What are the ethical dilemmas involved in editing a story that features a prominent source who is quoted using incorrect grammar and poor word choice? The ethical dilemmas for the editor include: to use or not to use quotes with grammatical mistakes, altering the story to make the source appear ignorant about the issue within the story, considering how the public’s view of the source will change after the grammatically incorrect quotes are published, contemplating whether or not the source will bash the paper after seeing himself/herself in a bad light. This issue, like many others in journalism, raises many gray-shaded predicaments.
According to the SPJ Code of Ethics journalists should “minimize harm, treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect”. For this particular scenario, the editor should pick the quote that least disrespects the source. If the source failed to provide a quote with no grammatical errors, the editor should not quote the source at all, but rather summarize the main points of the main source. In doing this, the source will be displayed in a good light to the public and the paper will maintain credibility.
When covering a story about a student involved in altering another student’s grade, should the name be printed? This situation reminds me of an incident in high school. A student was caught using there phone on the ACT. When it was covered in the paper, the name of the student was not printed. High school papers cover only a small community of citizens, so printing a students name could probably cause parent vs. administrative battles. I would “seek the truth and report it” without publishing the name of the student (SPJ Code of Ethics). The issue would still be addressed without causing excess drama behind the scenes. The high school paper would be “showing good taste and avoiding lurid curiosity”(SPJ Code of Ethics).
Well here it is the final blog for Media Ethics. It was a great time and I enjoyed investigating the morally ethical decisions that plague the world of journalism.
