Phamous Philosophers
Let's Get Legal
Case Studies
Ethical Definitions
Topics/Concepts
Famous Journalists
Mystery Topic
100

This famous quote from Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is an excellent summary of utilitarianism.

What is: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one."?

100

The Washington Post joined this lawsuit, as depicted in the Tom Hanks/Meryl Streep movie "The Post", after publishing reports from The Pentagon Papers.

What is New York Times Co. v. U.S.?

100

This Chicago Cubs fan caught a foul ball — and a whole lot of hell from sports fans — during a game at Wrigley Field.

Who is Steve Bartman?
100

A rational decision-making process between two moral choices.

What are ethics?

100

This foundational sentence — which is carved on the outside of Umphrey Lee — establishes freedom of the press in the United States.

What is the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

100

This newspaper editor is known for saying, "You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.”

Who is William Randolph Hearst?

100

This is why Prof. Scudder won't be able to finish the semester.

What is, "his wife is having a baby"?

200

This Greek philosopher believed that our perception of truth was like watching shadows on a cave wall. 

Who is Plato?

200

This journalist sued her employer after they barred her from covering issues of sexual assault.

Who is Felicia Sonmez?

BONUS: What were the three tweets she posted that we talked about?

200

This news magazine darkened OJ Simpson's skin tone of his mugshot.

What is TIME?

200

When the news seems to ignore cases of indigenous women who have gone missing, it can be a symptom of this unproven media tactic.

What is "missing white women syndrome"?

200

This kind of journalism digs up information that otherwise would be hidden from public light.

What is watchdog journalism?

200

This early 20th-century newspaper editor doggedly covered the lynchings of Black men in the Jim Crow South.

Who is Ida B. Wells?

200

This fictional pirate captain tells us that codes, like a journalist's code of ethics, are "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."

Who is Capt. Hector Barbosa?

400

This philosopher is most associated with utilitarianism, and applied the concept to freedom of the press. 

Who is John Stuart Mill?

400

The journalists in this case lied about their resume and employment history to get jobs at a national grocery chain, which led the court to rule they were trespassing.

What is Food Lion v. Capital Cities/ABC?

400

The author of "American Prison," who went undercover as a prison guard while not hiding his identity as a reporter.

Who is Shane Bauer?

400

This term, which refers to a kind of reporting popular in the early 20th century that did not strive for objective truth, comes from colorful ink that was used to print a comic strip in two New York papers.

What is yellow journalism?

400

These crime photos disproportionately depict people of color in news coverage.

What are arrest mugshots?

400

This young woman recorded the murder of George Floyd, which showed he did not suffer a "medical incident" as police initially said.

Who is Darnella Frazier?

400

This press secretary was the victim of an attempted assassination, and is the namesake of the White House press briefing room.

Who is James S. Brady?

600

This Areopagitica author advocated for an end to government censorship of the press — as long as you agreed with his religious beliefs.

Who is John Milton?

600

This news organization has sued the Trump administration for banning it from the White House, after it continued using the phrase "Gulf of Mexico" in stories.

What is the Associated Press?

600
Judith Miller erroneously reported that aluminum tubes on their way to this country were used to make weapons of mass destruction.

What is Iraq?

600

This sales concept helps us visualize how news organizations can "convert" audience members into paying customers.

What is a conversion funnel?

600

Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, or WELL, was the first one of these.

What are social media platforms?

600

This newspaper publisher believed journalists could be independent minded but opinionated.

Who is Horace Greeley.

600

This author wrote a stomach-churning book about meat packaging in Chicago, and was an ardent socialist.

Who is Upton Sinclair?

BONUS: What was the book called?

800

This founding father wanted to include a written clause protecting freedom of the press in his draft of the U.S. Constitution.

Who is James Madison?

800

This NBC program hosted by Chris Hansen organized meet-ups between would-be pedophiles and actors pretending to be underage.

What is "To Catch a Predator"?

800

This reporter made the controversial decision to jump into the surf to help a sinking boat of refugees get to shore.

Who is Ed Bradley?

800

This Enlightenment movement concept guides the ethical aims of most journalists' today, and means a rational, replicable and observable definition of truth.

What is objectivity?

800

According to The Social Dilemma documentary, false news spreads this much faster than real news on Twitter (X).

What is six times faster?

800

A colonial American court found that newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger was this after he published true comments about the local governor.

What is not guilty?

800

This German craftsman brought movable type to Europe, but he did not invent it. Chinese printers had done so centuries earlier.

Who is Johannes Gutenberg?

1000

This philosopher is a Deontologist, which means they are concerned with the categorial imperative. 

Who is Immanuel Kant?

1000

This organization sent a cease and desist letter over its unwilling participation in a college football algorithm, which it claimed was a conflict of interest. 

What is the Associated Press?

1000

Journalist and abolitionist Horace Greeley created this character to point out hypocrisy with an objective approach to the issue of slavery during the Civil War.

What is "Mr. Facing-Both-Ways"?

1000

These are the four main principles described in the Society for Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

What are:

Seek Truth and Report It
Minimize Harm
Act Independently
Be Accountable and Transparent


1000

This is a transactional relationship between a news consumer and a news producer, where the consumer pays for access to a regularly published source.

What is a subscription model?

1000

These reporters broke the Watergate story, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Who are Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein?

1000

According to a NiemanLab analysis, cities with robust newsrooms have more of these.

What are mayoral candidates?