NAME:
JOUR 101-F01 INTRO TO JOURNALISM FINAL EXAM, Spring 2016
Answer the following questions in the context of journalism.
1. Define citizen journalism and give one example of citizen journalism.
2. Define Journalism 3.0 and give one example of Journalism 3.0.
4. What is the significance of Near v. Minnesota (1931)
5. The most popular structure for hard news stories is the inverted pyramid style. What is the inverted pyramid style? What are its advantage and disadvantage?
6. Click on the following link to read the article: "Petition Calls For Boycott Of Target's 'Inclusive' Bathroom Policy."
If you were asked to report this news story, please use Protess' set of concentric circles to analyze:
(1) Who do you think are the targets?
(2) Who do you think are other primary source real people?
(3) What do you think are primary source documents?
(4) What do you think are secondary source documents?
7. How is business relationship of journalism different from the business relationship of consumer marketing?
8. Compare the following two statements:
(1) I believe John murdered his wife.
(2) I believe John murdered his wife because he was found with a bottle of the same kind of poison that killed her.
John could prove that he did not murder his wife but it was true that he was found with a bottle of the same kind of poison that killed his wife. Which statement can be the basis of a libel claim? Which statement cannot be the basis of a libel claim? Why?
9. Describe the different degree of fault by the publisher a public official or a public figure versus a private individual needs to prove to win a libel case.
10. How do you understand the difference between the court ruling in Associated Press v. Walker (1967) and that in Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967)?
II. BRIEF ESSAYS (10 points each).
1. The fundamental principle formed by the roots of investigative reporting is, "Journalism must serve as an independent monitor of power." Please answer ALL the following questions:
(1) What are the three types of investigative reporting? Please define each type and give one example for each type.
(2) In contemporary journalism, the watchdog role is weakened. Please describe two of the challenges to investigative journalism in the 21st century.
2. It is said that the appearance of comedian Jon Stewart on Crossfire on CNN in October 2004 (URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE)
dramatically demonstrated the change from the Argument Culture to the Answer Culture. Please answer ALL the following questions:
(1) What did Jon Stewart do on Crossfire in October 2004?
(2) What is the Argument Culture? What do you think are the problems with the Argument Culture?
(3) What is the Answer Culture? What do you think are the problems with the Answer Culture?
3. In June 2013, former CIA analyst Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency to the media, was charged with three felonies: "theft of government Property," "unauthorized communication of national defense information" and "willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person." The last two charges fall under the Espionage Act. While some people denounced him as a traitor, other people supported him. More than 100,000 people signed an online petition asking President Obama to pardon Snowden and the White House responded in July 2015.
Please answer ALL the following questions:
(1) What is the Espionage Act (of 1917)?
(2) What is the First Amendment?
(3) Read an article. Why does the article say that the Espionage Act raises significant First Amendment concerns? Do you agree or not? Why?
4. The ISIS videos purporting to show beheadings of two U.S. journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in 2014 raised important ethical questions about how media outlets should cover such violence.
For example, Reuters, a newswire service, broadcast almost the entire statement from Mr. Sotloffand his executioner without the actual beheading.
In comparison, in its video report, The Wall Street Journal showed a still image taken from the footage, described its policy against showing the execution, and played an audio version of the executioner's rant against the United States. The video report says the following:"The extremist group, the Islamic State, posted a video Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of an American journalist, Steven Sotloff. This is a still image taken from the footage. The Wall Street Journal's policy is not to show execution videos. In the video, a militant coated black appeared to speak in British accent saying Sotloff was being killed for revenge for US airstrikes against Islamic positions inside Iraq. Here is an audio-only excerpt from the militant's short speech. ‘I'm back Obama. And I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and [inaudible] on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. You, Obama, have yet again through your actions killed yet another American citizen.'"
Please answer ALL the following questions:
(1) How do you understand newsworthiness and accuracy versus media ethics such as "minimize harm," as suggested by organizations like the Society of Professional Journalist (source: https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp)
(2) While it is challenging to keep such footage totally off the social media, how would you use such footage if you were the reporter/editor of a media outlet? Would you show the entire video evidence of the murders, some of it or none of it? Why?