Plagiarism Antecedents and Situational Influences

Abstract

A study of daily newspaper plagiarism over a ten-year period reveals the offense results from a combination of individual and systemic causes. An association between how the misdeed is termed and what sanction is applied, combined with evidence of a marked increase in disclosure and firings after the 2003 Jayson Blair case, reveals that plagiarism is situationally defined. Four types of plagiarism are identified, linked to three antecedents: rationalizing dishonesty, problematic techniques, and definitional ambiguity. Most plagiarism arises from professional routines that minimize attribution, yet is treated relatively harshly because it exposes a paradigmatic pretense of journalistic originality.