Plagiarism hurts credibility, steps to regain trust have been taken
Newspapers, and media in general, take their duty to inform and serve the communities in which they publish very seriously. This is because readers or viewers must be able to trust them. The more damaging plagiarism is to both the credibility and that carefully built trust, the more reason there is to doubt such sources of information.
One of the cardinal sins of journalism is plagiarism, the act of passing something off as your own work when it isn’t. This would include passing off news releases with minimal rewrites as news.
The fact that The Oracle is a student-operated college paper does not lessen the impact such a clear violation of that underlying rule of the journalistic profession. If anything, it is even worse that it happened at a paper whose main audience is college students and staff who are told every semester that plagiarism is not acceptable.
This weekend’s changes at The Oracle are intended both to reflect how seriously we take our jobs and we hope that readers interpret the changes in the way they were intended: Even though mistakes were made, we are working hard to be a credible source of information for the USF community and intend to do anything necessary to rebuild any trust that may have been undermined due to the mistakes made.
Actions were taken and we are working diligently to keep the mistakes from occurring again.
We would like our readers to know that The Oracle staff took such a clear violation by not only one of their own, but their leader, very seriously. Over the coming weeks we will work hard to re-establish our credibility.
More Stories
Meet the Team
Oracle EditorProfile
USF gives it away in Memphis 34-33
At the half, a 14-point lead meant USF was on track to win its first conference game in over a calendar year. That energy was kept up even with under five minutes to go when the Bulls were up 33-20. Then USF watched as its lead went from comfortable, to slim, to nonexistent in the […]
Club teams missing competition, friendship due to COVID-19
Under normal circumstances, Grant Nolder, president of the USF flag football team would be preparing for the club’s biggest competition of the year, the Swamp Bowl. The annual tournament, hosted at UF, typically takes place during the fall semester and features some of the best club flag football teams in the country. Winners of the […]
Bulls battle with ECU in OT win
Coach Brian Gregory said Tuesday the Bulls didn’t play complete, 40-minute games in their two losses last week. It’s debatable if they did Wednesday night against East Carolina (11-18, 5-11) at the Yuengling Center, but it was more than enough to put up a 73-68 overtime win. “It’s funny. There were stretches where we played […]
First SG scholarship rewards student leaders
Student Government (SG) launched the first-of-its-kind, merit-based scholarship to students Nov. 5 on USF’s Tampa campus. As a part of Student Body President Britney Deas and Student Body Vice President Travis McCloskey’s platform, Bull S.H.I.F.T., — Success, Health, Innovation, Finance and Tradition — the SG’s Student Leadership Scholarship consists of two merit-based scholarships which will […]
On-campus Jabil institute sparks anticipation from students
A plan drafted on a bar napkin two years ago has now become the USF Jabil Innovation Institute, a multi-million dollar institute combining the College of Engineering and the Muma College of Business. Senior Vice President of Advancement and CEO of the USF Foundation Joel Momberg and Jabil CEO Mark Mondello jotted the idea down […]