Current Event Assignment 
 

The Current Event Criteria

Your current event must meet the following criteria:

1. Current events are articles you find in the media—newspapers, internet news sources, magazines, etc. Examples were handed out in class and appear at the end of this document.
2. Subject matter must deal with computing technology and a question of its ethical use.
3. It must be current—within the last month or so; preferably the last two weeks. State the event of the date in question clearly in your submission.
4. You must either include the article (only a brief summary needed) or the URL to the article. Maximum length of your document: 1 ½ page
5. Choose a different event each week; do not follow up on previous event.
6. You must properly cite your work, but do not use Wikipedia or YouTube.  Be sure to include the date of the cited work.  If the date is not in the URL, state it explicitly along with the URL.
7. You must include the ethical issue, expressed in the form of one question, in your submission.

 
EXAMPLE (showing one acceptable format):
 
Ethical Issue (state as a question): Is it ethical for Facebook to encourage users to give up their privacy for unspecified reasons?
 
Action (follow of from event):  Is there an issue with virtue ethics violation since people accept the terms, no action can be brought against Facebook even though most people would say asking people to violate their own rights to privacy would be unethical.
 
Primary source, reference or URL: Tiku, Nitasha. “Facebook Is Steering Users Away From Privacy Protections.” Wired, Conde Nast, 18 Apr. 2018, www.wired.com/story/facebook-is-steering-users-away-from-privacy-protections/.   [Notice the date is specified.  If not, include it in your document.]
 
https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-is-steering-users-away-from-privacy-protections/
 
It is helpful to include the article or a brief summary.  Example follows.  If the article contains ‘related articles’, do not include them in your copy

Title: Facebook Is Steering Users Away From Privacy Protections

 
Alyssa Foote  <include author, journal, magazine, TV broadcast (network and date) …>
Facebook Wednesday announced changes to how it asks users for permission to collect their personal information, in order to comply with strict new European privacy rules. But critics say Facebook’s new offerings seem designed to encourage users to make few changes and share as much information as possible.
[more text follows … include more of the article in your submitted work for this Current Event assignment]
Due dates for Currents Events work [do not submit this information back to me]
Current Events #1            April 24, Friday
Current Events #2           May 1, Friday
Current Events #3           May 15, Friday
Current Events #4           May 22, Friday
Current Events #5           May 29, Friday
Current Events #6           June 4, Thursday
You should put an alert in your calendar on the Monday or Tuesday class before the due date!
These are worth 10 points each.  The lowest score of your Current Events submissions is dropped for a possible total of 50 points.  Don’t miss any and you should be okay.