LECTURE 7: MEDIA DECEPTION

Three principle kinds of deception:

• Active: setting up a sting or entrapment situation in which a wrongdoer is caught in the act.
• Passive: not identifying yourself as a journalist in certain situations eg. restaurant critic.
• Impersonation or masquerading: Pretending to be someone else in order to gain access to a source.

Golden age of media deception practices dates from late 1800s through the middle of the 20th century. Falls into disfavor after the 1970s.

biggest deterrent to using deception: legal liability.

Deception is still common in other countries' journalism communities. eg. United Kingdom. It's also still popular on TV newsmagazines.

TV became more wary of the practice, though, after the Food Lion incident.

Most journalists are opposed to impersonation, but passive deception is generally approved of.

Ethical issues associated with undercover reporting:

• is the undercover aspect really necessary, or simply hype?
• do the ends justify the means?
• are there privacy concerns?
• is the undercover work misleading the reporter? is the story bigger or more complicated than the scope of the undercover aspect?

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