Chapter 13
Accountability, Transparency, and Credibility
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
1. The proper time to think about ethical accountability is _____________ making a
decision.
2. Media _____________ Systems are ways mass communicators can be held to justify
their messages and methods.
3. People hired by media (or other) organizations to write about the ground’s standards
and practices are known by the Swedish term _________________.
Answers to fill-in-the-blank questions
1. The term “accountability” means “to reckon together.”
2. Post hoc moralizing is an ethically legitimate way to justify an ethical decision you
have made.
3. The First Amendment says that the press has a responsibility to be accountable.
4. When a person or group seeks to hold a media organization accountable, the media
organization’s response often is determined by the power held by the party seeking the
accountability.
5. There is little relationship between our level of moral development and to whom we
think we owe accountability.
6. Credibility is what people think about you, not what you really are.
7. Too much transparency in mass communication could lead to lower credibility.
8. The Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings system is an example of message
transparency.
9. Mass communicators who are ethical are always perceived by their audiences as
being credible.
10. News councils are more likely to be used by American media than media in other
nations.
Answers to true/false questions
1. As a mass communicator, the list of whom you may be accountable to includes:
A. the audience.
B. owners.
C. the government.
D. yourself.
E. all of the above.
2. The term “accountability” has close ties to concepts that include all of these EXCEPT:
A. account-giving.
B. blameworthiness.
C. legal reparations.
D. responsibility.
3. People operating at higher levels of moral development have:
A. wider collections of people and groups to whom they feel accountable.
B. narrower collections of people and groups to whom they feel accountable.
C. less obligation to explain their behavior.
D. a utilitarian responsibility to be accountable.
E. none of the above.
4. Aristotle’s Rhetoric discussed credibility as a function of all of these EXCEPT:
A. ethos, or the character of the speaker.
B. pathos, or the audience’s frame of mind.
C. telos, or the goal of the communication.
D. logos, or the proof provided by the words of the speech.
5. Ethics-based media accountability systems include all of these EXCEPT:
A. ombudsmen.
B. codes of ethics.
C. corrections.
D. lawsuits.
E. internal standards and practices departments.
Answers to multiple choice questions
1. List four reasons and explanations for why accountability may be difficult for mass
communicators.
2. Describe transparency using the Source – Message – Channel – Receiver description
of mass communication.