Week5 Discussion One Student Response

WednesdayMay 30 at 7:11pm

Manage Discussion Entry

JRN415 – Ethical Challenges – Discussion 1 [Week 5]

Troy Neal

Obtaining information covertly is a process in which the outcome consists solely of the practice and way in which you physically obtain said information. Undercover work has been a staple in retrieving relevant and intimate knowledge which otherwise wouldn’t be accessible, law enforcement and government agencies are the organizations that typically use covert methods. However, when considering undercover or surveillance work, journalists should ask the following questions. “1) Is it possible to get convincing evidence through documents and interviews instead? 2) What significant points will undercover work or surveillance add to the story in terms of accuracy and credibility? 3) Will the results of the story be important and alarming enough to over-shadow the deceptive practices?” (Houston, 2009)

As it pertains to me as a reporter, my reasoning for going undercover would have to hit every check-point and resolve every question above. As long as the injustice that would be uncovered was one that would benefit a majority of people affected and then corrected, I would go undercover to get any and all information.

Some people would counter with claims of entrapment precisely like in our textbook between ABC journalists and Food Lion stores. However, entrapment is more difficult to prove than most think, as the journalists appealed their guilty verdict it was shown that as long as the outcome is “valuable to the public…and affects the safety of the nation” (Houston, 2009) then covert tactics can be justified. A perfect yet entertaining example of undercover work that benefits the majority would be the popular television show “How to Catch a Predator.” In which law enforcement would pose as an underaged child to lure child molesters and then catch them in the act to conspire to commit a crime. Although this blurs the line of entrapment it otherwise shines a light on a dark side of humanity, and the more child molesters that are exposed and stopped the better off the world would be.

References

Houston, B. (2009). The investigative reporter’s handbook: A guide to documents, databases, and techniques (5th). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin