Imagine you are an employee at a major news outlet (you can choose print, broadcast, online, etc. if those details are relevant to your analysis). During a
business meeting, your boss has expressed concern about a particular ethical issue or controversial event and wants to learn more about it. You can choose any
issue that you are interested in exploring. It can be something broad like native advertising or click-bait journalism, or it can be a specific event like
covering a school shooting or an instance of inaccurate news reporting (say, coverage of Kobe Bryant’s death). You may choose any issue so long as it is
relevant for contemporary journalism.
Because this issue or event raises complex ethical concerns, your boss has asked that you provide an executive memo to the staff explaining the situation and
providing recommendations about it should approach the issue going forward. Be sure to structure your memo clearly and succinctly with headings for each
section. Provide a summary of the issue, the problems that are raised, the ethical dimensions of the issue, and recommendations. In providing this analysis,
you may want to use the Potter Box to organize your ideas into clear sections.
In your analysis, be sure to reference both journalistic codes of ethics and ethical systems (deontology, utilitarianism, ethics of care, etc.) to better
explain what is at stake with the issue you chose to analyze.
Should be 2-3 pages, Single Spaced.