Journalism Ethics

Well I'm taking a class on this next semester, so I suppose all the readings here are going to be good preparation. There's a wide array of readings for this week actually, so I'll list them here and give a few comments on each.

Textbook: I read chapter 23 which deals with ethics. I highlights and describes some of the needs for ethical journalism, as well as some problems that may arise for the modern reporter. The needs include responsibility, Freedom of the Press, independence, sincerety/truthfulness/accuracy, impartiality, fair play, and decency. There is also a few universal tools that journalists use such as the Potter Box to determine where to draw the line for situations, values, and loyalties. Some of the ethical problems for reporters were deceit, conflicts of interest, friendship, payola, freebies, ad pressure, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, and withholding information. The last one was a very interesting read, as many different historical dillemas have yielded many different results.

New York Magazine: I read an online article about the changing patterns of news delivery and technology. The author argued that newsrooms were putting almost all of their newspaper content online- both in printed and news package form- and rivaling the content of television news networks. The article says that the focus of these newspaper sites (NYT and WP in particular) are still to find the news, but the on-air reporting guidelines are so much more linient that reporters have much more freedom and can create a news package with much more depth than a network presentation. I'm not sure if these online video offerings wil lever eclipse the television broadcasts as our main news venues, but there is definitley a growing following of these sources.

tojou.blogspot.com: Yep, I'm blogging about a blog. This specific entry discusses another article written by a reporter about a veteran TV reporter. I think that makes this...a 4th person account. Anyway, here's some of the strong points. The veteran reporter has covered stories for over 3 decades, and still has the drive to find unique stories and specific information that makes his work enjoyable to the audience. His tools for doing this great work include preparation, curiosity, details, and awareness. They use a good "State fair" example to highlight the importance of finding a good story, and not just the 'ho-hum' report on what happened at an event. This comes in handy when on the scene doing a report. You never know what you'll run into, and you always need to be ready to cover the biggest, most unique, or rarest story that arises.

www.cjr.org: The title of this article is "What Journalism Can't Do." It said nothing about not being able to make me millions of dollars, so that was a good first step. It did discuss though, the "psychic numbing" that effects people when faced with an uncountable number of deaths or tragic events. It relates to a person feeling devastated for one person's death or tribulations, but being able to be less affected (or connected to) a widespread problem. The professor who did this study suggests that journalism cannot do much to rouse up the public and solicit action in these large-scale situations, it can only inform and hope that legal and institutional mechanisms can enforce laws and solve problems. The article closes by saying that "Journalism can make a difference, but it cannot make all the difference." Fair enough.

cyberjournalist.net: Well the title of the site pretty much says it all. This article was basically a rundown of all the different tools that make online journalism unique and handy. It apparently was the first document of hits kind to do just a comprehensive storytelling analysis, and the suggestions it gives are used by both independent and network websites. The site lists these facets to assist in online reporting: Use print to explain, use multimedia to show, and use interactives to demonstrate and engage. Here is the breakdown of some information that can be layered on an online news article.

Print (the raw story)
Clickable Interactives (highlight specifics)
Slideshows (presenting multiple images)
Audio Stories (powerful descriptions)
Narrated Slideshows
Live Chats (Q&A sessions)
Quizzes and Surveys (public opinion on topic)
Animated Stories (visual aid without photos or video)
Interactive Webcasts & Streams
Multimedia Interactives (hybrids)




Well that about covers it. This week's readings furthered my knowledge on ethics, technology, and the different techniques and processes to create a good story in print, on air, and online. This will probably prove to be good help for me at NewsWatch, and maybe even for the final too.