California State University, Bakersfield
Department of English and Communications
Syllabus
Ethical Issues in the Media (Comm/Phil 317)
Monday & Wednesday: 3:30 p.m. 5:35 p.m. (CB 105)
Instructor: Dr. Andy Odasuo Alali
Office: FT 303F; Telephone: 664-2152
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday (10-11:30 a.m.)
(All other hours by appointment only)
Course Description
This course deals with the ethical dilemmas in the media, with emphasis
on the problems journalists face in news gathering and reporting. It also
examines ethical problems in advertising and entertainment media. Clearly,
it is a course that is designed to evaluate the ethical culture of newsrooms,
to recognize the ethical issues that face media practitioners, and devise
ways to resolve such ethical dilemmas.
Course Objectives
It is my intention for us to accomplish the following objectives by the
end of the quarter:
1. To understand the concept of ethics.
2. To examine and evaluate the ethical culture of America's newsrooms.
3. To examine the ethical dilemmas of news gathering and reporting.
4. To recognize and deal with ethical issues, such as privacy, confidentiality,
conflict of interest, offensive content, and stereotypes.
5. To examine the ethics of technical manipulation, such as alteration of
pictures and staging news.
6. To explore deception and truth telling as ethical dilemmas.
7. To improve the student's awareness of ethical issues.
8. To apply these skills in restructuring of the ethical culture in America's
newsrooms.
Text
Day, Louis A. (1991). Ethics in media communications: Cases and controversies.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
Attendance
Each student is expected to attend all lecture meetings regularly and on
time. Only excused absences, including medical, would be honored. All unexcused
absences would count against your final grade.
Case Study
Each student will be assigned 10 case studies for written analysis and presentation
in class. The four assigned case studies will be from the list in the text
for the course, and a choice of six situations from the list on pages 3
and 4.
Examinations
There will be two comprehensive examinations (mid-term and final).
Each exam will cover key ethical issues that confront or are anticipated
in the media.
Grading
Your overall grade will be based on the quality of your written case studies,
two examinations, and contribution to class. Your overall grade would be
computed according to the following percentages:
Case Studies (5% each) 50%
Exam #1 20%
Exam #2 25%
Contribution to Class 5%
Total 100%
Tape Recorders, Beepers, and Mobile Telephones
You must get permission from me to use any electronic device to record my
lectures. No beepers or cellular/mobile telephones are allowed in this class.
Course Outline
Date(s) Chapters/Assignments
March 30 - Introduction/Reading of Syllabus/Explanation of Assignments
April 1 - Explanation of Assignments/Ways to Complete Assignments
April 6,8 - Ethics and Moral Development (Ch. 1)
April 13 - Ethics and Society (Ch. 2)
Videotape "Public Minds: Truth About Lies"
April 15 - Ethics and Moral Reasoning (Ch. 3)
April 20,22 - Truth in Media Communications (Ch. 4)
Case Study #1 due/Presentations
April 27,29 - The Media and Privacy: A Delicate Balance (Ch. 5)
Case Study #2 due/Presentations
May 4 - Confidentiality and the Public Interest (Ch. 6)
Case Study #3 due/Presentations
May 6 - Exam #1/Case Study #4 due/Presentations
May 11 - Conflicts of Interest (Ch. 7)
Case Study #5 due/Presentations
May 13 - Economic Pressure and Social Responsibility (Ch. 8)
Case Study #6 due/Presentations
May 18 - The Media and Antisocial Behavior (Ch. 9)
Case Study #7 due/Presentations
May 20 - Morally Offensive Content: Freedom and Responsibility (Ch. 10)
Case Study #8 due/Presentations
May 25 - Media Practitioners and Social Justice (Ch. 11)
Case Study #9 due/Presentations
May 27 - Stereotypes in Media Communications (Ch. 12)
Case Study #10 due/Presentations
June 3 - The Juvenile Audience: Special Ethical Concerns (Ch. 13)
June 8 - The Media and Popular Culture: Aesthetic Tastes and Morality (Ch.
14)
Videotape: Selected Music Videos
June 11 - Final Exam: 5-7:30 p.m. (Friday)
Description of Assignments
Situation #1
You've been working for weeks on a tip that Joe Potentate of an important
government agency is the key figure in a taxpayer rip-off scheme. But without
access to his private bank account, you don't have enough evidence to publish
a story. The bank, of course, won't divulge information about its customers'
accounts to a reporter. But you could go into the bank posing as a government
bank examiner and persuade a timid clerk to show you the records. Should
you do it?
Situation #2
A government bureaucrat who holds a low-paying but sensitive job in a multimillion-dollar
public works agency has just been passed over for a promotion. Angry, he
comes to you. The head of the agency has been stealing taxpayers' money
for years, he says, and there are canceled checks and secret documents that
prove it. If you want the story, the source says, he'll go to the office
some night and get those papers for you. Should you tell him to do it?
Situation #3
Months ago, you promised confidentiality to Mary Jones, a valuable source
in an important story on an insurance scam. Your stories have stirred up
a hornet's nest, and now the government prosecutor and a judge are threatening
to put you in jail unless you reveal your source. There are two other factors
at work here: (1) the government's investigation appear stymied without
the help of your source, and (2) you have reason to believe that your source
hasn't been altogether truthful with you. Should you tell the judge and
the prosecutor who your source is?
Situation #4
You're a political reporter covering a controversial candidate in a campaign
for an important political office. In an "off-the-record" conversation,
the candidate repeatedly makes racist remarks that raise serious questions
about his/her ability to govern. What should you do: Honor your off-the-record
pledge, or violate it to tell your readers about this serious flaw in the
candidate's character?
Situation #5
It's common knowledge that if you operate a restaurant or bar in this city,
you have to pay off government inspectors to keep them from fining you or
closing you down. Trouble is, nobody seems to want to talk about it on the
record. There is an effective, but expensive, way of documenting the story:
Have your television station open a bar and the, with hidden cameras and
tape recorders, record what happens when the city inspectors come calling.
Should you do it?
Situation #6
You're a program director for a campus radio station. You get a call one
morning from the promotion department of a major record company offering
you a free trip to Hollywood, a tour of the record company's studios, a
ticket to a concert featuring all the company's biggest stars, and an invitation
to an exclusive party where you'll get to meet all the performers. The company
representative explains that this is simply a courtesy to you so that you'll
better appreciate the quality of his company's products. Do you accept?
Situation #7
You're a reporter for the local campus newspaper. The star of the basketball
team, who happens to be the president of the Campus Crusade for Morality,
has been involved in a minor traffic accident, and you have been assigned
to cover the story. When you get to the accident scene, you examine the
basketball player's car and find a half-dozen pornographic magazines strewn
across the back seat. You have a deadline in 30 minutes; what details do
you include?
Situation #8
You're the editor of the campus newspaper. One of your reporters has written
a series describing apparent health-code violations in a popular off-campus
restaurant. This particular restaurant regularly buys full-page ads in your
paper. After you run the first story in the series, the restaurant owner
calls and threatens to cancel all of his ads unless you stop printing the
series. What do you do?
Situation #9
You're doing your first story for the campus paper. A local businessman
has promised to donate $5 million to your university so that it can buy
new equipment for its mass communication and journalism programs. While
putting together a background story on this benefactor, you discover that
he was convicted of armed robbery at age eighteen and avoided prison only
by volunteering for military duty during the closing months of World War
II. Since then, his record has been spotless. He refuses to talk about the
incident, claims his wife and closest friends do not know about it, and
threatens to withdraw his donation if you print the story. Naturally, university
officials are concerned and urge you not mention this fact. Do you go ahead
and write the story as one element in your overall profile? Do you take
the position that the arrest information is not pertinent and not use it?
Do you wait until the university has the money and then print the story?