You are a reporter for a popular online newspaper and you receive a tip in the morning from a police officer that there is a potential terrorist threat scheduled for later in the afternoon at the local mall. You confirm your source is, in fact, a police officer with the local police department, but due to the nature of the tip, you feel it is urgent to release the information to the public now and do not take the time to cross-check the information with other sources.
After publishing your story, you discover that the officer is in fact a disgruntled employee who has released the story as a hoax. By the time you retract the story, you discover that police officers have already been dispensed to the mall leaving limited police coverage for other crimes and that the public is in a state of panic as the number of false police reports regarding suspicious activity around the mall has increased.
In the aftermath of the incident you are tasked with explaining your decision to report the story to the public.
Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word newspaper article, releasing a statement in which you do the following:
- Provide your rationale for the way you reported the incident.
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the media's role in reporting terrorist activity.
- Discuss whether you could have handled the situation differently.