are interviewing a person who has an amazing story to tell about surviving on the mean streets of your town. He admits he has a drug addiction, but he also has identified a beat cop who has brutalized him, even as the cop obtained drugs for a number of other people.
Your source is prepared to name names, but he wants your tape recorder in exchange. Your news director has told you that new recorders are coming this week, and your old machine will be junked.
The interview is too good to give up. You record the interview and email it back to the station. You have a great interview that will change how people living on the streets are treated, and you will possibly expose an example of police corruption. But you risk being accused of “paying for news” by giving the recorder to the source.
Points of Discussion
1 Should you ever pay for a news story?
2 Can you justify giving away company property to get the story?
3 Did you abet a crime by knowing that person with a drug addiction would use the recorder to get another fix?
4 Did you cultivate your source, or were you steering him to get a better story?
5 Is this different from buying a drink for a political source to get a story?
References
1 Beckett, C. (2017, August 17). Truth, trust and technology: Finding a new agenda for public information. London School of Economics and Political Science https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/2017/08/17/truth‐trust‐and‐technology‐finding‐a‐new‐agenda‐for‐public‐information/.
2 Bernstein, J. (n.d.). Jon Bernstein: Five innovations in news journalism, thanks to the web. Retrieved November 23, 2020. Editors Blog | Journalism.co.uk. https://blogs.journalism.co.uk/2009/09/23/five‐innovations‐in‐news‐journalism‐thanks‐to‐the‐web/
3 Eliot, T.S. (1991). Burnt Norton. In Collected Poems, 1909‐1962 (pp. 175‐181). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
4 Escher, A. and Ha, A. (2016, September 25). WTF is clickbait? TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/25/wtf‐is‐clickbait/.
5 Gurleyen, P. and Hackett, R. (2016). Who needs objectivity? Journalism in crisis, journalism for crisis. In: Journalism in crisis: Bridging theory and practice for democratic media strategies in Canada (pp. 27‐52) (eds. M. Gasher, C. Brin, C. Crowther, et al.). University of Toronto Press https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442625198‐005.
Additional Resources
A good explanation of the Rusbridger Cross phenomenon:
1 Elstein, D. and Price, T.C. (2008, December 2). That elusive Rusbridger Cross. Open Democracy https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/that‐elusive‐rusbridger‐cross/.
Annual Ofcom Study 2018:
1 Jigsaw Research (2018, July 13). The changing world of news: Qualitative research. Ofcom https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/115916/The‐Changing‐World‐of‐News.pdf.
Two examinations of the challenges to journalism:
1 Lee‐Wright, P., Phillips, A., and Witschge, T. (eds.) (2012). Changing Journalism. Routledge.
The authors maintain that journalism loses when the quest for ratings deform service to the audience:
1 Rosenstiel, T., Just, M., Belt, T. et al. (eds.) (2007). We Interrupt this Newscast. Cambridge University Press.
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