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Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 14: Media Ethics: Truthfulness, Fairness, and
Standards of Decency
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Which presidents or vice presidents other than Donald Trump have been quoted by
the press using strong profanity?
A. Lyndon Johnson
B. Dick Cheney
C. Barack Obama
D. all of these
2. The term morals means which of the following?
A. a way of justifying behavior that cannot otherwise be justified
B. “the just-right point between excess and defect”
C. a rational means of decision-making when both alternatives are equally attractive or
unattractive
D. a religious or philosophical code of behavior
3. The term ethics means which of the following?
A. a way of justifying behavior that cannot otherwise be justified
B. “the just-right point between excess and defect”
C. a rational means of decision making when both alternatives are equally attractive or
unattractive
D. a religious or philosophical code of behavior
4. The “golden mean” was Aristotle’s notion of which of the following?
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
A. Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of
the people involved.
B. Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C. That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D. You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.
5. Kant’s “categorical imperative” said which of the following?
A. Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of
the people involved.
B. Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C. That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D. You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.
6. John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of “utilitarianism” says which of the following?
A. Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of
the people involved.
B. Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C. That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D. You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.
7. The theory of the “veil of ignorance” means which of the following?
A. Justice is possible when decisions are made without considering the social status of
the people involved.
B. Ethical behavior comes from striking a balance between excess and defect.
C. That which is virtuous provides the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D. You should act as though what you do will become a universal law.
8. The concept of “tabloid laundering” means which of the following?
A. promoting tabloids in such a way as to make them appear respectable
B. mainstream “respectable” media report on the stories they see the tabloids and
sensational websites covering
C. legitimate news stories are made to seem more sensational than they are
D. leaking a story to the tabloids when your own newspaper won’t run it
9. The term sensationalism in journalism means which of the following?
A. covering events that are stimulating and interesting
B. covering the events that are most important to the nation
C. covering everyday events in a way that makes them interesting to the public at large
D. covering events that are lurid and highly emotional
10. When the British tabloid newspaper the News of the World hacked into a kidnapped
and murdered girl’s phone so they could better report on the story, they were engaged
in ______.
A. tabloid laundering
B. ethical reporting
C. sensationalism
D. corporate conflict of interest
11. Newspapers ran sensationalistic stories accusing the U..S. president’s mother of
being a common prostitute during which decade?
A. 1830s
B. 1870s
C. 1930s
D. 2000s
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
12. Which of the following newspapers caused a great deal of controversy for running a
computer-manipulated photo that showed prostitutes in Cuba soliciting tourists while
police looked on?
A. the Miami New Times
B. the New York Post
C. El Nuevo Herald
D. the New York Daily News
13. The job of an ombudsman is to do which of the following?
A. help photographers digitally edit photographs
B. negotiate disputes between writers and editors
C. represent and take the point of view of the audience
D. “punch up” headlines to make them more lively
14. More than 40 sponsors left Rush Limbaugh’s popular radio show in 2012 when
Limbaugh ______.
A. called an African American White House reporter “a cleaning woman”
B. called a law student and birth control advocate a “slut” over the air
C. called members of a college women’s basketball team a group of “nappy-headed
hos”
D. made fun of two of his show’s big sponsors
15. Car dealers pulled their ads from the San Jose Mercury News after the paper did
which of the following?
A. It ran an article about how to negotiate a better deal on a new car.
B. It ran an article about how car dealers sell unneeded extras, such as undercoating,
with cars.
C. It ran an expose on car safety.
D. It refused to run articles about new cars on the market.
16. The public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton was controversial in the 1990s for
which of the following?
A. doing PR for the Westboro Baptist Church
B. a corporate conflict of interest by representing two competing companies at the same
time
C. representing Exxon during the Exxon Valdez crisis
D. none of these
17. Ethics involve which of the following?
A. making decisions on questions that have clear right and wrong answers
B. making decisions where no answer seems to be acceptable
C. making a personal decision using a moral code
D. decisions where everyone can agree on what you should do
18. A reporter has decided when writing a story that it is necessary to talk to sources on
two sides of an issue. When the reporter makes this ethical decision, the reporter is
making use of which of the following?
A. Kant’s categorical imperative
B. Aristotle’s golden mean
C. Rawls’s veil of ignorance
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
D. John Stuart Mill’s principle of utility
19. A newspaper photographer has taken a disturbing picture of a fatal accident caused
by a drunk driver. The paper’s photographer and editor decide to run the photo, despite
the pain it will cause the family of the people in the accident, because they feel that it
will lead to people doing more to prevent drunk driving and perhaps save some lives.
When they make this ethical decision to put the good of the public at large over the
needs of the victim’s family, they are making use of which of the following ethical
principles?
A. Kant’s categorical imperative
B. Aristotle’s golden mean
C. Rawls’s veil of ignorance
D. John Stuart Mill’s principle of utility
20. A reporter has been ordered by police to leave the scene of a protest or else she will
be arrested. The reporter decides to stay in the area to report on the protest based on
the principle that a reporter’s duty is to always report a story no matter what the
outcome. The reporter tells the police he will stay and report because it is the reporter’s
duty to do so. This reporter is making use of ______.
A. Kant’s categorical imperative
B. Aristotle’s golden mean
C. Rawls’s veil of ignorance
D. John Stuart Mill’s principle of utility
21. The Hutchins Commission believed that which of the following was the greatest
threat to American press freedom?
A. a powerful central government
B. the presence of communists working in the media
C. concentrated corporate ownership
D. the threat of local government censorship
22. Media ethics scholar David Martinson says that journalists most often fail their
audience by doing which of the following?
A. deliberately lying to the public
B. focusing on “bad” news instead of “good” news
C. by not asking whether their story helps the public understand the truth
D. not reporting on misconduct by high corporate officials
23. Stephen Glass was able to get away with fabrications in his stories for which of the
following reasons?
A. Glass would fabricate sources and substantiation of his facts.
B. Glass would submit articles late so that the publications wouldn’t have time to check
them.
C. Fact-checkers procedures were designed to catch mistakes, not lies.
D. all of these
24. Former Washington Post reporter Jose Vargas is controversial for ______.
A. not disclosing who his sources were for an investigative story
B. fabricating a story about a young heroin addict in the Washington, DC, area
C. hiding the fact that he was an undocumented immigrant
D. fooling fact-checkers editing his stories for Rolling Stone and Harper’s magazine
25. Which of the following would be an example of potential corporate conflict of
interest?
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
A. giving positive coverage of a charity event being chaired by the golfing buddy of your
television station’s owner
B. covering an online business owned by the same parent company as your newspaper
C. reporting about another media corporation your parent company partners with
D. all of these
26. Which of the following is a reason why many of the media reports about the Sago
Mine disaster were so wrong about the number of survivors?
A. Reporters didn’t care about the truth, they just wanted a story.
B. Journalists wanted the story to turn out with everyone being okay.
C. There were not enough reporters covering the story to do a credible job.
D. all of these
27. Digital editing of news photos is seen as acceptable under which of the following
circumstances?
A. when it is similar to what could be done in a traditional darkroom
B. when it makes a boring photo more dramatic
C. when it just gets rid of a distracting background
D. when it tones down what would otherwise be a disturbing and offensive image
28. Which of the following advertisers would be held to the highest standard of
truthfulness?
A. an ad that a swimsuit was “the cutest ever”
B. an ad that said an amusement park was “the most fun you could have on a summer
day”
C. an ad that said a pill was the “fastest headache remedy your doctor can prescribe”
D. an ad that said a restaurant has food “just like mother used to cook”
29. Advertisers exert control over media outlets by doing which of the following?
A. pulling ads from radio shows that carry controversial content
B. pulling ads from magazines that are critical of their company
C. encouraging television networks to carry the type of programs they like to advertise
next to
D. all of these
30. The purpose of the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment is which of the following?
A. to criticize and boycott adult-oriented shows
B. to promote shows its members won’t be embarrassed to advertise on
C. to develop shows that accurately depict the American family
D. to create advertisements that fit into family-friendly shows
31. Ryan Kelly’s photo of the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, VA, was
controversial because ______.
A. the color of the sky was made a deeper blue using digital editing
B. a big pool of blood was cut from the photo using digital editing
C. it only showed African American counterprotesters
D. it showed an African American young man being thrown up into the air when he was
hit by a car being driven through a crowd of counterprotesters
32. The conflict over the involvement of women in video gaming is known as ______.
A. ladygate
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
B. videogate
C. gamergate
D. geekgate
33. Before you share what looks like a political news story your really agree with on
social media, you should first ______.
A. make sure it was posted from a reliable news source
B. you should check to see if any other news sources are carrying the story
C. you should make certain it’s not satire
D. all of these
1. The New York Times reporter David Carr couldn’t trust his own memory of things he
did when he was a cocaine user, so for his memoir he wrote about what he imagined
might have happened.
2. Ethics are how we make choices between competing moral principles.
3. Ethics deal with problems that have clear right and wrong answers.
4. Kant said that people have the ability to reason and so are obliged to act in a moral
way.
5. The Hutchins Commission said that the best way to have a free press was to have it
owned by large, profitable corporations free of government interference.
6. Sissela Bok’s model for analyzing an ethical situation includes holding an imaginary
conversation with everyone involved.
7. According to Sissela Bok, the greatest wrong with lying is an attempt to “make
someone believe what we ourselves do not believe.”
8. The Portland Press Herald editor felt he should apologize for running a photo in his
paper of the local observance of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on
September 11.
9. An example of a conflict of interest issue is when a media company buys a sports
team and then reports on that team.
10. Competition from the Internet and cable news channels can push newsmagazines
and newspapers into carrying more sensationalistic news and photos.
11. Newspapers and magazines can keep sensationalistic stories out of the news by
refusing to cover them.
12. Reporters covering the Sago Mine disaster ran into trouble in part because they
were not careful enough in finding out who was providing information to them.
13. Having a code of ethics will protect the news organization from charges of
misconduct.
14. The Advertising Council was formed during World War II in response to charges of
unethical advertising behavior.
15. Major advertisers pulled their sponsorship of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show after he
called a law student and birth control advocate a “slut” over the air.
16. Magazines often warn prospective advertisers when they might be publishing
content that would reflect negatively on the advertisers’ products.
17. The Public Relations Society of America’s Statement of Professional Values says
that PR professionals should be willing to say whatever is necessary to the media to
protect their clients’ reputations.
1. What is the difference between morals and ethics?
2. What is Aristotle’s golden mean?
3. What is Kant’s categorical imperative?
4. What is the principle of utility?
5. What is John Rawls’s veil of ignorance?
6. What are the three steps of Sissela Bok’s model for ethical decision-making?
7. Explain the problem with conflict of interest that Washington Post reporters have
when they cover Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
8. List at least one of the functions of a news organization’s ombudsman.
9. List two reasons a journalistic code of ethics might be ineffective.
10. What are the three central principles of the Society of Professional Journalists’ code
of ethics?
11. What does the ANA Alliance for Family Entertainment do?
12. Presidents, vice presidents, and other politicians and public figures may sometimes
use offensive language in a newsworthy way, such as when President Donald Trump
said that immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and the continent of Africa were coming
from “shithole countries.” Assume you are the front page editor of your local newspaper
the day the president made this comment. In a brief essay, provide an argument for how
you will cover the president’s language. Will you use the actual words? Why or why not?
If you don’t run the words, what do you publish? Do you use the words in the headline?
In the story? Not at all? How do you justify your decision? Use one of the ethical
principles we’ve discussed.
13. In a brief essay, explain at least two different reasons why sensationalistic reporting
is ethically problematic to the journalism industry.
14. You are the photo editor for your local newspaper on August 12, 2017. You are
presented with Ryan Kelly’s violent photo showing a driver at a White nationalist rally
driving into a crowd and hitting an African American man who goes flying through the
air, as seen in Chapter 14 in your text. In a brief essay, provide an argument for either
running or not running the photo. Justify your decision using one of the ethical principles
we’ve discussed.
15. In a brief essay, discuss why representation matters in the entertainment industry.
How does the presence of women and people of color change the types of stories being
told and how successful movies and other entertainment are?
