Media Ethics — AEJMC Hot Topics

The social magazine app Zite, which compiles stories that a user may be interested in based on their browsing & searching history, Twitter account and other habits, was sent a cease and desit letter from AP, Time, Washington Post and some other major media companies.

The letter says that Zite is using their intellectual property and needs to stop immediately (you can view the letter below). Zite launched just a few weeks ago and this marks a rough beginning for the app. You can read more about this here.

Here’s a promo video put out by Zite:

Here’s the official cease and desist letter:

Cease & Desist Letter to Zite –

FCC Cracks Down on Fake News

The FCC is taking action against two news organization for running stories that were actually commercials for Zicam and General Motors, a fact the news orgs didn’t make clear when they ran them. The FCC will fine the the NBC and Fox affiliates in Atlantic City and Minneapolis for instances.

The fines are about $4,000 which may or may not deter other news organizations from running the same type of sponsorships. The segments were aired back in 2006, so there’s several years of possible false segments that are still to be revealed as well. You can read an article about it here.

Media in Mexico Set Guidelines for Drug War Coverage

From the LA Times on March 25 - Many of Mexico’s top media companies agreed Thursday on first-ever guidelines for covering a drug war that has drastically increased risks for journalists.

The 10-point accord, covering more than 700 outlets across the country, calls on news-gathering organizations to find ways to protect their journalists and avoid glorifying crime bosses. Read more

Libya’s Second War

From The Guardian March 23, 2011 - There is a second war going on in Libya just now between two media tribes. On one side, CNN and on the other, Fox News.

The first assault came on Monday when Fox’s defence correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, alleged that Gaddafi’s forces had successfully thwarted air strikes by using journalists from CNN and Reuters as human shields. Read More

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Media Ethics

Advertisers Publish New Ethical Guidelines

This week the Institute for Advertising Ethics published their Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics (available for download). The paper lays out eight main principles that advertisers should follow when presenting information to consumers. With all the changes to technology and media, the paper says that:

The one constant is transparency, and the need to conduct ourselves, our businesses, and our relationships with consumers in a fair, honest and forthright manner.

It goes on to say that the need for transparency is needed more than ever because consumer trust in advertising institutions is eroding. You can view the press release here or download the paper.

Are Journalists Skeptical Enough of U.S. Conflicts?

CNN posted a video (below) on their website a few days ago from its Reliable Sources TV program. Several journalists and media directors were asked the question of whether or not the news media is skeptical enough of what the U.S. is doing in Libya. They discussed the media’s coverage of the confrontation and whether or not journalists should be more outspoken earlier on about invasions, no-fly zones, attacks, etc. instead of reporting just the facts. The conversation brought up obvious thoughts on the Iraq war, particularly because it was 8 years ago this week that the U.S. invaded Iraq.

Tell us what you think about journalists and skepticism. Do you think the CNN program is off-base or right about this?

The Plagiarism Problem – What to Do?

Today the Washington Post put out a statement that one of their top investigative reporters, Sari Horwitz, had plagiarized paragraphs from the Arizona Republic in two of her stories in March. The paper has suspended Horwitz for three months. You can read the full story here.

Let us know you’re thoughts on how the Washington Post handled the situation and if you think plagiarism is increasing, decreasing or simply a non-issue most of the time.

News Paywalls – Should They Cost Less in Poorer Countries?

From Columbia Journalism Review on March 16 – Consumers have made peace with the fact that some things cost more in certain places. A cup of black coffee at a Cairo McDonald’s costs less than the same stimulant at a McDonald’s in Manhattan. A night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus costs $445, while in Maui it’ll set you back nearly $1,000.

I wonder, then, whether online news organizations must charge the same amount for their product in every nook of the earth, and whether globally scattered news audiences would tolerate variable pricing. It seems unreasonable that someone in Burundi be asked to pay the same price for a product as a consumer in Singapore. Shouldn’t the cost of online news also vary in these countries? Read More

Should News Organizations Be in the “Reunion” Business?

From TVNEWSER on March 16 - The disaster in Japan has meant that thousands of people are unaccounted for, particularly in parts of the country that were hit hard by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

With so many people unable to reach loved ones, many TV news organizations rushed to try and connect them. We linked to a few already, when Ann Curry connected an American teacher visiting Japan to her family in San Francisco, and CBS’ own Lucy Craft reuniting with her son.

In both cases, TV cameras were present as the families got the news. It was emotional, gripping television, but it was also quite manipulative, according to AOL News contributor Lauren Frayer. Read More

Does NPR Really Have a Liberal Bias?

From the Columbia Journalism Review on March 15 – At the root of the hubbub over the conservative activist sting on a pair of NPR fundraisers and NPR CEO Vivian Schiller’s subsequent resignation is a debate that is as old as public broadcasting itself: should the government fund media in the US? The most vocal opponents of public funding often cite what they see as a left-leaning political bias at NPR as an argument that it does not deserve taxpayer help.

In a recent column by The New York Times’s David Carr, NPR’s political slant is treated as a foregone conclusion. It’s “true to a point” that NPR is guilty of “squishy liberal ideology,” Carr wrote. “In terms of assignments and sensibility, NPR has always been more blue than red, but it’s not as if it has an overt political agenda.” Read more