This presentation helps journalism students define plagiarism and fabrication and identify their consequences, identify the three types of information you don’t have to attribute, avoid plagiarism by attributing and paraphrasing, and attribute information from an email and a website. Professor Linda Austin created it for her JNL-1102 introductory reporting students at the National Management College in Yangon, Burma, in August 2015. It goes with Chapter 15 - Ethics in Reporting and Writing News: A Basic Handbook by Peter Eng and Jeff Hodson.

1. ETHICS – AVOID
PLAGIARISM AND
FABRICATION
• Define plagiarism and fabrication and identify
their consequences
• Identify the three types of information you don’t
have to attribute
• Avoid plagiarism by attributing and paraphrasing
• Attribute information from an email and a website

2. CREDIT TO CRONKITE
Adapted from and used with permission: Guidelines on
plagiarism, fabrication and sourcing for students at Arizona
State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and
Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona, United States

3. DEFINE PLAGIARISM
AND FABRICATION
And identify their consequences.

4. SINS AGAINST THE AUDIENCE
•Fabrication = lying
•Plagiarism = stealing

5. DEFINITION: FABRICATION
Making things up and passing them off as genuine.
By Sodanie Chea

6. EXAMPLE: FABRICATION
Adding words to a quote to make it sound better.
By Sodanie Chea

7. DEFINITION: PLAGIARISM
Taking credit for phrases, sentences, paragraphs or even an
entire story that someone else created. This is true whether
you do it intentionally or inadvertently.
By *sax

8. EXAMPLE: PLAGIARISM
Taking a quote from another news story without attributing it.
By *sax

9. CONSEQUENCES?
By *sax
By *sax and Sodanie Chea

10. FABRICATION: STEPHEN GLASS
• Reporter, 23, at
The New Republic
• Fabricated 27 of
41 articles from
1995-1998
• 2003 film
Shattered Glass
• 2003 interview

11. FABRICATION: STEPHEN GLASS
• 2014: California
Supreme Court
rules Glass, by
then 41, cannot
practice law
• Working as a
paralegal
From 60 Minutes interview

12. IDENTIFY THE 3 TYPES
OF INFO YOU DON’T
HAVE TO ATTRIBUTE
1. Common knowledge
2. Background knowledge
3. What you see yourself

13. DEFINITION: ATTRIBUTION
Identifying the source of a
quote or information in a story

14. DEFINITION: QUOTATION
The exact words that someone
spoke. They are enclosed by
quotation marks.

15. EXAMPLE: ATTRIBUTION
“If we want to inherit from my
father, we have to build a real
democratic nation,” said
democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.

16. EXAMPLE: ATTRIBUTION
“If we want to inherit from my
father, we have to build a real
democratic nation,” said
democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.

17. EXAMPLE: ATTRIBUTION
The economy in Burma should
continue to grow at an annual
rate of 8.5 percent in 2015-16,
the same as the year before,
according to the International
Monetary Fund.

18. EXAMPLE: ATTRIBUTION
The economy in Burma should
continue to grow at an annual
rate of 8.5 percent in 2015-16,
the same as the year before,
according to the International
Monetary Fund.

19. ATTRIBUTE EVERYTHING,
EXCEPT: Common knowledge
ByChathamHouse
U Thein Sein is president of Myanmar.

20. ATTRIBUTE EVERYTHING,
EXCEPT: Background knowledge
By Chatham House
U Thein Sein was
born in 1945 in
Kyonku. He
graduated from
the Defence
Services Academy
in 1968.

21. ATTRIBUTE EVERYTHING,
EXCEPT: What you see yourself
June 30, 2015

22. ATTRIBUTE EVERYTHING,
EXCEPT: What you see yourself
A crowd of hungry
customers more than
100-strong formed lines
that spilled out onto the
sidewalk…soon after
KFC opened its doors.

23. AVOID PLAGIARISM
By attributing and paraphrasing

24. AVOID PLAGIARISM
1. Quote and attribute.
 Put the exact words in quote
marks and who said them.
2. Paraphrase and attribute.
Use your own words and
who said them.

25. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
July 2, 2015

26. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
“This shows there is no rule of
law in our country,”
– demonstrator Win Hlaing of
Prome, quoted by

27. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Can you write in your story:
“This shows there is no rule of
law in our country,” said
demonstrator Win Hlaing of
Prome.

28. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Can you write in your story:
“This shows there is no rule of
law in our country,”
demonstrator Win Hlaing of
Prome told the Democratic
Voice of Burma.

29. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
You call Win Hlaing in jail, but
he says he can’t talk and to
use his quote in DVB. You
write in your story:
“This shows there is no rule of
law in our country,” said
demonstrator Win Hlaing of
Prome.

30. AVOID PLAGIARISM
1. Quote and attribute.
 Put the exact words in quote
marks and who said them.
2. Paraphrase and attribute.
Use your own words and
who said them.

31. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
July 2, 2015

32. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Economist U Hla Maung said
the introduction of new notes
rouses people’s suspicion as
there are rumours that the
note is in response to
counterfeiting. –
from

33. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Can you write in your story:
Economist U Hla Maung said
the introduction of new notes
rouses people’s suspicion as
there are rumours that the
note is in response to
counterfeiting.

34. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Can you write in your story:
Economist U Hla Maung said
the introduction of new notes
rouses people’s suspicion as
there are rumours that the
note is in response to
counterfeiting, the Myanmar
Times reported.

35. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Can you write in your story:
“Economist U Hla Maung said
the introduction of new notes
rouses people’s suspicion as
there are rumours that the
note is in response to
counterfeiting,” the Myanmar
Times reported.

36. EXERCISE: AVOID PLAGIARISM
Can you write in your story:
New notes rouse people’s
suspicion that the notes are in
response to counterfeiting,
Economist U Hla Maung told
the Myanmar Times.

37. AVOID PLAGIARISM
1. Quote and attribute.
 Put the exact words in quote
marks and who said them.
2. Paraphrase and attribute.
Use your own words and
who said them.

38. ATTRIBUTE
INFORMATION FROM
AN EMAIL

39. WHICH INTERVIEW IS BEST?
ByItzaFineDay

40. WHICH INTERVIEW IS BEST?
ByPhilWarren

41. WHICH INTERVIEW IS BEST?
ByAnonymousAccount

42. WHY EMAIL IS WORST
• The subject may be
masquerading as
someone else.
• Reporter has less
control over timing.
• Asking follow-up
questions is harder.
• The way someone
writes is not how
they speak.
ByAnonymousAccount

43. ATTRIBUTE EMAIL INTERVIEW
“The telescope will collect
data, hopefully leading to
discoveries about the
expansion of the universe.”
– Email from Dr. Saw-Wai Hla

44. ATTRIBUTE EMAIL INTERVIEW
Can you write in your story:
•“The telescope will collect data,
hopefully leading to discoveries
about the expansion of the
universe,” said Dr. Saw-Wai Hla,
astronomy professor at the
University of Computer Studies
in Yangon.

45. ATTRIBUTE EMAIL INTERVIEW
Can you write in your story:
•“The telescope will collect data,
hopefully leading to discoveries
about the expansion of the
universe,” said Dr. Saw-Wai Hla
in an email. He is an astronomy
professor at the University of
Computer Studies in Yangon.

46. ATTRIBUTE INFO
FROM A WEBSITE

48. ATTRIBUTE TO A WEBSITE
“During the rebuilding that
started in 1948, a relic chamber
was discovered. Inside the
chamber was a stone casket
encircled by Nat (spirit) figures
standing guard.”
– https://www.renown-travel.com

49. ATTRIBUTE TO A WEBSITE
Can you write in your story:
During the rebuilding that
started in 1948, a relic
chamber was discovered.
Inside the chamber was a
stone casket encircled by Nat
(spirit) figures standing guard.

50. ATTRIBUTE TO A WEBSITE
Can you write in your story:
“During the rebuilding that
started in 1948, a relic chamber
was discovered. Inside the
chamber was a stone casket
encircled by Nat (spirit) figures
standing guard,” according to
the website renown-travel.com.

51. ATTRIBUTE TO A WEBSITE
Can you write in your story:
A relic chamber was found
during the rebuilding, which
began in 1948. The chamber
contained a stone casket
decorated with Nat (spirit)
figures, according to the website
renown-travel.com.