Tuesday, March 20, 2012

7e

Is it the business of a university to assist students in acquiring the habit of
consuming the news? If so on what basis? Does the venue (print or Internet)
matter?
News is important. It is important to know what is going on in the world and how it directly affects us, and it is important to know what is going on around you. However, just like it is not the job of the university to supply birth control, it is not the job of the university to hold your hand and make you get the news in some sort. However, I think the news is super important and maybe on the school website or by their email, there would be some way of putting daily headlines. The internet would be the best source of getting news across to individuals in the university and I think that an informed campus would make for a better one.

7d

Does reporting on undesirable products or issues-toxic waste or tobacco- demand a
different professional standard than reporting on city government?
I don't really see why it should. You should be professional enough that for all stories you have a set standard. This world can be an undesirable product, so I think I would much rather do a story on toxic waste than the other crap that goes on in the world sometimes. In all things journalism, one needs to be professional, and one needs to have class. Whether you are reporting on a war, on local city government, doing a human interest piece, or doing a piece that is highly controversial, all pieces should be handled with class, care, and professionalism.

7c

This case arose on a page where news is defined by people who want to make the
announcements, not by the reporters on a beat. Does that raise a different
ethical question the newsroom?
Yes, it does raise different ethical questions, however, these annoucements still need to be reviewed and edited. When you have John Doe that is not any type of journalist or reporter putting his own words into the paper or making an announcment, there needs to be someone over that saying yes or no. Your newspaper belongs to you. If there is something in there that isn't going to shine good light, or maybe something is going to cause issues, take it out. People can be dumb, but it is your job as a worker for the paper to make sure that you deliver straight up news, not comments.

7b

Was it appropriate that this dispute go public? Who should cover the news of
large media organizations?
Every big organization or company needs a PR person to handle issues. If you have a large company, or any company there will be issues. It is just how it is. However, for established companies, put a PR person on the payroll, and that will save a lot of headache. In situations such as these, it is going to go public no matter what you do, but that is why there needs to be someone there to professionally make statements on behalf of the company. In this case, since it directly deals with the newspaper, there are going to be other newspapers amd media outlets jump quickly on this since indeed they are in direct competition. The Tribune really needs to be the arrow in this situation and not the target, making sure they are the first to cover their own story.

7a

Is the actual loss of credibility as disastrous as the reporters felt or does
the public really have the same sensibilities as those in the profession?
The loss of credibility in an profession, especially a news media profession is disastrous. If you lose credibility, you lose truth, and without truth, you lose a lot of your following. Although all of the public doesn't have their degress in journalism, we are educated enough to have the same sensibilities as those in the profession. That being said, we don't have the understanding of the profession as deep as those in the profession but we do know the difference between right and wrong and when something doesn't add up.