When it comes to ethics, especially in journalism its the status quo-meaning that is should be followed because the trust of the public is one of the most important things for the survival of your media outlet. Steven Glass played with public trust by continuous publishing exaggerated fabricated stories. The public believed him and all he did was lie to further his career and publicity. Issues convey a bunch of questions on ethics is deception and lack of transparency.
Stephen Glass’s action was one that was mind-boggling, even though some of his stories were far-fetched at times. His editors and the public couldn’t believe a journalist some trusted and taught to tell the truth would do such a thing as a lie. First Glass chose to deceive his readers, and Hack Haven was the story the caught up to him. First off the issue at stake here is trust, he broke that. While weaving his story of Hack Haven where he created this story that a teenage hacker sought out to siphon money from this company in silicon valley.
The story sounded outrages with holes in it, however, when confronted he continued to proceed with his lie.ple news products. Singer says “Stories are increasingly likely to appear online as soon as viable information is available. At the 2009 meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, newspaper copy editors discuss the ethical implications of these changes on the accuracy of what is published.” Yes, because of the internet the accuracy of stories are always in question because of the fast of it.and when Stephen Glass was a journalist it was the beginning of the internet era.however that doesn’t excuse the lack of accuracy for the articles in which he lied in were consistent wrecking his credibility.(Schauster,Ferrucci,Neillproposed that some duties ought to remain constant and that journalists ought to serve as “socially responsible existentialists,” which refers to a journalist who chooses to act as a trustworthy source of information that serves the public interest.”
Glass refuses to uphold his social responsibility as a journalist, and created lies to advance himself and didn’t take the ethics of journalism seriously.
Second lack of Transparency was a big part of his downfall if he was transparent when he was questioned by his editors instead creating fake notes he wouldn’t have been fired all over news labeled a fabricator. This lack of transparency ruined accuracy forever.
In a situation like this Glass really should have owned up to his lie right away instead of deceiving his editors and the public. With that, he would have gotten a smaller sentence and regain trust at some point. Now, especially with the extent of his lies, it’ll make it hard for anyone to trust him at all.
References
Singer, J. (2010). Journalism ethics amid structural change. Daedalus, 139(2), 89-99. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20749827
Erin E. Schauster, Patrick Ferrucci, Marlene S. NeillNative Advertising Is the New Journalism: How Deception Affects Social Responsibility .Journal of Communication Inquiry Vol 29, Issue 2, pp. 103 – 118 First Published April 1, 2005