1. Media Ethics - Potter's Box Activity

Choose one of the "case studies" from the site below:

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/007288259x/student_view0/case_studies.html

You are a reporter. Go through the 5 steps of the Potter Box to help you decide how to report such a story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Box

1. Definition / Facts:

2. Values:

3. Principles: (...be sure to apply existing principles like Aristotle's Golden Mean and Kant's Categorical Imperative)

4. Loyalties:

5. Justified Decision / Conclusion:

2. Media Ethics - Dateline's "To Catch a Predator"

Many of you have probably seen at least one episode of NBC Dateline's "To Catch a Predator."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGEHtsMToY

If you have not, here's my synopsis....NBC Dateline works with an online predator watchdog group called "Perverted Justice" (http://www.perverted-justice.com). Perverted Justice employees pose as young girls and boys (usually 13, 14, or 15 years old) in online chatrooms. The decoys try to get the older men (sometime much older) to meet them in person.

The men drive to the decoy's house (sometimes from hundreds of miles away). All of this is caught on tape. Each man is invited in to the home by the decoy and they meet for a brief moment. Then the decoy leaves the room and NBC reporter Chris Hansen enters. Hansen asks the man about why he is at the teenager's home and what he expected from the rendezvous. The men often have seen the show before but still show up. Shortly after the exchange with Hansen, the man usually flees the house and is then arrested outside by the police and charged as a sex offender in that state.

Obvious ethical questions arise:

1) Is this type of "ambush journalism" ethical?

(Definition of ambush journalism: Ambush journalism refers to aggressive tactics practiced by journalists to suddenly confront with questions people who otherwise do not wish to speak to a journalist.)

2) How does this affect the media's role as a watchdog over police, when they are cooperating so closely?

3) What do shows like this do for the presumption of innocence of the accused?

4) Does this show go against the Society of Professional Journalist's ethical code that states:

Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story.

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

5) Overall, how do you feel about this type of programming?