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Patterson & Wilkins: Case Study

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Is it ethical to report the facts of a story, especially stories with accusations tied to them, without doing independent research to find the truth? Case study 2-D presented by Patterson & Wilkins (2014, p. 42) is concerned with whether it can be irresponsible to use objective reporting when someone’s reputation is on the line. Objective reporting refers to the practice of presenting information objectively to allow a public forum of discussion, but many people have also argued that the press shouldn’t print stories unless they know “the truth of the facts” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 43). Stories should be reported in a fair and balanced manner, but stories can’t be considered balance if the presented information isn’t fully investigated. …show more content…

The lack of research done into the accusations being presented in the article is directly opposed the ethical news value of confirmation. Confirmation refers to writing articles that can withstand scrutiny from the public and attempting to find the truth in news situations, but Laurens submitted a story that did not consider investigating the truth behind the mayor’s accusations (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 35). Similarly, the mayor is wrong when arguing that Laurens provided balanced coverage for both sides of the controversy without trying to judge which side is right. The story was not balanced because it presented information that did not have context and didn’t seek to explore the truth behind the mayor’s accusations. The article heavily favored the mayor as a result of the lack of research. Many postmodernists argue that context is everything and facts can’t stand alone, but Laurens did not provide proper context in the article (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 24). Accordingly, the councilman was correct when he argued the Laurens was irresponsible by ignoring the “truth of the facts.” In essence, the story was presented to the public without proper research into the controversy where the coherence theory of truth states reporters should investigate facts and ideas through a variety of methods (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 25). The story was simply rushed as information was being gathered right before the

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