ethics reading

Sidebar on pg 502
Guidelines for journalism: responsibility, freedom of the press, independence, sincerity, truthfulness, accuracy, impartiality, fair play, and decency.

pg 506-522
This information is all similar to what many of us have learned in our media ethics class. When first skimming through the chapter I thought everything would be identical information, but it was not at all.

Potter Box? Never seen it. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with Harry Potter. I'm tired. I think that's fairly obvious. Anyways, the box looks rather simple but once you start following the arrows I realized it can be a little confusing. But...it still is simple...it can go any way it wants to. Maybe it's confusing in the way in which it's so simple. I need to stop overthinking.

The green box about Kelly McBride was insightful. It's nice to know that there is someone out there to help people with their ethical decisions. The book offering her e-mail address and information about her column was a great addition to the chapter.

The section on freebies got to me. I love free things, yet I know as a journalist you are not supposed to accept gifts. I would have such a hard time turning down something given to me, and it seems as if I am not the only one. As humans in a buy buy buy world, we will take almost anything given to us for free. Well, I guess as journalists we should not. I like how some news agencies will accept gifts then auction them off and give the money to charities.

The withholding information portion of the chapter also intrigued me. The comparison of doctors to journalists was well put.

"If you work as a journalist, are you ever off-duty? A doctor isn't. Doctors take an oath to treat the sick. If you witness something at a friend's house or at a party, do you tell your news director about it?"