Yellow Journalism Activity (Con't); introduction to Journalism Ethics

A. Come up with some outrageous claims or details about a topic of your own choice.

• Articles about celebrities are common
• Articles about supernatural or weird events are common 
• Ex. Aliens Influence the White House with Pyramid Power!
• Ex. Donald Trump Marries Putin: Melania is Furious!
• Ex. The White House Spends Billions of Dollars to Paint the Capital Yellow!
• Ex. The Chinese Moon Exploration Discovers Evidence of Ancient Alien Life!
• Ex. Beyonce Announces Her Retirement to Pursue a Career in Food Service!

Use the typical 5 W's and H to make up and fill out your notes. You may make this up completely. Your notes do not have to be true--you just need to make them up and say you spoke to some source about their validity. But beware: the more outrageous your claim, the more likely readers will assume you are lying. Still support your ridiculous claims with evidence and cite your sources!

B. Your topic can be about an event, person (celebrity), or trend.
Provide ONLY the facts, statistics, hear-say, details about people, places, things, events, quotes, etc. that sound true (or not true). Write these notes down in prose form. We will be using them again in the next 15 minutes of class. Please turn in by 12:30 today. Just provide the notes--not the article!

Then: once we have all the options on the table, come up and select one article from a different students' notes and write a short 300 word article of yellow journalism. Use the notes (and your imaginative skills) to write an article that is "fake news". Turn in your article by the end of class today.

If you finish early, please read about journalism ethics.

Journalists (like doctors or teachers or clergy) have a moral code of ethics that they attempt to follow. These include:

• Seek the truth and report it
• Minimize harm
• Act independently to serve the public
• Be fair and impartial
• Be accountable and transparent (confirm sources) and explain one's decisions; acknowledge mistakes; expose unethical journalism/journalists

View the video below...

https://youtu.be/uNidQHk5SZs

See handout for further information. We will view the film Shattered Glass next class.

HOMEWORK: None. Our Coffeehouse is Wednesday, May 22 at 7:00. We'd love to see you there! our department book sale starts Monday. Bring in any books you might want to donate to the sale!