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Topic: Plagiarism in university newspaper?
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| Author | Message |
| caffeine girl | Posted – 10/30/2005 10:19:14 PM | show profile | email poster An article in a univeristy newspaper had at least 3 paragraphs - nearly word for word - copied from an article on the university Web site When contacted, the student said the info was e-mailed to him from a univ staff member. (The student requested info from the staff member on, who then pasted the Web article in an email and sent it to the student writer.) When the student newspaper's faculty adviser was contacted, she said it's not plagiarism because it's not exactly word for word. She also said it's OK because the student didn't know that the info came from the school's Web site. As far as the student knew, it was from the staff member. The fac advisor told the writer of the Web article that if he'd ever worked in PR, he'd know to expect that newsr writers copy and paste from PR writers all the time. He said it was OK for writers to do this. This sounds completely unethical to me. What do you all think? I could use some authoritative advice. |
| limericks4all | Posted – 10/30/2005 10:29:47 PM | show profile It's a little lazy, but I wouldn't really call it unethical. Lots of articles contain lightly edited passages out of press releases,especially if it's boilerplate stuff. If the editor things the staff guy supplied the info, changed it a bit, and put it in the article, that's the type of thing writers do it all the time. |
| Marie | Posted – 10/31/2005 7:55:23 AM | show profile It's lazy and amateurish, but frankly, PR writers love it when their work is copied, because they the article has just the slant and emphasis they want. They'd be thrilled if everyone copied their press releases verbatim, and that's exactly why good reporters don't do it. It's nto good reporting, but there's nothing ethicallly wrong with it. That what PR materials are for, not that good reporters and writers use them that way. |
| Marie | Posted – 10/31/2005 7:57:02 AM | show profile And no, I'm not going to bother to correct my obvious typos. |
| worm | Posted – 10/31/2005 8:37:14 AM | show profile It depends on the intent of the original Web article. If it was a PR piece, then it was fine for the student to use as much of the piece as he wanted. If it was not a PR article, then it is plagiarism, and should be used as an example of why journalists need to check and recheck source material. I think a higher authority than the faculty adviser should be consulted. It doesn't make sense to say that just because you don't know the provenance of the source material, it is OK to copy it. |
| flipflap | Posted – 10/31/2005 10:17:09 AM | show profile unfortunately the ''cut-and-paste'' school of writing is thriving, thanks to the web. i don't think the faculty advisor should say the situation you describe is ok, and leave it at that. s/he should use it as an opportunity to explain other unethical situations that are prevalent. also, i think the staffer should have told the student the paragraphs came from the website. the article should say, according to the college website, ..... do people in academia and journalism have a different idea of what constitutes an act of ''plagiarism''? or at least what is unethical in this case? re copying from the web: i came across one situation where someone i'd profiled must have lifted strings of sentences and unusual phrases from what i consider one of my best articles & put them into some sort of press release. then someone-the pr person? a cvb employee?--used it in an article on a cvb bureau's website. i’m still trying to get the page taken down. after all, it might give someone the impression that i was the one who copied from them! |
| Marie | Posted – 10/31/2005 10:22:27 AM | show profile Right. My answer was assuming the material was PR stuff. If it was from a bylined article, it is plagiarsim, and there should have been attribution, regardless of what it was. And if if it was PR materials, the faculty member could still use it as a good opportunity to teach how to use such material more intelligently. |
| inquisitive | Posted – 10/31/2005 12:14:44 PM | show profile agree with others, it really does depend on nature of original material. Press releases are there to be used--that's the point of them. Copying a PR verbatim would be lazy but not illegal nor necessarily unethical. (the latter could be debated--how is it presented? what does the reader think he/she is reading?) flipflap--i hear you, had similar situation recently. your concern is well founded IMO. i was concerned someone would read both, notice similarities and assume i did marketing/pr work on the side for the very companies i cover as reporter. probably a stupid question but what does cvb stand for? |
| flipflap | Posted – 10/31/2005 12:31:18 PM | show profile cvb=convention & visitors bureau. usually for cities & state actually in this situation, i think it's a regional tourism office. the original pr firm no longer works for them and i can't get anyone on the phone at the tourism bureau. they dont reply to my emails. this reminds me, i really should follow up. maybe with a cease & desist letter? |
| inquisitive | Posted – 10/31/2005 12:55:51 PM | show profile oh, duh me! i wasn't thinking in that context. easy for me to say but i would follow up if i were you with a cease and desist letter. send it to senior personnel. you could give them option of removing the info or sourcing you/your article, if you want. should be easy enough to word/do on your own and not pay an attorney. good luck--keep us posted. |
| Princess Peach | Posted – 10/31/2005 1:12:23 PM | show profile I suppose I was lucky that I had a school newspaper director who wouldn't have thought twice about firing someone for cutting and pasting something from the Web, or even information from an email (unless the info was attributed in quotes in the newspaper). I don't think it matters whether it's a press release or not. I think that by allowing this kind of practice, the staff member you mention is breeding the Jayson Blairs of the future. By the way, always trust your instinct. If you think something seems unethical, it probably is. Don't lose your good judgement simply because other people aren't as ethical as you are. |
| caffeine girl | Posted – 10/31/2005 4:00:45 PM | show profile clarification Sorry I didn't clarify this part - The Web article was written by the university editor/writer. It wasn't written as a PR piece that was sent to media outlets. |
| kramdenyards | Posted – 10/31/2005 4:29:07 PM | show profile Most of us have said it's borderline unethical. I say it's more than that; there's no borderline about it. You simply cannot swipe someone else's words for your story. That's not to say words and phrases don't get passed around. ''Cheney's embattled chief of staff'' or ''the much-maligned Palmeiro'' are lazy. But lifting a whole graph, whether it's the nut of your story or not, is plagiarism. |
| inquisitive | Posted – 10/31/2005 5:45:50 PM | show profile <<The Web article was written by the university editor/writer.>> Ah, this clarification does help. I for one interpreted the original post to suggest that the material in question was from a press release. But verbatim from a writer/editor's story--that's completely different situation and very clearly plagiarism. |
| inquisitive | Posted – 10/31/2005 5:56:30 PM | show profile ok, so i just went back and re-read the original post. sounds like this was NOT word for word, verbatim. so maybe slightly grey. hard to know here just how similar they were. but i'd agree with other posters here that this would be a good opportunity for a ''real-life lesson'' on the subject--what's acceptable and not, PR vs other sourse materials, knowing where your info comes from--and i'm disappointed to hear the newspaper's faculty advisor did not jump on it. has anyone else ever noticed that when you get press releases off BusinessWire and PR Newswire, for instance, there's always a copyright line at the bottom? I've never quite figured that out. |
| aurelie | Posted – 10/31/2005 8:21:44 PM | show profile I've seen press releases printed word for word in largeish-circulation indie magazines. THAT is lazy. |
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