Section A. Before reading the text, answer the questions:

Before reading the text, answer the questions:

1. What are the most difficult topics to write about?

2. What behaviour could be considered as unethical for a journalist?

3. What illegal methods of getting information do you know? Is it ethical to use them?

Work with an English Dictionary of Cotemporary English and find out what people at these jobs do:

- a bartender

- a building inspector

- a city official

- a law enforcement officer

- a public official / figure

- a celebrity

- a politician

Which of the following can be considered illegal?

- to identify oneself (to pose) as a policeman

- to use a hidden camera

- to solicit bribes

- to use conventional reporting methods

- to express controversial ideas

- to be the member of a minority group

- to accept gifts

- to do a free-lance assignment

- to violate the law

- to be fired

- to use someone’s information for personal gain

- to plagiarize information

Guess the meaning of these words and expressions:

Sensationalism

Moral choice

Relevant

Free speech

To outweigh

Conflict of interest

Give Russian equivalents to these words and expressions, work with a dictionary if necessary:

A survey

A last resort

Overriding public importance

Wrenching ethical dilemma

Thorniest dilemma

Guideline

Vulnerability

To foster

Negative connotation

Inherent danger

Prominently

To the best of one’s knowledge

To comply with

Read the text and choose the title for each part:

1. Political correctness

2. Moral reasoning

3. Deception

4. Privacy issues

Imagine that you are a reporter for your local newspaper. A drunken driver almost kills a girl in an accident in your town. You call the hospital for information about her condition, but officials will not release it except to family members. So you ask a fellow reporter to call the hospital and identify himself as the girl’s uncle. He gets the information.

Would you do that? Is it ethical?

This was one of the 30 cases presented to 819 journalists in a survey conducted by Ohio University journalism professor Ralph S. Izard. 82% of the journalists who responded said they would not ask their colleague to lie to gain information.

Here we’ll examine some major cases and causes of ethical problems and study moral reasoning steps that can be used at making ethical decisions.

A.___________________

A classical case of deception occurred in 1978 when investigative reporters at the Chicago Sun Times set up a bar called The Mirage and posed as bartenders and waiters. With hidden cameras and tape recorders, they provided evidence that building inspectors, police officers and other city officials were soliciting bribes to allow them to operate the bar. Although the series won several awards, the Pulitzer Prize Board ruled that the reporting methods were unethical and rejected it for the media’s highest award. The case renewed debate about deception, and today this type of reporting is considered a last resort by many editors.

Although print and broadcast media have used hidden cameras for many years, use of them proliferated in television news magazine shows during the 1990s. One reason was the improved technology of cameras, which could be small enough that could be hidden in tie clips. But media critics charged that a more common reason for using hidden cameras was sensationalism.

Before using any form of deception, ask yourself if there is any other way to get the story. Louis Hodges, an ethics professor at Washington and Lee University, suggests that you apply tree tests: importance, accuracy and safety. Ask yourself: Is the information of such overriding public importance that it can help people to avoid harm? Is there any was you could obtain the information through conventional reporting methods, such as standard interviews or public records? Are you placing innocent people at risk? For example, you should not pose as a nurse, law enforcement officer or employee in a job for which you might not be trained.

On the other hand, deception may be the only way to reveal matters of great public concern. Even with such reasoning, using deception may still be unethical.

B. ___________________

Some of the most wrenching ethical dilemmas the media face involve people’s privacy. You may have the legal right to publish certain information, but do you have the moral right?

To understand the ethical concerns, it may help to define the term “ethics”. Ethics is the study of moral choices, what we should or should not do, whereas morality is concerned with behaviour. So ethics can be considered the process of making decisions about the way a person behaves.

Some of the thorniest ethical dilemmas facing journalists concern public officials, celebrities, victims of crime and photo subjects.

Would you print information about the private life of a politician? When is the private life of a public figure relevant? When does it serve the public interest to publish such details? Is the private life of a public figure always fair game to disclosure in the media? Should you give names of crime victims? At what point is a photograph an invasion to privacy?

Whether it is a photo or a story, ethicist Louis Hodges suggests this guideline for privacy issues: Publish private information about public officials or public figures if it affects their public duties. But for victims of crime, publish private information only if they give their permission, because these are people with special needs and vulnerability.

C._____________________

The term “political correctness”, which was created during the 1960s and 1970s to foster diversity, has since taken on negative connotation associated with censorship of free speech and controversial ideas. As a result, ethical dilemmas involving political correctness proliferated in the 1990s.

Innumerable incidents concerning, for example, racial issues, have occurred throughout the country. The problem in many cases was simple the lack of sensitivity or a lack of awareness that certain language of photographs could be considered offensive.

Monica Hill and Bonnie Thrasher, who won an ethics competition with their paper on political correctness, devised a “Model of Respect.” It poses two questions to ask yourself: “If I were a member of the minority/ cultural group involved with this information, what might my reaction to publishing this material be? Does my professional obligation to publishing this material outweigh the fact that it may offend members of a particular minority or cultural group?”

The questions can help prevent some insensitivity, but they have an inherent danger: If you are not a member of a minority group being discussed, you may not even realize what might be offensive. Whenever possible, go a step further and seek the advice of a member of the minority group affected by the story.

D. ______________________

Journalists use several methods to justify their decisions. In most ethical dilemmas, editors and reporters discuss the issue and the consequences of publication before making the decision. They consider how newsworthy the story is and whether the public really needs this information.

The process of moral reasoning can be broken into three steps:

1. Define the dilemma. Consider all the problems the story or the photo will pose.

2. Examine all your alternatives. You can publish, not publish, wait for a while until you get more information before publishing, display the story or photo prominently or in a lesser position, or choose other options.

3. Justify your decision. Weigh the harms and the benefits of your publication, or weigh such factors as relevance, and importance of the story to the public.

Robert M. Steele, associate director in charge of ethics at the Poynter Institute of Media Studies, suggests that journalists ask these questions before making decisions in ethical dilemmas:

· Why am I concerned about this story, photo or graphics?

· What is the news? What good would publication do?

· Is the information complete and accurate, to the best of my knowledge?

· Am I missing an important point of view?

· What does my reader need to know?

· How would I feel if the story or photo were about me or a member of my family?

· What are the likely consequences of publication? What good or harm could result?

· What are my alternatives?

· Will I be able to clearly and honestly explain my decision to anyone who challenges it?

People using the same moral reasoning methods may emerge with different decisions. There is rarely one right decision. It is your reasoning process that matters.

Answer the questions, using the information from the text:

1. When was the use of deception the most popular? Why?

2. What advice could be given to a journalist, who deals with private information?

3. What guidelines may help when dealing with political correctness?

4. What is “moral reasoning”?

Complete the table with appropriate forms of the words where possible. The words in the table are from the text: