Situation Definition:
“Shattered Glass” is a biographical and crime theme movie based on a real story. It introduced the journalistic fraud about Stephane Glass, a “rising star” journalist from The New Republic Magazine in Washington D.C. During his career in The New Republic, Stephane Glass admitted 27 out of 41 articles he wrote for the magazine were fabricated in whole or in part. “Fabrication” is the major issues that concerned by the journalists. It erodes the truth and negatively influence readers’ decision from objective evidence.
The second ethical issue is “fake news”. Fake news contains falsification and distortion of the news. False information undermines the serious news coverage. In this way, fake news damage the news organization’s reputation and completely lose customers’ trusts.
Analysis:
Once he published a story titled “Hack Heaven”, about a young hacker got a job from software company after he hack into the company’s computer system. The story was so impressive and caused suspicious by others. Glass could not provide enough sources to support the reality of the story. Others also found he made up most of the websites and information related to the story. For Stephane Glass, he fabricated the whole story about the hackers is mainly because he wanted to rise his journalistic career. He was kind self-aggrandized after he saw his previous article raised warm welcome between audience. In that case, he created a series of fake websites and notes to make up the whole story and impressed his audience and editor. According to a scholar article, “media literacy is an individuals’ ability to access, analyze, and evaluate media. Media asked individuals to consider many factors.” However, fake news, scams, phishing, and other risks faced by those who interacting with information and sources on digital platforms. (Lee, 2018) It is important for journalists to face the false information and correct them instead of fabricating the story.
Similar to the “Shatter Glass” case, Janet Cookie fabricated “Jimmy’s World” have rumbled through the professional and scholarly realms since its publication. Cookie skillfully paired legitimate characters with fictitious characters in order to create a sense of realism throughout the whole article which in order to make the story be accepted as authentic. The public could not find Jimmy, and Cookie feigned to search herself and then got away with her lie. Ironically, she won the Pulitzer Prize for the story. (Urbanski, 2016) Due to the fabrication and falsification information, Cookie’s journalistic career wen to the end and received criticism. Ignoring the importance of ethical code absolutely ruin the reputation and benefits of journalism industry.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt that Glass have the chance to stop his unethical behavior. If there is limited time to complete a high-quality article, he can ask for extending deadlines. It is unnecessary to fabricate a series of lies to cover up his previous mistake. One lesson I learned from this case is to observe the ethical principles for journalists.
Reference:
1.Urbanski S (2016). A neo-Aristotelian critique of “Jimmy’s World”: New ideas in a long- debated journalism fabrication American Communication Journal
2.Nicole M Lee (2018). Fake news, phishing, and fraud: a call for research on digital media literacy education beyond the classroom Communication Education
https://wwwtandfonlinecom.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/03634523.2018.503313