The Ethics of artificial intelligence: Platform magazine says public relations has to think about AI, too.
Artificial intelligence is slowly taking over the world. And, as usual, the technology is bounding far ahead of the law and the ethics. In this Platform magazine article, student writer Skylar Spencer raises some of the questions that everyone — whether in the AI business or a consumer of AI-enhanced technology — ought to be […]
Figures lie and liars figure: Journalists should be wary of bias behind numbers
By Serena Bailey In the immediate wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group that works to reduce gun violence, tweeted that the Parkland shooting had been the 18th school shooting of the year. This statistic was shared by Bernie Sanders and New York […]
Associated Press stylebook needs to step it up on language for covering the disabled community
By Zoe Norberg In the past several years, the Associated Press has added chapters ranging from social media to religion, and most recently, data journalism to the categorized section in the back of the AP Stylebook. Nevertheless, an in-depth chapter about the proper usage of disability language is absent from the stylebook––instead, this topic is […]
How social media fed information about a Marine’s death
By Sonya Haines When a Marine, Private First Class (PFC) Ethan Barclay-Weberpal, was murdered at Camp Pendleton in January 2018 media outlets across the nation began scrambling to gain the most up-to-date information available. The original story did not surface from the Associated Press (AP), therefore, many news outlets turned to social media to gather […]
Lying ethics and ethical lying: How effective communication is a twisted business
By Mackenzie McClintock Start with constant criticism from high-profile government officials about news coverage. Then mix in increasingly prevalent screams of “Fake News!” directed at the media. That breaking news statistics piece was also slightly incorrect due to the source’s miscalculation, so issue an apology statement. The story will stir itself and result in a […]
Project Voco, a new voice editing technology, raises ethical questions
By Peyton Shepherd Media outlets have faced mounting discontent from some of their readership concerned about biased reporting, and the continued development of editing software has the potential to fan the “fake news” flames. In November, computer software company Adobe premiered an add-on to its audio editing program that has the capability to accurately replicate […]
Lying for the sake of truth is still a lie
By Cokie Thompson When I tell people I’m studying journalism, they have one of two reactions. Their eyes light up and they comment on how this is an incredible time to be in the field, or their eyes narrow and they ask whether I want to work for Fox or MSNBC. I’m also studying political […]
Lying in the name of faith (and politics) is always wrong
The New York Times reports about the Davidson College graduate who bought the expired ChristianTimesNewspaperDotCom domain (which we won’t link to here) and posted this story: “BREAKING: ‘Tens of thousands’ of fraudulent Clinton votes found in Ohio warehouse.” It wasn’t true. He made it up, including stealing a photo published by a real newspaper. He […]
Going undercover-ish to report that athletes have sex while at the Olympics?
Apparently, The Daily Beast thinks it’s newsworthy enough to go undercover and find out whether athletes not only have sex with athletes while at the Games, and whether athletes will meet non-athletes, too. A reporter used social media tools to see who might meet up with him. Most of the respondents are gay, which when […]