Media Coverage of Tiger Woods Cross the Line

Weiwen Bao (Melody)

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Background

• A car accident

• 2.30am 27 Nov

• Smashed windows

• Golf club

• Minor facial laceration

Media attentionTMZ

The National Enquirer

• 25 Nov 2009: Woods had an extramarital affair with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel

Media attention

Media attentionTMZ

Media attention

• Jaime Grubbs• Text and voice messages

• UK• Pornographic photos and videos• Television host and comedian• David Letterman• http://www.inewscatcher.com/2009/12/david-letterman-

tiger-woods-scandal.html

US Weekly

Media attention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rQJJafmNJ8

“Saturday night live” fun at Woods

Advertisers• Against• Gillette suspended advertising• Accenture dropped • TAG Heuer• AT&T• General Motors ended a free car loan deal• Golf Digest magazine suspended publication • Support• Nike• Electronic Arts

“It’s a private matter and I want to keep it that way”

“Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”

Causes

• Public interest

• Gossip culture

• Commercial

interests

• New media

impact

Do celebrities deserve some level of privacy?

“In general an individual’s personal life should remain private, However, if you choose to become a public figure, you become accountable to your constituencies. Woods has become a role model to many children and to golfers. ”

---Tom Cooper

“…It’s not our God-given right to know what Tiger does in his personal life, as many seemed to think it was in the d

ays following his accident. ”

---Adam Ostrow

Ethical approach

• Right to know

• Need to know

• Want to know

Ethical approachMedia practice• Woods divorced• Lost advertisements

• Influenced Woods’ neighbors’ life

• Influence on children

Virtue Ethics To achieve good ends (happiness, money)

Avoid harm

Avoid excess and deficiency

Deontological Approach Duties

• Satisfied the public interest

• No

To audienceThe necessity of acting

The humanity principle---respect

Privacy Law

• No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary and unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation. (The international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)

• Defamation law

MEAA Code of Ethics

• Do not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristic, including race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, family relationships, religious belief, or physical or intellectual disability.

• Respect private grief and personal privacy.

Australian Press Council

• Rumor Should be identified as much if published

• Offensiveness Special care with material likely to cause offence, particularly photographs

• Respect ‘Journalists should not unduly intrude on the privacy of individuals and should show respect for the dignity and sensitivity of people.

Australian Press Council Statement of Principles

The rights to privacy should not prevent publication of matters of public record or obvious or significant public interest. Rumor and unconfirmed reports, if published at all, should be identified as such.

• Publications should not place any gratuitous emphasis on the race, religion, nationality, color, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, illness, or age of an individual or group. Nevertheless, where it is relevant and in the public interest, publications may report and express opinions in these areas.

Public interest and Celebrity privacy

• Public interest: performance of public duties or about other matters of public interest, intrusions upon privacy may, in some circumstance, be justified. (SBS)

• Politicians Celebrities

• Representation public duties public duties• /commercial• interests

Conclusion

• Want to know problem

• Accountability of source

• Media have led to bad influence on youngsters

• Invade privacy

Discussion

• How can media prevent privacy invasion and irresponsible reports in the age of digital convergence?

Reference

• ‘Tiger Woods’, wiki article, 22 August 2010, accessed August 22 2010• <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods#Personal_life>• Feinstein J, In a rarity, the world spins out of Woods’ control, accessed on 1

8 August, 2010• <

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/30/AR2009113003170.html>

• Duncan M, Tiger Woods car crash photos and Tiger Woods accidents pictures, digital photographs, TMZ.com, accessed on 15 August,2010

• <http://www.dailyworldbuzz.com/tiger-woods-car-crash-photos-and-tiger-woods-accident-pictures/4228/>

• Chang S, The media’s fault?, March 11,2010 , accessed on 20 August, 2010

• <http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/blogs/the-medias-fault/>• http://web.tigerwoods.com/news/article/200911297726222/news/

• Eilliot D, A lesson on ethics, courtesy of Tiger Woods, 6 December, 2009, accessed on 19 August, 2010

• <http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/editordetail.php?id=553>• http://www.tmz.com/person/tiger-woods/37/• http://www.tmz.com/2009/11/27/tiger-woods-fight-wife-crash-elin-nord

egren/• http://www.inewscatcher.com/2009/12/david-letterman-tiger-woods-s

candal.html