Ethnics in the Media

"Aaargh! Pirates! (and the Press)"

This story addresses how the media outlets Rolling Stone and Billboard not only created blogs about The Ting Tings' leaked album, but also posted links to the leaks themselves. The big question is whether media sites such as these should post and spread music leaks or not. Because music is largely digital, spreading the news about the leaks causes the band who created them to likely loose hundreds of thousands of dollars. The media doesn't have any policy about posting leaks, so they may post them to get their cite to have major popularity. The viewers, if they see one of these links, also have the choice to not check them out and leave them alone.

I believe that media outlets shouldn't post these kinds of leaks. Sure, there is no law saying that they can't, but they are essentially encouraging the pirating of someone's or a band's personal work, cheating them out of a lot of money. There are always going to be people who are either feel that buying the song is to inconvenient or just don't care, so the media shouldn't post links to these types of leaks, let alone bring attention to them.


"A Suspect 'confession'"

The story addresses how journalism professor of the University of Colorado Michael Tracey notified authorities after he had been receiving emails from John Mark Karr for 4 years. They arrested Karr  after Tracey informed them, and he confessed to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. The article goes on to question whether Tracey's choice to break Karr's confidence was ethical, even if it meant solving a murder or saving lives.

I feel that this sort of situation should be exposed, but I can't help but feel that it is just unethical to reveal someone who is confiding to you, even if it saves lives. I feel very torn at this. On one hand, I feel that those kinds of measures should be taken if there are lives at stake. On the other hand, I don't feel that exposing someone who is trusting you to keep them hidden is ethical at all. It really depends on the situation, but I still can't choose! Aargh!


"The Media's Foul Ball"


In 2003, the Chicago Cubs were close getting into the World Series when 26-year old Steve Barman tried to catch a foul ball and inevitably ruined the teams chance of getting there. Video footage later revealed the man's identity, as well as where he worked and where he lived. This blog questions whether it was ethical for the media to actually reveal the face of the man who angered so many Cubs fans that year.

I don't think that this was an ethical move at all by the media. This man was already hated by a lot of people for his actions, but revealing his identity to the world made it a whole lot more direct and cruel. They should have just left him unknown, but he now has to bear the title of the infamous fan who botched the Cubs' entire 2003 season.