Weekly Ethics Roundup

For your discussions on ethics in lab for the next six weeks, I'll post articles of interest under this header, Weekly Ethics Roundup. I'll include some interesting issues and controversies that have been percolating lately, and you'll discuss them in lab, led by your TA. Feel free to comment here on the blog, as well, or supply other links.

In the realm of responsibility:
- a story pulled from Chicago Tribune archives sends United Airlines stock plummeting
- Steve Jobs' death greatly exaggerated
- rumors about why Olbermann is out of the anchor chair? (first-day story here)
- oops, you're losing your job and I'm letting it slip
- hmmm, should I buy the New York Times?
- is there such a thing as bad fan publicity?

As you go through these, think about:
- the responsibility of the media workers involved
- to whom we're responsible as reporters and marketers (audience? society? bottom line? ourselves?)
- what happens to media credibility when rumors abound?
- when does it make sense to let audience take control of a message, if ever?
- what can be done to regain trust when mistakes happen? does it ever really come back?