Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

Orietta.sberla (2008) "Etica immagine" via Wikimedia
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

In this post, I will be evaluating 3 sources that refer to the research questions listed in my last blog post. If you have not yet gotten the chance to look at these questions, I have listed them below. 

Possible Research Questions:

• Do journalists have a moral expectation from their readers? How would this influence whether or not they consider the author/article to be credible?

• Do journalists have a moral responsibility when they are writing about sensitive or controversial topics, and how does this relate to the credibility of the article or author?

• Should/do the moral obligations of journalists discourage or encourage them to write about certain topics?

• How to journalists balance ethics with credibility if they are writing about a sensitive or controversial topic?

• How has media ethics changed over the years, has it become more or less ethical?

1. For my first source I found an article written by Tracie Powell, "Year End Review: Journalism Ethics Took Major Hits in 2014". The article lists various ethical controversies in journalism from the past year. She describes each controversy and explains why/where the journalist when wrong. She considers that ethics in journalism has become more important in media because over the past few years, a significant percentage of people have trouble trusting the media. She states that this rise in percentage means that journalists should be more wary when it comes to ethics and truthfulness in their reports. 

The author, Tracie Powell, a graduate from the Law Center at the Georgetown University, writes about media and media policy for her news hub, All Digitocracy, and writes often for other organizations like the Colombia Journalism Review and The Washington Post. 

The audience for this article is anyone interested in recent media controversies concerning ethics in journalism. Tracie Powell writes in a way that anyone with a general education would be able to understand and writes about issues that are prevalent all socioeconomic backgrounds. 

2. In my second article, Adrian Uribarri wrote for the Society of Professional Journalists about how an author at The New York Times, Jayson Blair, wrote articles on military families using fabricated information and how this issue relates to the ethics and expectations of journalism. Uribarri discusses how the fabricated articles by Blair tarnished the reputation of Times  and raised the discussion of ethics in journalism today. 

The author, Adrian Uribarri, is a writer, consultant, and editor, for Esquire Magazine. Being a writer himself, he knows first-hand the ethical expectations journalists face and how critical it is for the author and the organization to meet the expectations.

The audience of this article is anyone interested specifically in the controversy of Jayson Blair's articles or anyone interested in questionable media ethics and how it pertains to journalists. 

Uribarri's opinion on media ethics and how they were not exemplified in Blair's work is the opinion that all journalists agree with. When reporting on an event or controversy, journalists have the moral responsibility to tell the truth. 

3. In my third article, Henry Blodget writes about how some journalists are overly concerned with ethics, particularly concerning Ben Bradlee's article written for The Guardian. In his article, Blodget discusses how many journalists overreacted to how Ben Bradlee obtained information for his article on The Guardian about the popular social media app, Whisper. However, Blodget has no problem with the way the information was obtained and believes that it is just part of the journalist's job. 

Henry Blodget, the author, is the co-founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief, of Business Insider. He has sufficient experience and knowledge on journalism and media ethics to express a valid opinion on the moral expectations of journalists. 

His audience is anyone who is interested in this specific controversy or anyone who wants to know more about media ethics and how some journalists and audiences are overly concerned with media ethics.  

Through his own experiences as a journalist, and through experiences in his high positions at Business Insider, Blodget knows a lot about media and ethics and it reflects in his writing. Although in this article many journalists and viewers would disagree with him, he formulates a strong argument and reports on the controversy well. He suggests that sometimes the moral expectations of journalists are not met simply because the information is not what they want to hear. 

Reflection:
After reading and commenting on Lauren and Breanna's posts, I think that my evaluations were well-developed although they could have been further analyzed. In Breanna's post on Artificial Intelligence, I really enjoyed her last article which was about the relationship between AI and breast cancer research/treatment. The topic was really specific and it made it more interesting and relevant to read. In Lauren's post on standardized testing, I really enjoyed her article on standardized testing and how it effects all students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. After reading their evaluations and reflecting on my own, I realized that I enjoyed the articles that were more specific rather than general. Of my own articles, I think that my first article would be the best to pursue.