Journalism Ethics / Working Journalist Interview



Journalism Ethics / Working Journalist InterviewListYour final assignment is to interview a professional journalist working in mainstream news about ethical concerns he or she has experienced in the areas of:FairnessSource/Reporter Relationships Diversity (on staff and in coverage)Conflicts of InterestPrivacy You’ll have a conversation with your journalists about specific stories that raised these issues and how they solved them. Your commentary on the decisions must be saved until the end of your paper. Topic ApprovalI must approve the journalists you interview before you contact them for two reasons. First, I’m trying to ensure that you’re working with a reporter who’ll be able to respond to your questions, and second, any given journalist can only be interviewed once. The InterviewOnce your journalist is approved, you should plan to conduct a Zoom interview, with the possibility of email follow up.Before the interview, you should have read some of the journalist’s work so you can ask about specific stories and get specific answers. For example, if you think about Eric Bosco’s story on Obamacare in Kentucky, you could ask him specifically about how he protected the privacy of the patient he interviewed, how he dealt with her as a vulnerable source, how he was fair in terms of assessing her politics, etc. You actually can complete this assignment talking about one or two good stories. You must have those specific sorts of examples, which means you must be a good interviewer. Don’t allow your journalists to speak in generalities that make them sound like a boring ethics text. When you finish the interview, you should have solid portraits of these journalists’ ethics. And it doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad. Just report what the journalists say, without commentary. Writing the EssayStart your essay with a paragraph sharing the journalist’s essential information, including: NamePlace of employment and for how longJob descriptionEducation A list of previous journalism jobs. Most of this is information you can get from a journalist’s resume or a website. Don’t waste interview time on it if you don’t have to. The body of your paper then should consist of the five subheads above: Fairness, Sources, etc. under which you’ll discuss each of the areas noted. Remember: you’ll need to get your subject to identify specific ethical dilemmas, then draw out the details.Conclusion After you’ve summarized the journalists’ views, the last page of your essays should discuss how well these views align with the ethical mandates discussed in class, being sure to point out any comments or decisions that diverge from the SPJ guidelines. Does this journalist make good ethical decisions or not? And again, it doesn’t matter—as long as you recognize the difference in your conclusions. This is Your Ethics Final! Make sure you understand these five issues yourselves by reviewing the outlines on each topic: in other words, you need to address the right issues under the right topics. This review also will allow you to ask targeted questions and keep the journalists on topic. This assignment is worth 30% of your grade. It will show how much these journalists know about ethics, but, more importantly, it will show how much you know, just as a test would This paper should be roughly six pages, typed and double-spaced. And please edit carefully for misspelled names, errors in style, punctuation, etc. This should be your best work! Due: Friday, May 1 ................
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