Sometimes as journalists we are faced with balancing covering a story and its affects on the public. Generally, it is our job to inform, but the decision becomes a little more tricky when the informing could potentially be that of something that is against the law or simply something of bad taste. For example, it be an in-depth look at the drug industry, which explores how chemical drugs are made. It is to inform, but not encourage the act. We had a similar dilemma in the parking loopholes story. The story explores how some people get by without having to pay for parking on the University campus. In this case we decided that though some details were relevant, including the times of when one could leave a parking ramp without paying were not. This information we left out, not only because we didn’t want to encourage the act, but because it really varied depending on the parking ramp. However, we do hope the story serves a purpose of informing our readers and gains some interest among the University community. If you have some thoughts, feel free to comment! Vadim Lavrusik Editor in Chief
Ethics of reporting: parking loopholes
by Lisa Zehner
Published October 6, 2008
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