Plagarism Occurs More Than We Think

Angelina Jolie and the producers of her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” plagiarized the work of Croatian journalist and author Josip J. Knezevic to create the film’s screenplay, Knezevic claims in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

As the Chicago Times brings up a good point about plagarism, I think plagarism happens more than we think or want to beleive. Students, teachers, employees copy and paste everyday without citing. People, including me, don't think copying a simple sentence, picture, or short article is a big issue.

However, a simple act as we like to think, can cause huge lawsuits which can damage peoples reputation. Jolie did this same mistake. According to Chicago Times this movie will show only little clips of the movie and with rack in few cash as well.

The sad thing about this lawsuit towards Jolie is that plagarism happens very often and very frequent with famous and non-famous people. With Jolie being famous it caused more attention and more feedback on this lawsuit than anyother person.

I don't see this lawsuit ruining Jolie's future or acting career but I could see it putting a negative view on her as a person until this is all out of the media. Chicago Times article on Jolie did a fairly good job on showing Jolie as a positive role model still and not blowing the whole lawsuit out of portion.

Plagarism is something that more people should take seriously. The charges, fines, and lawsuits can become out of portion. Jolie unfortunately is in the media more than she would want because of acting in a moving which involves plagarism.

Overall, I see this article becoming less and less important to the media. Jolie will still be a successful actress and viewed in a positive manner to most people.

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The Cost of Plagiarism

Never plagiarize. This is a rule we hear about in any writing format, no matter what the class is. Professors warn us to never use Wikipedia as a source. They caution us to always use attribution whenever there is doubt. The last thing you would think that a journalist of any measure would do is to plagiarize.

According to an article on journalism.co.uk, prize-winning journalist Johann Hari did.

He attributes this error in judgement to a lack of ethics training. More like common sense training. His list of journalistic errors in judgement includes taking 545 words directly from someone else's work, elaborating quotes, and editing other journalist's Wikipedia pages to include unflattering comments about them.

He has returned the Orwell Prize he won in 2008 and is in the midst of a four month suspension. He is currently undergoing journalism training and it is expected he will resume his position after the four months is over.

Is this punishment enough to fit the crime? You have to think that his actions will affect the way readers view The Independent. When a writer does something that brings their credibility into question, they will lost their effectiveness in connecting with the audience. Readers and critics will not be so fast to forgive this lapse in judgement.

There is a long history of journalist scandals, and most of the plagiarism cases end up with either a resignation by the journalist or their employment being terminated. How will it affect The Independent if they choose to brush this issue aside and proceed as if it never happened?

What message will that send to readers of newspapers everywhere? The market for newspapers is already on the decline; it is unlikely that it can withstand a major blow. Something as simple as this could be a fatal blow for newspapers everywhere.

What do you think should happen to Johann?

Image from Creative Commons.

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Plagiarism Sucks: 8 Reasons Why

Plagiarism, in a nut shell, is taking someones thoughts or words and claiming them as your own. (I hope I didn't plagiarize the word plagiarism!) Some journalists live and die by this covenant of moral journalism, while others feel that is it nearly impossible to not reproduce another's thoughts without some form of parallelism.

In the world of today's media and journalism, with the likes of Nexis, Google, and Wikipedia, how can we ensure that what we are reporting or writing has not been done before? What if a work is not Copywrited? We could go even further. In theory, what if someone wrote a story that was never published? If I wrote a very similar piece and it was published, could the non-published writer of the "original work" accuse me of plagiarism?

While some believe plagiarism is menial way of flattery, many believe it has tragic consequences. And not just for the writer.

I found this article from Slate that breaks down the eight reasons why plagiarism sucks.

(By Jack Shafer.)

1. It swindles the reader.

2. Journalism is about truth, not lies.

3. It corrupts the craft.

4. It promotes the dishonest.

5. It indenigrates the hard work of others.

6. It's not what we paid for.

7. It's not theft--it's something worse.

8. It's vampiric.

I also found this website of famous plagiarists and the effects, if any on their careers.

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