Unethical Media: Why Journalists are Both the Problem and the Solution

by Alexandra Corsi

ac986013@ohio.edu

Why do profits often get in the way of journalism ethics? Put simply, this industry revolves around sales: sales of newspapers, sales of subscriptions, sales of advertisements, and more.  Without sales, companies can’t thrive or even, in some cases, exist. This is why readers’ cries of “This newspaper is mostly ads!” aren’t far from the truth: according to the State of the News Media 2012, while the percentage of newspapers’ revenue from advertisement has decreased significantly over the years, ads nonetheless are still today a greater source of income for newspapers, even more so than are circulation costs.

When Profits Trump Ethics

So why do newspapers choose ads over stories? There is so much going on in the world today that journalists can’t possibly print every story they come across, but why fill up the pages with ads instead of seizing the opportunity to print more stories? The answer is money. The newspaper companies want to maximize their profits. Which makes sense, right? Doesn’t everyone want to maximize his or her profits?

But the next question we have to ask ourselves is whether it is unethical for newspapers to choose turning a profit over the main duty of journalism: to provide factual information to consumers so they can be self-governing. Is it only unethical to choose money over matter when the newspaper chooses a clothing store ad over a trivial story?

What Hasn't Been Said (or Written) 

One might argue that newspapers typically always run the most significant stories and wouldn’t choose ads over major headlines. But in the end, there is always a could-be story that is replaced by an ad, even if the story was never written. Maybe that story that wasn’t printed—or even written—wasn’t so trivial to someone. So in the end, the consumer loses out on information he or she could be obtaining rather than the ad that attempted to sell a product or service. Readers could be learning more, but they have no idea what they are missing out on. This is part of the reason, I think, that print journalism is on a downfall and digital forms of media are increasingly popular. There is essentially unlimited space on a website to post news content, and there are ways consumers can avoid ads.

Sponsored Content 

BuzzFeed's old way of labeling sponsored content
(courtesy of the Wall Street Journal)

However, this brings up the ethical issue of sponsored content, or advertising designed to look like stories that are distributed directly by the news site. Some consumers feel “tricked” when they read a story and realize it’s actually an advertisement. However, BuzzFeed.com has shown there is a way to make the use of sponsored content a more ethical practice. The short-form news site just recently rebranded the way they label sponsored content, moving away from their original tactic of presenting the story on a light yellow background with a tag reading “Presented by [company/product name]” and replacing it simply with a bright yellow tag reading “Promoted by [company/product name].” BuzzFeed made this transition because it was difficult to pick out the light yellow color, especially on mobile platforms. 

New labels for sponsored content on BuzzFeed's website

What Can We Do?

As budding journalists, college students should set out to prove that the phrase “journalism ethics” is not, in fact, a contradiction. The journalism industry has been tainted by reports about some media professionals’ unethical practices, but those stories are not an accurate reflection of the media industry as a whole.  As consumers, we must look past the tabloids and advertorials and consider the quality journalism that we have available for us. We must keep in mind that stories about misfortunes render higher profits than stories about positive events, so in that way, we, as journalists, are both the problem and the solution. It is up to us to turn the tables and redirect the spotlight towards credible and ethical journalism.