Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Plagiarism in America: A world-wide standard?
Heyo,
So my general stance on plagiarism is not that there's alot of ethical dilemmas encountered by journalists regarding plagiarism. In America, you don't steal the words and ideas of others. Period. If you decide to copy them, you must give them a shout out. Attribute. There's little room for debate.
Instead, I think a more relevant discussion is whether that standard should be expected from journalists and writers from other belief structures. Particularly, standards from other countries. Globalization is rapidly smashing and stirring thoughts and ideas regarding journalism together in a way that a pre-internet world couldn't imagine. Is it wrong to expect other people from other traditions to automatically know what Americans assume to be common knowledge? What if they are aware and disagree?
In the Ahmad Shafi example I laid out in class, there was clearly a disconnect between what we "know" to be true (don't plagiarize), and what we "know" to be wrong (don't steal the words of others). Shafi made no attempts to hide the fact that he plagiarized, but came from an Afghan tradition in which plagiarism was accepted and not considered unethical. What's your take?
Links below...
Forgiving the Unforgivable Sin of Plagiarism
by Edward Schumacher-Matos
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2012/07/20/157133625/forgiving-the-unforgiveable-sin-of-plagiarism
Also, not to steal the future photo plagiarism presentation's thunder, but here's a link to a Poynter piece about the photo taken during the recent Nairobi mall slayings. Flip the photo. Get fired yo.
Kenyan newspaper flipped bloody photo on front page
by Andrew Beaujon
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/224147/kenyan-newspaper-flipped-bloody-photo-on-front-page/
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Despite geographical or cultural differences, it should be standard in all journalistic practices that plagiarism is unacceptable. I don't accept Mr. Shafi's defense for his actions, honest as they may have been. If you go to work for a large outlet such as NPR, I think that the suits have a responsibility to cover their bases legally and outline a code of ethics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the editors actually. This was an honest mistake on the part of Mr. Shafi, he did not malignantly twist the facts in his own favor. I think this is NPR's bad for not explaining the rules of American journalism to their intern.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Nairobi photo, I really don't see why they flipped it. That's just stupid in my opinion. Honestly I even think photoshopping photos is cheating.
NPR should have briefed their intern on their code of ethics, and plagiarism in any journalistic practices should never be acceptable. I feel like, no mater how honest Shafi was about his method, it is not acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he should have been briefed by NPR, but I think he is getting off too easy. It is your responsibility as an intern to understand the rules of the publication you are working for, especially if you are working in a place with cultural differences. The person from whom the original work was copied may not have cared, but I'm sure the NPR audience would.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the editors as well. The intern was from a different country and honestly didn't do it to steal or hurt anyone. There was no malicious intent. But it is true, NPR should have talked to him, especially since they knew he was a foreigner, and made sure he knew the rules of journalism here in the U.S.
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