5-1 Discussion: Ethics in Advertising and Media
The case study that I chose from the “Ethics Case Studies” resource was the “Naming Victims of Sex
Crimes” which can be found at the following link:
https://www.spj.org/ecs11.asp
This case study includes three stories being told of minors who have been kidnapped and sexually
assaulted and were then subjected to scrutiny by the media as their names are made public. The ethical
issue at hand is whether these minors should be questioned about the specifics and details of their
experience as well as whether their names should have even been made public after their rescue. The
first story is of the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart from Salt Lake City, Utah in which her parents
worked with national and local media to “increase visibility of the case” (Society of Professional
Journalists, n.d.). When Elizabeth was found and returned to her parents nine months later, her and her
family wrote a book about the family’s experience. While many reporters were sensitive to Elizabeth in
regard to the painful subjects of her experience, many other reporters “grilled her about the details of
the time she spent with her captors, leaving her visibly upset” (Society of Professional Journalists, n.d.).
The second story included in the case study was the 2005 Idaho abduction of 2 children, ages eight and
