Chapter 15: Making News Decisions about Taste - JNL-2105 - Journalism Ethics - Professor Linda...
-
Upload
linda-austin -
Category
News & Politics
-
view
349 -
download
1
Transcript of Chapter 15: Making News Decisions about Taste - JNL-2105 - Journalism Ethics - Professor Linda...
CHAPTER 15: MAKING
NEWS DECISIONS
ABOUT TASTE Use a two-step process to make
decisions about news content that the
audience finds:
Insensitive
To contain offensive words
To contain offensive images
WHAT IS TASTE IN NEWS?
By P
ab
ak
Sa
rka
r
DEFINITION: TASTE Conformity or failure to conform with
generally held views concerning what is
offensive or acceptable.
Used in a sentence:
“That joke is in very bad taste"
WHAT IS THE ETHICAL DILEMMA?
Seek truth and report it
Minimize harm
Is it in the public interest? Will it offend the audience?
Will it harm those in the story?
3 WAYS TO OFFEND THE AUDIENCE
1. Insensitive words or images
2. Words that are obscene, vulgar,
profane, sexist or disparaging to
ethnic or racial groups
3. Images that portray graphic violence
or nudity
TWO-STEP PROCESS ON TASTE
TWO-STEP PROCESS ON TASTE
Step 1: Apply the
“Wheaties” test.
Could the average
news consumer
handle reading,
watching or hearing
this news at
breakfast?
TWO-STEP PROCESS ON TASTE
Step 1: Apply the
“mohinga” test.
Could the average
news consumer
handle reading,
watching or hearing
this news at
breakfast?
TWO-STEP PROCESS ON TASTE
CASE STUDY:
INSENSITIVITY Was NBC News’ broadcast of the video
made by mass killer Seung-Hui Cho
insensitive?
32 KILLED AT VIRGINIA TECH, 2007 Gunman and student Seung-Hui Cho also kills himself.
NBC NEWS RECEIVES PACKAGE Receives:
25 minutes of video, 45 photos and 23-page document
Broadcasts:
2 minutes of video, 7 photos and 37 sentences
htt
p:/
/ww
w.y
ou
tub
e.c
om
/wa
tch
?v=
Vya
lPi1
Ge
DY
NPR REPORT ON NBC’S VIDEO
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9692304
DISCUSS: SHOULD NBC NEWS HAVE
BROADCAST THE KILLER’S VIDEO?
CASE STUDY:
INSENSITIVITY What should news outlets use of the
two videos from the killing of two
journalists on live TV last week?
2 JOURNALISTS KILLED ON LIVE TV •A fired TV station employee shot 17 rounds during a live TV report Wednesday.
•Killed Parker, 24, and Ward, 27. Wounded the interviewee.
2 JOURNALISTS KILLED ON LIVE TV
August 26, 2015
WHAT THE TWO VIDEOS SHOW
GUNMAN’s VIDEO
• 56-second video shows
how close the shooter
stood while the crew was
on the air.
• He pointed the semi-
automatic pistol at Alison
Parker while she
continued the interview.
• He backed off for a few
seconds, then raised the
weapon again and began
firing point-blank.
CAMERAMAN’s VIDEO
• It shows Alison Parker
screaming and stumbling
backward as the shots
ring out and a set of
jumbled images as the
camera falls to the floor.
• Eight shots can be heard
before the broadcast cuts
back to the stunned
anchor at the station.
• It appears to show the
shooter.
DISCUSS: WHAT SHOULD NEWS
OUTLETS USE OF THE 2 WDBJ VIDEOS?
DISCUSS: WHAT SHOULD NEWS
OUTLETS USE OF THE 2 WDBJ VIDEOS?
• Use the video unedited
with audio.
• Use the video up to the
moment that screaming
begins and cut the
audio but continue the
video.
• Use the video with no
audio.
• Use still frames and no
video.
• Use none of the images.
AL TOMPKINS ON USING
THE CAMERAMAN’s VIDEO • “It depends on why you are using the video
and how you will use it and how long you will use
it.
• “We know now that the video itself is news — not
just because it shows the shooting but also
because it appears to show the shooter. That is
reason enough to show the video in some way.
• “But consider alternatives. In the early hours after
the shooting, the video (complete with horrific
audio) was news because the ‘what’ of the story
was still unfolding. As the story turns to ‘why,’ the
graphic video becomes less newsworthy.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES LINKS
TO CAMERAMAN’S VIDEO
AL TOMPKINS ON USING
THE SHOOTER’s VIDEO “Journalists can be justified in airing or publishing
graphic images when the images resolve disputes
about what occurred….There has to be a journalistic
purpose to justify the graphic image’s use.
“Other than the astonishing nature of the video, it
adds little information about what happened….There
was a lone shooter at close range….The first-person
video shows an execution. Airing it may serve to
encourage copycat violence. The shooter may have
meant to show the video as a way of punishing and
humiliating his victims. It might have given him a
great sense of power to be in control, and airing the
video only feeds that emotion.”
WHAT NEWS OUTLETS USED
OF SHOOTER’s VIDEO • Less reputable papers -- New York Post, New York
Daily News, Daily Mirror and The Sun) --
published still frames from the shooter’s video on
their front pages.
• Of the three US major network evening newscasts on
August 26:
ABC World News Tonight did not show any part of
the shooter’s video.
NBC Nightly News broadcast a still frame from the
shooter’s video.
The CBS Evening News showed a 25-second segment
from the shooter’s video.
CASE STUDY:
OFFENSIVE WORDS Should news outlets publish offensive
words used by the vice president in
addressing a senator on the U.S.
Senate floor?
AVOID STRONG LANGUAGE
Myanmar Media Code of
Conduct (page 16):
12.1: The gratuitous use of
strong swearwords or obscene
or blasphemous language
should be avoided. The
dissemination of such terms is
justified only where it is
essential to the audience’s
understanding, including
because it forms part of a direct
quotation, or to the dramatic
development of a story.
POLICY, REVISED 2014
“If the precise nature of an obscenity, vulgarity or other offensive expression is essential to the reader’s understanding of a newsworthy event – not merely to convey color or emotion – editors should consider using the term or a close paraphrase; readers should not be left uninformed or baffled about the nature of a significant controversy.” – The New York Times 2014 guidelines on profanity and
vulgarity
NEWS OUTLETS
GENERALLY AGREE
“When offensive language
is used by a ranking public
official in a public place,
they need to report it.” – The Ethical Journalist
CASE STUDY: VP DICK CHENEY B
y L
wp
Ko
mm
un
iká
ció
Vice President Dick Cheney Sen. Patrick Leahy
By h
ttp
s:/
/ww
w.c
on
gre
ss
.go
v/
GO F---
YOURSELF!
In 2004, on the floor of the U.S. Senate:
DISCUSS: SHOULD YOU QUOTE THE
VICE PRESIDENT USING PROFANITY?
WHAT NEWS OUTLETS DID
Used “an obscenity”
“Go … yourself.”
Quoted him exactly.
WHY DID THE POST QUOTE HIM?
Executive Editor
Len Downie
By c
ron
kit
e.a
su
.ed
u
“When the vice president
of the United States says
it to a senator in the way
in which he said it on the
Senate floor, readers need
to judge for themselves
what the word is because
we don’t play games at
The Washington Post and
use dashes.” – Executive Editor Len Downie
CASE STUDY:
OFFENSIVE IMAGES Should The Associated Press have
distributed a photo of a dying U.S.
Marine in Afghanistan against the
father’s and Pentagon’s wishes?
Mortally wounded Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard by
AP photographer Julie Jacobson in Afghanistan, 2009
INTERVIEW WITH SOLDIER’S FATHER
https://thebloviatinghammerhead.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/mainstream-media-outrage-ap-exploits-marines-death-ignores-familys-
anguish/
Lance Cpl. Joshua
M. Bernard
Memorial service for
Cpl. Bernard shot by
AP photographer Julie
Jacobson
PENTAGON ASKS AP NOT TO
DISTRIBUTE THE PHOTO
“Your lack of compassion
and common sense in
choosing to put this
image of their maimed
and stricken child on the
front page of multiple
American newspapers is
appalling.” – Letter from Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates to The AP
Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates
By D
ep
art
me
nt
of
Defe
ns
e
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/behind-13/
WHAT AP’S PHOTO CHIEF SAID “We appreciate the anguish
of the family of this
marine….At the same time,
there’s a compelling reason
to show the real effects of
this war. Sanitizing does
everyone a disservice….
Limiting casualty counts to
numbers and names and
nothing else; that’s a very
incomplete picture of what’s
going on.”
– AP Photo Director Santiago Lyon
AP Photo Director
Santiago Lyon
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/behind-13/
WHAT THE AP PHOTOGRAPHER SAID
“It is necessary to be
bothered from time to time.
It is too easy to sit at
Starbuck’s far away across
the sea and read about the
casualty and then move on
without much of another
thought about it. It’s not as
easy to see an image of
that casualty and not think
about it.” – AP photographer Julie Jacobson
AP Photographer
Julie Jacobson
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/behind-13/
DISCUSS: 1. SHOULD AP HAVE
DISTRIBUTED THE PHOTO?
2. You are the editor of the
soldier’s hometown
newspaper.
• Do you run it in the paper?
• If so, on what page?
• Color or black-and-white?
• Do you run it online?
• With a warning to click to
see it?
3. You are the editor of The
Washington Post?
• Same questions as above.
WHAT THE WASHINGTON POST DID • Published the photo online – with warning – but not in
the newspaper
• Ran an article explaining its decision.
htt
p:/
/ww
w.w
as
hin
gto
np
os
t.c
om
/wp
-dyn
/co
nte
nt/
art
icle
/20
09
/09
/0
4/A
R2
00
90
90
40
363
4.h
tml