Breakdown of Standards

Jenny Chufar
jc191106@ohio.edu

In the journalism profession, we are taught to always be honest and true. However, as a PR major my family often jokes saying, "How can you possibly be honest in a PR career?" I've also heard before that PR professionals are just "paid liars". Despite these sometimes harsh remarks about my future career, it does make me wonder what the journalism field has done wrong to put such thoughts into peoples heads.

For the readings on truth I focused on the idea of self-inflected wounds. It amazed me how journalists for well-known newspapers, such as USA TODAY and The New York Times, were able to publish fabricated stories. I suspect then, that journalists have this bad image of being liars and stretching the truth because of the handful of journalists who do wrong and ignore ethical codes. Because some journalists have such low ethical standards, it comes as no surprise that newspapers, magazines and television stations have an ethical code for journalists to live up to.

Daniel Allen Berkowitz discusses truth in journalism in the book "Social Meanings of News" in chapter three under the subtitle "Journalism and Truth". It is argued that journalism that does strive for the truth and that truth is key in journalism. As a journalist I tend to believe him, because 95 percent of the journalists that I know are truthful, and do seek out honesty.

The breakdown in journalism standards could be caused by a variety of reasons. In our reading "Confronting the Culture" it is young professionals who are to blame for the downfall of ethical journalism. Another possible reason could be because mainstream media is more concerned with unimportant news just because it is more interesting than hard news.

But the fact still remains that there will always be other writers whom continue to give the journalism profession a bad image. That negative image is something we as journalists will always have to strive to prove wrong, while holding up our ethical standards.

Here is a youtube video showing clips of PR in television and movies. Is it possible that PR has a bad name because of how it is portrayed in entertainment?