Plagiarism and the Journalist

The life of a journalist is always moving and is always being changed, based on the story they have to cover or the deadline they need to make. But sometimes being a journalist might become too stressful or they might be closing in on a story with little to know information.

This then could drive some journalists to become sloppy or could begin to slack on their story. As a result, a journalist could interpret the facts wrong or simply make up a story either based on no or little facts.

A journalist could also have to meet some type of deadline and could have half of a story and think that he or she knows the rest of the story. This is where the journalist could also get tripped up in their own work.

Another reason that a journalist might make up a story or plagiarize could be because he or she might working the same story as another news crew or reporter. Instead of rewriting it in their own words the journalist might just take the “lazy” way out so to speak, because the story might be already in front of them. Even though this might be a reason, there is no room for copy someone else's work.

Doing this could cause a journalist to get fired or worse, to lose his or her job and have the journalists ethics questioned. Having one’s ethics questioned can cause a black mark to be put right next to your name which will inhibit other news organizations from hiring that person.