Situation Definition:
The first issue that Caitlin Flanagan talks about is how ivy league schools have changed. While she was working as a college counselor at a Beverly Hills high school she found out that the kids and their parents had such high standards and almost a hidden curriculum of the college the child attended (Flanagan, 2001).
Another issue that Flanagan faced was when writing an article titled “The Dark Power of Fraternities”. She used real life events to spread awareness about rape culture and other issues that come from fraternities. An important ethical message Flanagan talked about was fairness.
Analysis:
The ethical issue about ivy league schools is that the child and the parents will do whatever it takes to get into the school they want, in this case, Yale. From the book, How an Ivy League College Decides on Admissions, a boy’s future at Yale was seriously jeopardized by his father. His father used a chance encounter with an admissions officer to show a scrapbook of his son’s accomplishments. The admissions officer remarked, “The pitiful thing is that the boy is a great kid. The whole incident, which will do him no good, will have to be brought out at the committee meeting. The parental strategy here gives a slight insight into the boy’s home life and background”(Kinhead, 1961). This could have been a major ethical issue if the admissions officer would have looked at the boys accomplishments and accepted the boy. Instead, he did the right thing and because the boy’s father was a little too eager and willing to do anything to get his son into Yale, the boy didn’t get in. The so-called popular colleges like Yale, Duke and Harvard were basically just popular because the kids and the parents made them like that, which Flanagan says are so wrong. She believed that among her approved list of a hundred or so colleges were all capable of providing students with a great education.
Flanagan ethical message about fairness is very important when you’re a journalist, especially when writing about such a controversial topic. As a journalist you have to be fair, both sides of the issue should be equal and come from different perspectives, giving everything a chance. It is extremely important for journalists to keep an open mind. Flanagan couldn’t have wrote this article about fraternities if she didn’t. According to SPJ Code of Ethics, ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. A journalist should balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the publics right to know (SPJ, 2014)
Conclusion:
Overall, I believe Flanagan did really well writing both articles. She maintained a fair and balanced perspective on both issues. If I were in her shoes, I would find it very difficult to keep an open mind and be fair, especially with all the recent stories that are happening. I thought she did a really good job in both. By doing this, she maintained a good relationship with her sources, which in the end turned out to be very helpful for her articles.
Works Cited:
Kinkead, K. (1961). How an ivy league college decides on admissions. New York: W.W. Norton.
Flanagan, C. (2001, September 1). Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/09/confessions-of-a-prep-school-college-counselor/302281/
Flanagan, C. (2014, February 19). The Dark Power of Fraternities. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/02/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/
(SPJ) Society of Professional Journalists Improving and protecting journalism since 1909. (2014, January 1). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp