Aly Fossett
Af965610@ohio.edu
The phrase “anyone can be a journalist” is a little
offensive to me, as a fellow journalist. Why would I go to school and spend
thousands of dollars to leave with the title of “journalist” if everyone can do
it? The more I think about this phrase the more I understand it. In this day
and age this statement is somewhat true; social media has created a whole other
platform that journalist have never had to deal with, as well as an opportunity
for everyday people to participate in the social issues happening all around
them. Now, more than ever before ‘citizen
journalism’ has had a big influence in the way society receives
‘news’. As long as you have a
smart phone and can express what is happening around you, evidently, you are,
to an extent, a journalist. No
longer do journalist strive to be the first one on the scene, or the one that
‘breaks the story’, it has become much more than that. Not because we don’t want to; everyone
wants to be the one that ‘broke the news’, its just because it just isn’t
realistic anymore.
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| http://www.journalism.org/files/2014/03/SocialMediaNews7.png |
Think back to the man that inadvertently
live tweeted Osama Bin Laden’s Raid. He was just a guy in the right place
at the right time, with a smart phone. Just because he doesn’t have the title of ‘journalist’
doesn’t mean that what he had to say wasn’t heard, he was heard all right, nice
and loud. This idea of ‘citizen journalism’ is here to stay.
The difference between citizen journalism and traditional
journalism is simple; Ethics. Even
though we look to Twitter and Facebook for a majority of our quick news, those
outlets are not always reliable. On the other hand, traditional journalism
comes with a side of ethics. Every TV, radio, advertising, magazine, and
newspaper organization have an understood code of ethics. But as journalism is
evolving so are the codes of ethics.
The underlying theme in every code of ethics document is the
same; to seek the truth. As journalist, it is our duty to supply the truth.
Whether it’s through a picture, words, video or marketing transparency is key. Even
though each medium is different and is used for a different purpose they all strive
to be fair and ethical. Which is hard for some, and that’s when the code of
ethics comes into play. You have to weigh in not only your organizations
ethical standards but also you personal ethical standards and that is where the
line can become a little bit blurry. Ethics, by definition means; ‘moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior’
and when your ‘moral principles conflict with your groups ‘moral principles’
then that’s when you need to step back and refer to the code of ethics and
remind yourself what it means to be an ethical journalist.
Our society and
way of communication is evolving and journalism is adapting just fine, but just
because the outlets and platforms of journalism seem to be a little more relaxed
doesn’t mean that our morals and ethics, as journalist, should be more relaxed.
Journalist have an extremely important job, maybe even more than ever before,
we get to determine what news is true and worth listening to in this world full
of ‘journalists’. I am no longer
striving for the title of just ‘journalist’, but instead ‘ethical journalist’.
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