The Changed Field of Journalism Faces Ethical Quandaries of Digital Communication
June 13, 2013
The article on BuzzFeed titled The Hidden Cost of Instant Reporting compares the ease with which present-day reporters are able to commit ethically questionable actions to their predecessors. Technology has enabled reporters to remove much of the risk and all of the trouble from ethics breaches. The article explains,
“Wikileaks, and Wikileaks-style data dumps, present scores of journalists (and normal citizens!) with ethical decisions that previously would have been rare and, for the most part, limited to those who actively sought them out — career muckrakers or journalists approached directly by whistle-blowers… And it’s hard to imagine Matthew Keys, accused of sharing Tribune Company log-in information with hackers and now possibly facing jail time, letting vandals into the L.A. Times headquarters with an old keycard.”
Plagiarism even has also been transformed into the simplest matter of copy and paste. It is easier to do, and easier to get caught, but that has not changed the way society views it. Are we holding reporters to the same standards that we used to? The article suggests that the effortlessness of cheating can certainly make it more appealing and make it feel less prohibited. The article points to the “15 seconds” taken on Wikipedia by the student who hacked Sarah Palin’s email account. Where will we draw the line?
Chelsea Kerwin, June 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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