Scenarios

Test your editorial awareness with our news scenarios, which are all based on real situations faced by journalists.

Interviewing integrity – scenario

Scenarios

Emotional assumptions – scenario

Scenario: Conflict of interests

Withholding information – scenario

Journalistic ethics – scenario

Scenario: Conflict of interests

In this scenario you are a political correspondent working for a national public service broadcaster. A lobbying company offers you a significant amount of money to train lobbyists in how to influence the media. What do you do?

Legal threats – scenario

In this scenario a local newspaper reporter faces legal threats for a factual planning application report that lacked the applicant's demanded "positive spin."

Emotional assumptions – scenario

In this scenario a journalist lets their own emotional assumptions colour their news judgement resulting in misinformation.

Testing boundaries – scenario

In this scenario we look at a situation where an editor faces breaking protocol because of the strength of a story.

Privacy protection – scenario

You are working on the online news desk of a large media organisation. News breaks of fighting overseas. Raw footage arrives showing identifiable dead bodies. What do you do?

Accuracy – scenario

In this scenario a reporter witnesses a mass walkout of workers from a factory affected by industrial action. The company claims it's business as usual; the union says all workers have downed tools.

Editorial impartiality – scenario

In this scenario a reporter covering a story about medical malpractice in a hospital discovers that the consultant involved is a relative. What should they do?