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The
Unspoken Words of Media Ethics: Do we know what they are? Subjects: social studies, civics, journalism, communications Estimated time of Completion: This lesson will take approximately two class periods. Overview: With the recent plagiarism and fabrication problem at The New York Times involving former reporter Jayson Blair and the resignation of Pulitzer-prize winning NYT reporter Rick Bragg for failing to acknowledge that an intern wrote some of his bylined work, consumers of mass media may find themselves pondering the state of media ethics, and in particular, asking just exactly what media ethics are. Do the average media consumers always know the unspoken ethical rules that guide the newspaper, magazine, or TV news that they watch? Probably not. Most publications offer a "Code of Ethics" for consumer perusal, but many typical readers and viewers may not know that. Explore with your students some of these codes and unspoken rules that govern our media and, subsequently, the news we all see and hear. Lesson Objectives Students will read codes of ethics from the New York Times, Washington Post, Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Newspaper Editors and role-play ethical dilemmas faced by reporters. Materials
Correlations
to National Standards Procedures 1. You may want to provide students with copies of Handouts #1-6 ahead of time and assign them to read all of them before class. If you prefer, you can assign a one-paragraph reaction to be turned in at the beginning of class to ensure that students read the articles, or you can give a quick content quiz. 2.
At the beginning of class, review with students the definitions of the following
words from Handout #9: attributing, conflict of interest, ethics, impartial, integrity,
ombudsman, plagiarism, pseudonym. 4. After reviewing the Jayson Blair story, ask students to write for five minutes in their notebooks about what surprised them from the four Codes that they read about in Handouts #3, #4, #5, and #6. What did they find in some of the codes that they did not anticipate? After writing for five minutes, have students share with the class some of their reactions to the Codes of Ethics handouts. Students can be broken up into groups with each group reporting back to the class on the code they read. 5. Ask the class which points would the average non-reporter not even think about being a part of a policy governing the news. Ask students to put themselves in the place of different types of readers (elderly, immigrants, well-educated, etc) and to speculate on which points from the different Codes of Ethics that most people would know about and wouldn't know about. 6. Divide students into small groups and distribute copies of Handout #7. Assign each group to work through each media situation described in the handout. Have each group develop a written explanation for the ethical concern each situation would raise, what should the publication do in each situation and their reasons why. 7. Have each group share its findings with the class in a group discussion. Collect each group's written discussions in order to give students credit. 8. Obtain a copy of your school newspaper's editorial policy, code of ethics, or publishing guidelines and distribute copies of it to your classroom students. Then, assign students to respond individually to the five situations described in Handout #8 that tend to plague many high school publications. Assign students to write a paragraph in response to each situation, explaining what should be done about the problem based on your school's ethical statement or guidelines and why. Then assign students to write an additional paragraph reflecting on whether or not they think that their school newspaper's Code of Ethics is thorough enough. What should be added to it? Have students share their findings from their homework in the next class period and collect their work for a grade. 9. If possible, invite your school newspaper's Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor or the Editorial Staff in to your classroom to field a discussion of how they would handle situations like those listed in Handout #8.
Standards This lesson meets the following standards: Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information, to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works. Standard 7: Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purposes and audience. Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
About the Author Lisa Greeves has taught high school English and Journalism classes for two Virginia school systems: Fairfax County Public Schools and Rockbridge County Schools. She has a bachelor's degree in English and Communication from James Madison University and a Master's Degree in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. She recently had a chapter published in the 2002 NCTE publication Applying NCTE/IRA Standards in Classroom Journalism Projects. To find out more about opportunities to contribute to this site, contact Leah Clapman at extra@newshour.org. |
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