Week 4: Copyright Law, Plagiarism and Ethical Issues

In class we talked about copyright laws and other ethical issues that relate to the Internet and technology. I did not realize how careful you have to be when using content from the Internet. Even though virtually any one can access most content, if it is used without licensing or permission it is illegal. We also learned about information literacy. Information Literacy is a transformational process in which the learner needs to find, understand, evaluate, and use information in various forms to create for personal, social or global purposes (Abilock, 2004). We completed an informational literacy activity in which we had to decipher the web address, find the publisher, check the history of the site and check out the external links. All of these acts help to determine the credibility of the site and determine if it is a good source of information.

Both information literacy and copyright laws will be extremely valuable information in my future field. I am going into journalism, and the heart of any journalism assignment is credibility. Whether I am writing a story, shooting a video or designing a slide show, I will have to be able to pick out credible and reliable sources. It is also very good to know the ins and outs of copyright law so I do not use content that I could get sued for. Plagiarism is also a hot topic among journalists. If it is discovered that a journalist has plagiarized his or her work, they are immediately shunned by their colleagues and kicked to the curb by their employer. This has happened to several well known journalists in the recent past.


Here is a link to a New York Times article about the Jayson Blair scandal. He was a Times reporter that was discovered to be plagiarizing his work. Check out this article to see how the Times covered plagiarism at their own organization.

Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception