Deck 15: Media Ethics: Understanding Media Morality

Question 1

Media ethics deals primarily with

A) required conduct
B) voluntary conduct
C) impact issues
D) required and voluntary conduct

Answer 1

voluntary conduct

Question 2

Ethical guidelines in media come from

A) philosophy
B) controversies
C) the professional field
D) all of these

Answer 2

all of these

Question 3

Many early church leaders found the printing of Bibles to be unethical because

A) the printers made a profit from their sales
B) the printing process resulted in too many mistakes
C) common people could interpret God's word the way they wanted
D) all of these

Answer 3

common people could interpret God's word the way they wanted

Question 4

Early American newspapers were

A) objective
B) partisan
C) advertiser-supported
D) all of these

Question 5

The Great Moon Hoax was published in

A) a women's magazine
B) a scientific journal
C) a scholarly journal
D) a newspaper

Question 6

Horace Greeley editorialized against

A) slavery
B) sex education
C) government control of the media
D) all of these

Question 7

The ____________ limited sex and violence in the movies during the 1930s.

A) The Parent Teacher Association
B) The National Association of Broadcasters
C) Motion Picture Production Code
D) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Question 8

The guerrilla leader ____________ fought his battles during the daylight so they could be filmed.

A) Francisco Galan
B) Che Guevara
C) Pancho Villa
D) Fidel Castro

Question 9

Ethical controversies in the 1950s included

A) A Kentucky reporter writing that she had brain cancer rather than AIDS
B) Ed Sullivan deciding to show Elvis Presley from the waist up on TV
C) The New York Sun publishing stories of life on the moon
D) all of these

Question 10

During the quiz show scandal, ____________ were in charge of television production.

A) networks
B) independent stations
C) Hollywood producers
D) advertisers

Question 11

Senator Joe McCarthy played a large role in

A) establishing the FCC
B) forbidding sex to be shown on TV
C) blacklisting media professionals
D) decreasing violence in the movies

Question 12

Incidents that wouldn't happen without the news media being present are called

A) staged events
B) pseudo-events
C) hoaxes
D) media events

Question 13

Janet Cooke was discredited because

A) she received money for writing a story
B) she was critical of the Washington Post
C) she reported biased news
D) she made up a news story

Question 14

Jayson Blair

A) exposed the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair
B) made up a story about a nine-year old heroin addict
C) wrote stories from the newsroom when he was supposed to be on location
D) none of these

Question 15

The belief that there is either a right or a wrong response for every ethical decision is known as
____________ position.

A) a proscriptive
B) a relativistic
C) the golden mean
D) an absolutist

Question 16

____________ codes specify behaviors to be followed.

A) Machiavellian
B) Proscriptive
C) Journalism
D) Prescriptive

Question 17

The two-source rule is an example of ____________ ethical position.

A) a relativistic
B) a situational
C) an absolutist
D) a Machiavellian

Question 18

The idea that everyone should be treated equally regardless of social stature or economic class is known as

A) duty to conscience
B) the utilitarian principle
C) the golden mean
D) the veil of ignorance

Question 19

____________ proposed that ethical behavior be based on a golden mean, a midpoint between extremes.

A) Horace Greeley
B) Aristotle
C) John Rawls
D) Bill Clinton

Question 20

Conflicting loyalties may include

A) duty to personal conscience
B) duty to one's organization
C) duty to society
D) all of these

Question 21

When a TV reporter in Salt Lake City asked a group of high school students to chew tobacco, he was

A) arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors
B) practicing John Rawls "Veil of Ignorance" philosophy
C) accused of staging news
D) all of these

Question 22

In the Food Lion supermarket case, ABC was

A) liable for damages because of faked resumes and hidden cameras
B) liable for damages because the food wasn't really spoiled
C) liable for damages because they staged a scene
D) not liable for damages

Question 23

Larry King plugging a musical without mentioning that his nephew produced it is considered

A) checkbook journalism
B) a conflict of interest
C) a stereotype
D) a pump and dump

Question 24

A television network department that oversees ethics in programming is called the ______
Department.

A) Ethics
B) Traffic
C) Quality Control
D) none of these

Question 25

Independent agencies whose mission is to objectively monitor media performance are called

A) news tribunals
B) news monitors
C) news councils
D) citizens' groups

Question 26

Ethics is related to media impact.

Question 27

Ethical controversies repeat during different eras.

Question 28

Benjamin Harris's PublickOccurrences was an objective newspaper.

Question 29

A hoax is a purposeful deception of the public.

Question 30

The depiction of sex and violence in early movies resulted in the Motion Picture Production Code.

Question 31

Charles Van Doren, a guest on the show Twenty-One, was indicted for perjury after he lied to a grand jury about receiving answers to quiz questions.

Question 32

Media personalities who were blacklisted found it impossible to get work.

Question 33

The feature story Jimmy's World won a Pulitzer Prize before it was known that it was made up.

Question 34

Several online term paper sites have been shut down after lawsuits found they were illegal.

Question 35

Rules that apply in every similar situation fall under the category of the utilitarian principle.

Question 36

Situation ethics is sometimes referred to as relativistic ethics.

Question 37

Aristotle developed his "golden mean" after studying the keys to good health.

Question 38

The utilitarian principle looks for the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Question 39

Enlightened self-interest refers to the idea that if you do what is right for yourself, it's probably selfish and not in the best interest of others.

Question 40

A reporter withholding a news story in order to save lives is practicing a duty to one's organization or firm.

Question 41

The term "pool cameras" refers to several news organizations sharing one camera crew.

Question 42

It is often difficult for a journalist to determine the truth of a story.

Question 43

The Globe created a news event when it paid a flight attendant to seduce Frank Gifford in a hotel room that was set up with a hidden camera.

Question 44

The majority of professional accountability comes in the form of criticism in professional journals such as the Columbia Journalism Review.

Question 45

A citizens' group is an independent agency whose mission is to objectively monitor media performance.

Question 46

What is media ethics and why is it important in mass media?

Question 47

Explain the three areas from where ethical guidelines derived.

Question 48

Describe the media-related ethical issues Guerrilla leader Pancho Villa was involved in.

Question 49

What happened during the quiz show scandal of the 1950s? What was the lasting impact it had on television?

Question 50

What was blacklisting and how was Senator Joseph McCarthy involved?

Question 51

What is a media hoax and how is it related to media ethics? Illustrate your answer with examples.

Question 52

How do absolute ethics differ from situation (or relativistic) ethics? Give an example.

Question 53

Explain the difference between prescriptive codes and proscriptive codes. Use examples.

Question 54

Explain the idea of enlightened self-interest. What is an example of this in the field of journalism?

Question 55

Describe the four loyalties that influence media practitioners. Give examples of how each loyalty came into play. Why do these loyalties sometimes conflict?

Question 56

Discuss the controversy about cartoons of the prophet Mohammed printed in a Danish newspaper, explaining both sides. Which side do you agree with? Why?

Question 57

Explain checkbook journalism. Give the details of a recent case in which checkbook journalism was applied. Why is it such a big ethical concern?

Question 58

What do network standards and practices departments do? How have they changed over the past 40 years?

Question 59

What are news councils? Are they successful in the United States? Why or why not?

Question 60

How do citizens' groups influence the media? Give two examples.

Question 61

______ is the study of guidelines that help people determine right from wrong.

Question 62

Ethical guidelines come from the ____________ field, philosophy and controversies.

Question 63

A/An ______ is a purposeful deception of the public

Question 64

The practice of keeping a particular type of person from working in media and other industries is called
____________.

Question 65

____________ ethics is a position from which there is a clear-cut right or wrong response for every ethical decision.

Question 66

Prescriptive codes are guidelines that stipulate specific behaviors to be followed; ____________ codes stress the things that should not be done.

Question 67

The two-______ rule is a common newspaper rule stating that nothing should be published as a fact unless at least two sources confirm it.

Question 68

The categorical ______ is an ethical guideline to look for principles that will hold true in all situations.

Question 69

The principle that ethical choices can be made according to the situation, without a rigid adherence to set rules, is called situation ethics or ______ ethics.

Question 70

The ______ mean was Aristotle's term for describing ethical behavior as a midpoint between extremes.

Question 71

______ self-interest means that doing what is right for you will probably be right for others.

Question 72

______ cameras refers to one camera crew that is shared by several TV news organizations.

Question 73

A media ______ is the chaos that results when crowds of journalists descend on the scene of a news event.

Question 74

A conflict of ____________ is a clash that occurs when an outside activity influences what a media professional does.

Question 75

The Guerilla ____________ believe that the media have mind-boggling power when it comes to generating new stereotypes and keeping alive the old standards.

Question 76

____________ journalism is the term used when news sources are paid for their stories.

Question 77

The obligation to take responsibility for the consequences of one's own actions is called __________

Question 78

The standards and __________ departments at television networks oversee the ethics of their programming.

Question 79

The staff member whose job it is to oversee media employees' ethical behavior is the __________.

Question 80

News __________ are independent agencies whose mission is to objectively monitor media performance.