Deck 14: Media Ethics: Truthfulness, Fairness, and Standards of Decency

Question 1

A reporter has decided when writing a story that it is necessary to talk to sources on two sides of an issue.When the reporter makes this ethical decision,the reporter is making use of which of the following?

A)Kant's categorical imperative
B)Aristotle's golden mean
C)Rawls's veil of ignorance
D)John Stuart Mill's principle of utility

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton was controversial in the 1990s for which of the following?

A)doing PR for the Westboro Baptist Church
B)a corporate conflict of interest by representing two competing companies at the same time
C)representing Exxon during the Exxon Valdez crisis
D)none of these

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Kant's "categorical imperative" said which of the following?

A)Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of the people involved.
B)Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C)That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D)You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The "golden mean" was Aristotle's notion of which of the following?

A)Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of the people involved.
B)Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C)That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D)You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.

Question 5

A newspaper photographer has taken a disturbing picture of a fatal accident caused by a drunk driver.The paper's photographer and editor decide to run the photo,despite the pain it will cause the family of the people in the accident,because they feel that it will lead to people doing more to prevent drunk driving and perhaps save some lives.When they make this ethical decision to put the good of the public at large over the needs of the victim's family,they are making use of which of the following ethical principles?

A)Kant's categorical imperative
B)Aristotle's golden mean
C)Rawls's veil of ignorance
D)John Stuart Mill's principle of utility

Question 6

More than 40 sponsors left Rush Limbaugh's popular radio show in 2012 when Limbaugh ______.

A)called an African American White House reporter "a cleaning woman"
B)called a law student and birth control advocate a "slut" over the air
C)called members of a college women's basketball team a group of "nappy-headed hos"
D)made fun of two of his show's big sponsors

Question 7

The theory of the "veil of ignorance" means which of the following?

A)Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of the people involved.
B)Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C)That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D)You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.

Question 8

Car dealers pulled their ads from the San Jose Mercury News after the paper did which of the following?

A)It ran an article about how to negotiate a better deal on a new car.
B)It ran an article about how car dealers sell unneeded extras,such as undercoating,with cars.
C)It ran an expose on car safety.
D)It refused to run articles about new cars on the market.

Question 9

The term sensationalism in journalism means which of the following?

A)covering events that are stimulating and interesting
B)covering the events that are most important to the nation
C)covering everyday events in a way that makes them interesting to the public at large
D)covering events that are lurid and highly emotional

Question 10

Ethics involve which of the following?

A)making decisions on questions that have clear right and wrong answers
B)making decisions where no answer seems to be acceptable
C)making a personal decision using a moral code
D)decisions where everyone can agree on what you should do

Question 11

The concept of "tabloid laundering" means which of the following?

A)promoting tabloids in such a way as to make them appear respectable
B)mainstream "respectable" media report on the stories they see the tabloids and sensational websites covering
C)legitimate news stories are made to seem more sensational than they are
D)leaking a story to the tabloids when your own newspaper won't run it

Question 12

John Stuart Mill's philosophy of "utilitarianism" says which of the following?

A)Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of the people involved.
B)Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C)That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D)You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.

Question 13

A reporter has been ordered by police to leave the scene of a protest or else she will be arrested.The reporter decides to stay in the area to report on the protest based on the principle that a reporter's duty is to always report a story no matter what the outcome.The reporter tells the police he will stay and report because it is the reporter's duty to do so.This reporter is making use of ______.

A)Kant's categorical imperative
B)Aristotle's golden mean
C)Rawls's veil of ignorance
D)John Stuart Mill's principle of utility

Question 14

The term morals means which of the following?

A)a way of justifying behavior that cannot otherwise be justified
B)"the just-right point between excess and defect"
C)a rational means of decision-making when both alternatives are equally attractive or unattractive
D)a religious or philosophical code of behavior

Question 15

Which of the following newspapers caused a great deal of controversy for running a computer-manipulated photo that showed prostitutes in Cuba soliciting tourists while police looked on?

A)the Miami New Times
B)the New York Post
C)El Nuevo Herald
D)the New York Daily News

Question 16

Newspapers ran sensationalistic stories accusing the U..S.president's mother of being a common prostitute during which decade?

A)1830s
B)1870s
C)1930s
D)2000s

Question 17

The job of an ombudsman is to do which of the following?

A)help photographers digitally edit photographs
B)negotiate disputes between writers and editors
C)represent and take the point of view of the audience
D)"punch up" headlines to make them more lively

Question 18

Which presidents or vice presidents other than Donald Trump have been quoted by the press using strong profanity?

A)Lyndon Johnson
B)Dick Cheney
C)Barack Obama
D)all of these

Question 19

The term ethics means which of the following?

A)a way of justifying behavior that cannot otherwise be justified
B)"the just-right point between excess and defect"
C)a rational means of decision making when both alternatives are equally attractive or unattractive
D)a religious or philosophical code of behavior

Question 20

When the British tabloid newspaper the News of the World hacked into a kidnapped and murdered girl's phone so they could better report on the story,they were engaged in ______.

A)tabloid laundering
B)ethical reporting
C)sensationalism
D)corporate conflict of interest

Question 21

The conflict over the involvement of women in video gaming is known as ______.

A)ladygate
B)videogate
C)gamergate
D)geekgate

Question 22

According to Sissela Bok,the greatest wrong with lying is an attempt to "make someone believe what we ourselves do not believe."

Question 23

Media ethics scholar David Martinson says that journalists most often fail their audience by doing which of the following?

A)deliberately lying to the public
B)focusing on "bad" news instead of "good" news
C)by not asking whether their story helps the public understand the truth
D)not reporting on misconduct by high corporate officials

Question 24

Ryan Kelly's photo of the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville,VA,was controversial because ______.

A)the color of the sky was made a deeper blue using digital editing
B)a big pool of blood was cut from the photo using digital editing
C)it only showed African American counterprotesters
D)it showed an African American young man being thrown up into the air when he was hit by a car being driven through a crowd of counterprotesters

Question 25

The Hutchins Commission said that the best way to have a free press was to have it owned by large,profitable corporations free of government interference.

Question 26

Stephen Glass was able to get away with fabrications in his stories for which of the following reasons?

A)Glass would fabricate sources and substantiation of his facts.
B)Glass would submit articles late so that the publications wouldn't have time to check them.
C)Fact-checkers procedures were designed to catch mistakes,not lies.
D)all of these

Question 27

Before you share what looks like a political news story your really agree with on social media,you should first ______.

A)make sure it was posted from a reliable news source
B)you should check to see if any other news sources are carrying the story
C)you should make certain it's not satire
D)all of these

Question 28

Which of the following would be an example of potential corporate conflict of interest?

A)giving positive coverage of a charity event being chaired by the golfing buddy of your television station's owner
B)covering an online business owned by the same parent company as your newspaper
C)reporting about another media corporation your parent company partners with
D)all of these

Question 29

The Hutchins Commission believed that which of the following was the greatest threat to American press freedom?

A)a powerful central government
B)the presence of communists working in the media
C)concentrated corporate ownership
D)the threat of local government censorship

Question 30

Ethics are how we make choices between competing moral principles.

Question 31

The purpose of the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment is which of the following?

A)to criticize and boycott adult-oriented shows
B)to promote shows its members won't be embarrassed to advertise on
C)to develop shows that accurately depict the American family
D)to create advertisements that fit into family-friendly shows

Question 32

Advertisers exert control over media outlets by doing which of the following?

A)pulling ads from radio shows that carry controversial content
B)pulling ads from magazines that are critical of their company
C)encouraging television networks to carry the type of programs they like to advertise next to
D)all of these

Question 33

Sissela Bok's model for analyzing an ethical situation includes holding an imaginary conversation with everyone involved.

Question 34

Digital editing of news photos is seen as acceptable under which of the following circumstances?

A)when it is similar to what could be done in a traditional darkroom
B)when it makes a boring photo more dramatic
C)when it just gets rid of a distracting background
D)when it tones down what would otherwise be a disturbing and offensive image

Question 35

Kant said that people have the ability to reason and so are obliged to act in a moral way.

Question 36

Former Washington Post reporter Jose Vargas is controversial for ______.

A)not disclosing who his sources were for an investigative story
B)fabricating a story about a young heroin addict in the Washington,DC,area
C)hiding the fact that he was an undocumented immigrant
D)fooling fact-checkers editing his stories for Rolling Stone and Harper's magazine

Question 37

The New York Times reporter David Carr couldn't trust his own memory of things he did when he was a cocaine user,so for his memoir he wrote about what he imagined might have happened.

Question 38

Ethics deal with problems that have clear right and wrong answers.

Question 39

Which of the following is a reason why many of the media reports about the Sago Mine disaster were so wrong about the number of survivors?

A)Reporters didn't care about the truth,they just wanted a story.
B)Journalists wanted the story to turn out with everyone being okay.
C)There were not enough reporters covering the story to do a credible job.
D)all of these

Question 40

Which of the following advertisers would be held to the highest standard of truthfulness?

A)an ad that a swimsuit was "the cutest ever"
B)an ad that said an amusement park was "the most fun you could have on a summer day"
C)an ad that said a pill was the "fastest headache remedy your doctor can prescribe"
D)an ad that said a restaurant has food "just like mother used to cook"

Question 41

What is Aristotle's golden mean?

Question 42

Explain the problem with conflict of interest that Washington Post reporters have when they cover Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

Question 43

Reporters covering the Sago Mine disaster ran into trouble in part because they were not careful enough in finding out who was providing information to them.

Question 44

The Portland Press Herald editor felt he should apologize for running a photo in his paper of the local observance of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on September 11.

Question 45

Magazines often warn prospective advertisers when they might be publishing content that would reflect negatively on the advertisers' products.

Question 46

Major advertisers pulled their sponsorship of Rush Limbaugh's radio show after he called a law student and birth control advocate a "slut" over the air.

Question 47

Newspapers and magazines can keep sensationalistic stories out of the news by refusing to cover them.

Question 48

List two reasons a journalistic code of ethics might be ineffective.

Question 49

An example of a conflict of interest issue is when a media company buys a sports team and then reports on that team.

Question 50

What are the three central principles of the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics?

Question 51

What is John Rawls's veil of ignorance?

Question 52

List at least one of the functions of a news organization's ombudsman.

Question 53

What is the principle of utility?

Question 54

What are the three steps of Sissela Bok's model for ethical decision-making?

Question 55

Having a code of ethics will protect the news organization from charges of misconduct.

Question 56

What is Kant's categorical imperative?

Question 57

The Advertising Council was formed during World War II in response to charges of unethical advertising behavior.

Question 58

Competition from the Internet and cable news channels can push newsmagazines and newspapers into carrying more sensationalistic news and photos.

Question 59

The Public Relations Society of America's Statement of Professional Values says that PR professionals should be willing to say whatever is necessary to the media to protect their clients' reputations.

Question 60

What is the difference between morals and ethics?

Question 61

In a brief essay,discuss why representation matters in the entertainment industry.How does the presence of women and people of color change the types of stories being told and how successful movies and other entertainment are?

Question 62

In a brief essay,explain at least two different reasons why sensationalistic reporting is ethically problematic to the journalism industry.

Question 63

You are the photo editor for your local newspaper on August 12,2017.You are presented with Ryan Kelly's violent photo showing a driver at a White nationalist rally driving into a crowd and hitting an African American man who goes flying through the air,as seen in Chapter 14 in your text.In a brief essay,provide an argument for either running or not running the photo.Justify your decision using one of the ethical principles we've discussed.

Question 64

Presidents,vice presidents,and other politicians and public figures may sometimes use offensive language in a newsworthy way,such as when President Donald Trump said that immigrants from Haiti,El Salvador,and the continent of Africa were coming from "shithole countries." Assume you are the front page editor of your local newspaper the day the president made this comment.In a brief essay,provide an argument for how you will cover the president's language.Will you use the actual words? Why or why not? If you don't run the words,what do you publish? Do you use the words in the headline? In the story? Not at all? How do you justify your decision? Use one of the ethical principles we've discussed.

Question 65

What does the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment do?