How Will We Right the Code of Ethics?

by Maren Machles

mm423611@ohio.edu

In the past outstanding journalist have plagiarized work, encouraged wars and caused countless incidences of emotional distress to crime victims. How should we—as students studying journalism—know what to do ethically speaking, if our role models have shown a complete disregard for ethics in the past?

The answer is there is no answer, unfortunately. There is not formulaic way of knowing if what you are doing is right or wrong, black or white. In journalism there are many gray areas. There are dilemmas that we face everyday, as journalists that will test our ethics. It is our job to question and check ourselves, because there is no official body doing it for us.

In identifying ethical issues, there are several questions you need to ask yourself before you can publish anything as a journalist. You must ask if what you are saying will affect anyone and how it will affect him or her. You must ask how this affects yourself. And you must ask what are the consequences of this for everyone involved. These questions are all part of a model journalists have made to ensure they are making the best ethical decisions. These questions are a sort of checks and balances for the journalism field as a whole, seeing as we don’t have anyone checking in on us. Most organizations and publications have created a list of guidelines to help their employees know where the line is.

As journalists, ethics is vital to our existence. It is what keeps us in business and it is what separates us from the every day tweeters and bloggers that are often beating us to the presses. In this new digital age, it is about quality. The quality of our work will govern our field. If we start allowing unethical journalism into the public eye, we will lose their trust. This is something that has already begun to happen.

The public trust in media has been rapidly declining from the 1990s and 2000s. I believe it is because of our lack of ethical code. We have been stooping to try and bring up our audience numbers by sensationalizing. We are alienating the public instead of understand what is truly best for them as active members of a democracy. This can be compared to John Milton’s marketplace of ideas. If we, as a field, allow there to be fallacy and sensationalism by only non-credible sources, the public would know what is the truth and know what is best for themselves. Most of the public already agrees; they don’t want sensationalism. So stop giving it to them. Start using your ethical code to connect with the audience, instead of belittling your audience and spoon-feeding them opinions. 

Whatever you may use as your “model” of standards for journalism, it is important to keep in mind the audience, the people involved and the consequences you will face. How would you want to be told information? How would you feel if you were involved in the story? You decide what is a story and how it is told. That is a lot of responsibility and something that cannot be taken lightly.