Personal notes

Question 1

reasons for the sorry sight of the news business

1. Money
   - more ?
   - pressure to ?
   - newspapers: slashing ? shrinking ?

Answer 1

competition
cut ethical corners
staff/ news hole

Question 2

reasons for the sorry sight of news business:

2. Spinmeisters
   - seed ?
   - preferred rhetorical tool ?

Answer 2

• mistrust in media

- bullshit (image over substance)

Question 3

Reasons for sorry sight of news business:

3. tabloid journalism
   - blurring of ?
   - leads to hybrid like ?

Answer 3

real and important distinction between news and entertainment
-docudramas, advertorials, infotainment, astroturf

Question 4

Reasons for sorry sight of news business:
4. political bias
-not since early 19th century ?
-

Answer 4

so many claims of political bias in the press

Question 5

Brief history of ethical thinking

• goal of aesthetics epistemology and ethics: get past the ? to arrive at?
• ethical: choices reflected on
• unethical: choices based on

Answer 5

purely emotional, subjective and intuitive
a reasoned understanding

• reasoning
• emotion, reflex, assumption

Question 6

law: what is
ethics: what is

Answer 6

allowed

possible

Question 7

distinction between ethics and prudence

• prudent=
• prudence does not require

Answer 7

• to be careful

- a moral ranking of available alternatives

Question 8

a good reason to follow laws even if unjust ?

The Crito - explain

Answer 8

democracy
-socrates unjustly jailed, but said state is more important than individuals and obeying laws is essential even if unjustly applied

Question 9

for Greeks the key was in telos

• what is telos
• teleology is branch of philosophy focused on ?
• make choice that would

Answer 9

• ends or goals
• outcomes
• produce the most good

Question 10

deontology is ?

• prominent in ?
• behavior has ? regardless of

deontological vs. teleological

Answer 10

ruled based ethical theory

• middle ages
• moral weight in and of itself/ outcomes

-man the citizen/ man the maker

Question 11

printing press showed people they were capable of ?

Answer 11

own rational thought

Question 12

when did rational thought reach zenith ?

Answer 12

enlightenment of mid and late eighteenth century

Question 13

what is the most common complaint about utilitarianism ?

Answer 13

denies any sense of right or wrong that is independent of outcome

Question 14

can the existence of morality be proved ?

Answer 14

no

Question 15

social contract theory

• who ?
• what book
• claimed there was a time before society when people were born with the unlimited natural right to ?
• however one against all proved ?
• people need to voluntarily ?

Answer 15

• thomas hobbes
• leviathan
• do just as they pleased
• unsatisfactory (solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, short)
• surrender natural rights in order to be safe from predation

Question 16

Nietzsche decided we are mostly concerned with ? 
-also called
-god is ?
-world was destined to be ruled by ? 
problem with this ?

Answer 16

• self
• ethical egoism
• dead
• ubermensch “over men” not bound by slave morality
• must be concerned with self in society not just self

Question 17

to function properly a democratic society needs a communication system that can ?
journalism is the basis upon which

Answer 17

• inform the public, investigate govt., challenge orthodoxy, and facilitate debate
• a public can govern itself

Question 18

allegory of the cave: how long-standing ? and caution against relying on ? as well as complex and powerful influence of ?

Answer 18

• human search for truth is
• surface appearences
• culture on perceptions

Question 19

Francis Bacon

-truth is ? but?

Answer 19

attainable but hard to find

Question 20

Novum Organum: 
four barriers to true understanding 
-idol of the tribe: 
-idol of the cave: 
-idol of the marketplace:
-idol of the theatre:

Answer 20

• humans tend to rely on perception and things get mixed up
• individuals tendency to misunderstand based on personal thoughts and opinions
• when people talk to each other info transfer is not perfect
• barriers to truth thrown up by various schools of thoughts

Question 21

after WWI 
Walter Lippmann noted the massive ? 
referred to citizens as ?
-recognize pitfalls of the ? challenge ? bench test ? 
-thought a lot like ? 
-also known as ?

Answer 21

• complexity of modern life
• deaf spectator at stage play
• idols, received info, ideas
• bacon
• journalistic objectivity

Question 22

job of journalism is to provide citizens ina democracy the tools they need to make ?

• info is useless without ?
• goals of objectivity and context

Answer 22

• rational decisions about how to best govern their own lives
• context, shape, color, background
• work against each other

Question 23

Lippman brought to light that journalism is not meant to ?

-in Public Opinion he wrote that journalism is a ?

Answer 23

• supply all the info

- search light

Question 24

most serious problem in journalists quest for understanding was the rise of ?
Boorstin: the ?
blames journalists for

Answer 24

• contrived events
• pseudo event
• swallowing event whole and demanding more

Question 25

pseudo events pose two serious problems:

• may not be
• may have

Answer 25

news

considerable news value

Question 26

today news coverage is better than it was forty years ago 
--
-emphasizing 
-
-journalists

Answer 26

• technology
• in depth stories
• internet
• better paid, better educated, more professional, better trained

Question 27

why has faith fell in journalists

• people learned about the process of ?
• news cycle ?
• journalists under attack by ?
• tv shows ?
• owned by ?
• lump all news outlets into

Answer 27

• news gathering and came with contempt
• 24 hours
• politicians
• portray in bad light
• media conglomerates (bottom line mentality)
• monolith

Question 28

improving the profession 
journalists 
-practiced principle of 
-were ?
-worked for

Answer 28

• ethical journalism
• talented at their crafts
• strong news org.

Question 29

correcting the record:

network news slower than ?

Answer 29

newspapers in adopting systematic way of correcting errors

Question 30

ombudsmen

• who
• many experimented with them in?
• interest has been

Answer 30

• reader representatives or public editors
• 1960s and dropped in 80s and 90s
• rekindled

Question 31

why some people don’t like ombudsmen

• barrier between ?
• some dont want to
• more common in

Answer 31

reader and journalism who should feel wrath

• spend money on in house critic
• canada and european

Question 32

blogs police media in two ways

1. challenge
2. find ?

Answer 32

• validity of media reports

- bias in MSM

Question 33

News councils in the US

• one method of voluntary reg. is common in europe and Canada but not US ?
• allow people who feel they have been wronged by media to ?

Answer 33

• News council

- file complaints often at no charge

Question 34

positives and negatives of news councils

• improve journalism by ?
• may chill pursuit of controversial stories because
• what is also of concern

Answer 34

• punishing bad reporting and changing publics image of journalists
• by tying up reporters with complaints not allowed in court of law
• deciding who will be on them

Question 35

who established first news council in 1918

Answer 35

swedes

Question 36

the birth of the study of ethics:

Answer 36

socrates asking increasingly harder questions leading to basic truth ( socratic method)