintain your objectivity as a journalist.

#5. Bias

•What is bias?

•“Slanting a story by manipulating facts to sway readers’ opinions.”

•These days, it seems like everyone in journalism is taking sides. But reporters don’t. Leave that to pundits and columnists.

•If you have an agenda, become a politician.

#6. Theft

•What is theft?

•“Obtaining information unlawfully or without a source’s permission.”

•Theft isn’t just unethical – it’s illegal.

•My old station learned this the hard way. Lawsuits, settlements, firings, etc.

#7. Burning a Source

•What is burning a source?

•“Deceiving or betraying the confidence of those who provide information for a story.”

•Mellow cases of burning a source lead to hurt feelings or mistrust. Extreme cases of burning a source could lead to the source being fired or arrested.

Ethics of Social News Gathering

1. Verification and Accuracy

1. Verification and Accuracy

• The hallmark of all news gathering - social or otherwise - is simple: Get the story right

• Several questions to answer:

• Do you trust verification efforts of other newsrooms?

• How do you verify user-generated content?

• Are there tools that can help?

• Are there times you will distribute content without being 100% certain it is reliable?

• Does your newsroom have a decision-making process?

• How much of that process do you share with your audience?

1. Verification and Accuracy

• Policies from the Associated Press:

• Experts inspect on a technical level

• Rely on journalists in field to verify at a native level

• Contact the person who submitted the content

• Tips from Project Thunderdome:

• Treat outrageous content with extreme skepticism

• Use TinEye.com for photo verification

• Check Storyful.com for potential verification

1. Verification and Accuracy

1. Verification and Accuracy

1. Verification and Accuracy

1. Verification and Accuracy

1. Verification and Accuracy

1. Verification and Accuracy

• Publishing is publishing

• A tweet should be held to the same standard as a story

• Don’t help spread hoaxes by blindly retweeting stuff

• Credit the source, not the platform

• Twitter, Facebook or YouTubes are not sources

• Someone posted that content to those platforms

#2. Contributors’ Safety

• When people are creating content for your news organization, you must consider their safety

• This applies to all types of breaking news situations

• War zones and riots

• Severe-weather situations

• If a news contributor gets arrested while gathering content on your behalf, will the news organization bail them out?

#3. Rights and Legal Issues

• A journalist/newsroom should have a policy in place to ensure he/she/it can use content posted via social

• Key questions to ask:

• Who owns the content?

• How do we get in touch with them?

• If we don’t get in touch with them, do we still use it?

• Treat members of the public with respect when using their content

#3. Rights and Legal Issues

• Most important question:

DID YOU TAKE THAT?

• “You'll be shocked at how often people will give you permission to use the rights to a photo they don't own.”

-Eric Carvin, Associated Press

#3. Rights and Legal Issues

• It’s important to get to the original source of a photo

• This becomes a very stick situation on Facebook. Why?

#4. Social Journalists’ Well-Being

• Social journalists trying to verify content do not face the same physical danger as those gathering the content

• But a social journalist is often exposed to graphic content

• Virtual PTSD

• What happens when sources go missing?

• Most of the social journalists doing this work are young and inexperienced

#5. Workflow and Resources

• Have a plan in place

• Establish connections in the community

• Retrace social media use

• Use the tools available to you to verify - particularly when it comes to location

• Geofeedia (social search)

• Chrome extension: Falcon (tracks user accounts)