Part 1
Journalists have a formidable influence and prominence to the public by educating the citizens on the information of some issues and events that are eye-opening, compelling and controversial to public interests. As they must carry an immeasurable responsibility to inform the public the accurate and unbiased information, Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics that states four major principles as a foundation of ethical journalism serves as a guideline to the journalists. When the journalists behaved ethically and followed the guidelines, credibility as one of the incentives can come along, which will make the journalist and the journalism business trusted, leading to a financial gain in the long-term. The founder of ‘WikiLeaks‘ Julian Assange insists, “Journalism should be more like science. As far as possible, facts should be verifiable. If journalists want long-term credibility for their profession, they have to go in that direction. Have more respect for readers”(Julian Assange, 2010).
As we have learned from our lecture, textbook, and experiences, people in the field of journalism face numerous ethical dilemmas, including confidentiality or invasion of privacy, offensive contents, verifying the sources, etc. However, two of the most important and influential unethical issues for me are ‘Fabrication’ and ‘Deception’. News are becoming more and more biased and most are blind to the fact. According to Todd Gitlin’s book ‘Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives‘, he describes, “We diminish the significance of media and our reliance on them in everyday life by classifying them as channels of information” (Todd Gitlin, 5). We as readers will consume the fabricated fact without even batting an eye, just the way people did in 1998 by the former New Republic journalist.
Part 2
Stephen Glass, who was a respected writer for the New Republic fails to follow the ethical path of journalism. Instead, he chooses to fabricate the stories for the magazine. Subsequently, it turned out that at least 27 of 41 articles produced by him were fabricated with the invented quotations and incidents. Throughout the film ‘Shattered Glass’, Stephen Glass was gradually driven into the corner and was beleaguered by his boss and the competing companies after the release of ‘Hack Heaven’, which aroused suspicion and ignited the investigation into his work and eventually brought ruin upon himself due to two unethical issues, fabrication and deception. Stephen, who used to be a fact-checker, was a lovable person until the revealability of the fact that he fabricated some of the information and successfully escaped the detection as some of his works such as “The First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ’ and ‘get-naked” exemplify the made-up stories without getting detected. On top of his unethical behavior that transgressed the ethics code, he deceived the people around him, including the colleagues, and his editors and the boss with some furtive and sly methods. Having been unable to find the evidence of Jukt Micronics, the competing companies started to detect some errors that Stephen leaked. They ultimately uncovered and captured the evidences that Stephen established a fake website, and gave away a phone number that was connected to his brother to impersonate the voice of Jukt Micronics’ executive to deceive the eyes of the public and the editors.
There are some theories as tools in the decision-making process. The author of the book ‘The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Digital Age‘, Gene Foreman describes “Rule-based thinking is absolutist. A person has a duty to do the right thing – No excuses, no exceptions. Ethical obligations must be obeyed regardless of the situation” (Gene Foreman, 2016). Chuck, who was in charge of Stephen Glass, fits the first theory that Gene Foreman provided. The absolutist focused more on an individual’s moral duty rather than obtaining a bigger reputation. He simply did not have to calculate the consequences because what Stephen had been doing was considered as an unethical behavior to the rule-based thinker. In contrast with the example provided above, the second theory, ends-based thinking, “directs a choice in favor of the course of action that brings the most good to the most people. It is a calculation of the preponderance of good over evil, or benefits over harm” (Gene Foreman, 2016). The former editor of Stephen Glass, Micheal, who was replaced by Chuck falls into the category of the second theory. He knew the articles produced by Stephen Glass were fabricated. However, Micheal overlooked his faults and let the mistakes through as he thought Stephen Glass had more bright future to come both for him and for the journalism business due to his rapid-growing reputation and success. However, the typical weakness of this theory caught up with the decision made by Micheal. As it is extremely difficult to predict the consequences, Micheal failed to expect for Stephen Glass to be slyer and continued to write more fabricated news as Stephan Glass got more obsessed with deceiving the facts.
Chuck, who was a rule-based thinker, noticed the nervous mental state of Stephen Glass as he kept asking the typical question full of guilt “Are you mad at me?”, when he was asked “Come and see me at the office”. Aware of the psychological state, Chuck uncovered the truth and fired Stephen Glass who outsmarted himself with dishonesty, looking for a bigger hit and a bigger reputation among the public and the colleagues. According to the article ‘The unpleasant Truth of Global Media Corruption‘, it describes “Popularity, high ratings and advertising dollars. Media has stopped being a reliable tool for information, and has instead become a dominant tool for fraud and manipulation” (True Focus, 2004). It addresses that journalists fabricate and deceive for their personal gain, and reputation under stress, and pressure and they think they can easily get away with the fraud.
Typical opportunist Stephen Glass, who was the first person to see Chuck after the replacement who felt appreciation towards him, miserably failed to follow all four principles mentioned in SJP code of ethics as he did not seek truth and his reporting was unfair and inaccurate. He, instead of minimizing the harm, maximized the harm as he was busy hiding the truth by deceiving more. The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism, which is to serve the public failed since he did not act independently and he was never transparent. Similar case of fabrication occurred in 2012. Lehrer, an author of books and a magazine writer, manipulated his work from The Wall Street Journal to write for other New Yorker posts. The duplication of previously published material brought a huge confusion to the public and David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker comments and denounces, “There are all kinds of crimes and misdemeanors in this business, and if he were making things up or appropriating other people’s work, that’s one level of crime” (Gene Foreman, 2016).
Part 3
After many years of experiences, I came to a conclusion that credibility is the most important factor in an interpersonal relationship. Fully aware of the significance of building a strong trust, I would stop denying and confess the truth to the editor as well as to the public so that I do not have to force my colleagues and editors apologize to the public for me, and I could learn a life-changing lesson instead of deceiving more and build a new second chapter of my life to move on. Admitting the truth can hurt me if I valued reputation the most like Stephen Glass did. However, covering more truth will blow the chances away to eradicate the unethical thoughts.
There are some solutions for combatting fabrication and deception. Educating and getting the employees informed about the current policies in the newsroom with the ultimate consequences of fabrication from both company’s perspective and real-life example of miserable outcomes. Another alternative method to overcome the act of these unethical issues is to have the leaders ready for the employee for a help or an advice to navigate and guide to prevent from the misconduct.
I was very happy about getting introduced to the movie in the beginning of the semester. The movie reminded me of an important ethical lesson again as it also planted an idea deeply in my mind that deception and manipulation will occur at anytime anywhere even apart from the field of journalism, which will always cause a tragic outcome. I liked the editing of the movie, especially how Stephen Glass had been deceiving the audiences and the readers. The scene where all the students and a teacher disappeared and Stephen Glass was left alone in a classroom setting deceived the entire audiences watching the film with the story they were delivering. I am not sure if the director meant to give this message but it was interesting to find out that we were deceived twice by Stephen Glass both in the movie and the real life. Finally, It was the character, Chuck, who was used to deliver and speak out the messages of the director towards the readers and audiences who were blinded by the yellow journalism.
Part 4
1. Twitter, D. W. (n.d.). Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: Journalism should be more like a science. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-journalism-should-be-more-like-a-science/
2. Radzikowski, P. S. (2015, October 02). The Unpleasant Truth of Global Media Corruption. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://drshem.com/2011/10/24/the-unpleasant-truth-of-global-media-corruption/
3. Foreman, G. (2016). The ethical Journalist: making responsible decisions in the digital age. Hoboken: Wiley.
4. Gitlin, T. (2016). Media unlimited: how the torrent of images and sounds overwhelms our lives. New York: Metropolitan Book/Henry Holt and Company.