Phillip Parker
English 112
November 30, 2016
Leah Marable
Researched Proposal – Ethical Journalism in the Modern Age
The Problem
The current of age of digital communications has made receiving news easier and making
the news available to the world. The spread of the internet due to advances related to spread of
high speed internet throughout the world and the internet also spreading due to advances,
availability, and prices of internet connected computers, smartphones, and coming of the Internet
of Things (IOT) have made the internet more widely available compared to the last five years.
The rise of these technologies have led to a growth of various new news media growing at rapid
pace and various old media adapting to the internet. The rapid rise of social media has also allow
easier and instant sharing of the news and has allowed people to interact more personally
towards the news media also. This growth of new media in the digital age has led to anyone
being able to report on the news and also anyone being able to be a journalist. Instant reporting
due to rise of digital communications like the internet has made the news media able to respond
and report on issues, stories, and other events in real time.
The current digital age has led to new issues in ethics that are affecting the old media
such as newspapers, television or magazines and new media such as internet or social media sites
like Facebook or Twitter. These issues are cropping up because the freedoms and benefits offered
by the current age like instant reporting and sharing information are easier to abuse and can lead
to unjust harassment.
An example of an issue in ethics was when The Rolling Stone published a story in 2014
about a University of Virginia student who claims she was ambushed and raped by several men
at a Phi Kappa Psi house during a party (T.Ress). These allegations led to the school being
pushed into the national spotlight on how universities handle claims of sexual assault which was
it’s currently a big national discussion point and investigation was launched by the University
and the Police. Rolling Stone’s story started to fall apart when the claims made by victim started
to show discrepancies between what she said, what the Rolling Stone story claimed, and what
was being found out by close friends of the victim and the fraternity being accused. Also it was
found out that the Rolling Stone did little to no fact checking when writing the story and later
they apologize and retracted the story.
The Gamergate incident in the online gaming journalism which started as a small sex
