Is it plagiarism?

What do you think of this? Did the reporter plagiarize? Or was he just lazy in picking up facts from a previously published piece? Is there a difference?

What is journalism?

Some researchers say you and your peers get a great deal of your news and information from sources like The Daily Show. Some could argue that Jon Stewart embraces journalistic values, such as skepticism, as he does in this challenge to claims of readiness and gender bias involving Sarah Palin.
How much to you rely on these sources? What about other sources, newspapers, magazines, etc.? How does that inform you as a citizen? Does it matter?

KC News Meeting

What's on your radar this week? Since I haven't seen all that many comments in past weeks, I'm going to withhold my list of what seems to be percolating in the news and let you define it. Post comments with your ideas or the quiz questions could end up being a complete surprise.

Overbilling and ethics

Agency Leo Burnett settled an overbilling case with the Army, agreeing to $15.5 million in cash and credit for work performed.
What are an organization's ethical duties to its clients? How are those duties communicated and reinforced? What does this case do to Burnett's reputation, if anything?

Ethics crashes

This author thoughtfully details what he describes as "Ethics Crashes on the Digital Media Highway."
What forces does he cite as problems that can lead to weak ethical practice? Do you agree? What examples can you think of to illustrate any of his points? Contradict any of those points?

How engaged are you?

This trailer seeks to pique interest in an upcoming documentary about how engaged your generation is in your democracy.
What are the media implications of your engagement? How do social media tools get you more or less involved as a citizen? How do those media compare to traditional media? What, if any, are the dangers of losing things like local newspapers? What are the benefits of other media that are "borderless"?

Fired for funny

A TV reporter this week paid with his job for altering a video (he says to make it funny) and posting it to YouTube.
What do you think of this? What is the line in cyberspace between your job and you life? Could I get in the same trouble? Would this have been different if he had been a journalism professor instead of a journalist? What if he were a basketball player? What, if any, professional standards were violated? What do you think of the result?
In other vein, what was the Huffington Post's responsibility here? Revisit my exchange this week with Jay Rosen and others about accuracy in citizen journalism. How did accuracy matter here? Could this case be an argument for the participatory nature of online media? A spoof made it to a larger audience as a reality, but ultimately the audience verified that it was inaccurate. How did the pressures of speed and competition play into this case?

Update: Covering Coffins

The policy we discussed last week has changed.
What are the implications? What, if anything, will this do to public opinion?

College media innovation

TA Melissa Tully adds this to our conversation. What is the future of student journalism? Are you working for the Herald or Cardinal? How do you get over the hurdles?

Cover letters

Great note from a fellow 202er:

Hey Katy,

I found this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/jobs/15career.html?em) while surfing the New York Times' Web site. As a J202 student struggling with my own cover letters I thought it would be useful for my fellow classmates to read. If you think its worthy, pass it on.

Editorial cartooning

Read about the flap over an NY Post cartoon depicting a chimp?
What do you think? Was it racially insensitive? Does the fact that it gained attention outside the NY market (where far fewer people know the chimp story from which it was supposedly drawn) makes any difference? How much latitude should cartoonists get? Are they freer to be controversial?
Remember the Muhammed cartoon controversy that even hit on our own campus?

Accuracy and citizen journalism

"Citizen journalism" is generally viewed as news that is gathered and disseminated by those outside traditional or mainstream news organizations. Some laud it as the future of journalism
[change to original: I shouldn't have linked to Rosen post on these words, as he doesn't call it "future of journalism."]
a way to ensure a watchdog function as mainstream news budgets slide and former business models dissolve.
But it's not without controversy. Check out this case when a citizen journalism report got it completely wrong and affected the stock of a major corporation. It's not just a question for journalism. The SEC even got involved on this one.
So what's your response? Is there a place for "non-professionals" to be doing reporting? What are the dangers? How do we ensure values like accuracy and fairness when people are operating outside of the realms where professional norms are learned and reinforced?

Obama names RIAA lawyer to DOJ

Some rumblings of discontent in the tech community with one of President Obama's picks for the Department of Justice.
Where do you stand on music filesharing? If you do it, the law is not on your side. But what about ethics? What responsibility do we have to properly credit and pay people who create original works? What's the effect of filesharing on the market? How does this matter?

KC News Meeting

So far this week, I've read about:
- Doyle's budget proposal, including Internet sales tax and UW provisions
- market reaction to stimulus
- unemployment rises
- Detroit puts a hand out again and negotiates with unions
- GM cuts brands
- truce between Pakistan and Taliban
- Burris investigations
- some TV stations go digital
What are you thinking about? Remember, if you don't add your 2 cents via comments, I'm more likely to draw questions from general knowledge, rather than blog postings.

Wearing an advertiser's colors

A 202er submits this blog post on the Memphis hoops team's decision not to switch its team uniforms to the FedEx colors for a game.
She highlights an interesting ethical dilemma. What's the limit of corporate sponsorship and support? How far should a team go? What lines should not be crossed? For instance, the UW has an initiative to try to curb binge drinking. Does this mean its athletic teams should not accept sponsorship from Miller Brewing or Absolut? Where would you draw the lines?

Bad release

A former 202er sends this example of a really bad press release. Enjoy.

IS story sources

OK, I'm starting a thread for you to request sources from each other. Here's how it works. If you are looking for a source, add a comment to this post stating specifically what you're looking for and including your e-mail address for other students to reply. (Note of warning: putting your e-mail address in a public blog means you open yourselves up to robot spam. Use your @wisc.edu addy and you'll have the power of their spam filters.)
You should all troll the comments regularly this week and make suggestions as you can.
Example: I am trying to find students to interview who have used Community Car. If you can connect me, e-mail at profme@wisc.edu.

Bye-bye Juicy

JuicyCampus shut down. For those of you unfamiliar with the blog, it allowed anonymous posts sorted by campus. These almost always were within the gossip vein, and some escalated to hostile and defamatory posts.
Many people (your prof here included) wanted to see the site die. And it did. But they said they faded not because they were controversial, but instead because the economic downturn is killing online ads.
What do you think? Glad or sad to see it go? What value did the site provide? At what cost? Do sites like this have ethical obligations? Will College ACB just rise up in its place?

Covering Coffins

Much talk about whether the Obama Administration will rescind the ban on photographing soldiers' coffins returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's one take on how to approach this ethically.
What do you think? Should this be allowed? Why did the Bush Administration disallow it? How best can photojournalists cover news and respect privacy? What are the implications of showing the coffins? Of not showing them?

Rachael Ray and that Scarf

Food Network star Rachael Ray found herself under fire when she wore a scarf in a Dunkin' Donuts commercial that some interpreted to be a kaffiyeh, a scarf worn by Arab men and often associated with radicalism. It wasn't a kaffiyeh. Mere paisley. But Dunkin' Donuts pulled the spot anyway.
Should they have? What are the consequences to either decision? What's the responsibility of the Fox News commentator who set this off? Should she have learned first whether the scarf was indeed what she thought it was?