Ethics in the Media

Story one: A suspect confession. 

A suspect confession is about when a journalism professer participated in the arrest of a murderer. He chose to leak the information and break the trust with his source in order to lock up a murderer. While many might criticize that he chose to work with the police as a journalist others support him saying it is the right thing to do. The article was about the moral and ethical implications a journalist should have when working with their source.

I think that the journalist was right in what he did. While it may be important to get a good story as a journalist and not leak your source I believe it is more important to prevent other murders from happening if you can. I think this because another persons life is more important than some story that will be popular for a bit and think that working with police is acceptable to catch murders if you have info that can capture and prevent them from killing more people they could kill you or your family/friends next.

Story two: Pirates and the press!

Pirates and the press is about how a band called Ting Tings new album was leaked a month before release causing them to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars from the leaks. A news site called the Billboard rolling stone covered this situation but they also included a link directly to all the leaks and music for download enabling many of people to the illegal music making Ting ting lose even more money although the media isn't obligated to not include links and isn't illegal it still must have been a blow to Ting ting. 

I think that it isn't ethically right to include the link to all the stolen music allowing there readers easy access to the music where beforehand they might have chosen not to try to find the stolen music. The reason is because while covering the story and analyzing the situation is ok and expected linking the music feels like they are supporting the leakers and encouraging their readers on the internet to download the music and listen to it and essentially aiding the leakers.

Story three: The medias foul ball.

The medias foul ball is about how a cubs fan tried to catch a foul ball preventing the cubs from catching it and making them lose the game preventing the cubs from going to the world series. Many fans were upset and angry at this certain cubs fan and pelted him with things as security escorted him out and this story was covered by the news. Instead of keeping the certain cubs fan identity a secret they published his full name causing potential danger to him from other angry cubs fans.

 Personally I believe that the media should have kept his identity a secret. Publishing his full name might add extra weight to the story but it would essentially be the same without it and it could cause potential danger to the certain individual. The media should try to minimize harm to the people they publish about and they could have easily done that but decided to instead cause danger to a man for his mistake.