The Line Between Journalism And Respect

Will Ashton
wa054010@ohio.edu

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/30/npr-pushes-myth-that-raising-minimum-wage-would/195684

A Journalist's Duty vs. Human Respect
Even with today's ever-shrinking sense of privacy, it can be hard for journalists to walk the line between hard reporting and public decency. On the one hand, journalist have a job to do. At the same time, unless they are terrible human beings, most journalists know that people have rights and that they should try to be respectable, especially if they were under a recent tragedy. So, is there a way to respect people's well being while also gathering the cold hard facts?

NPR
One could argue that, with true journalism, there is no way that a journalist can report the news without affecting somebody. Journalists don't always affect people negativity, but, generally, it is the negative effects caused by journalists that people tend to remembered more. According to the NPR Ethics Handbook, their policy is that "everybody affected by our journalism deserves to be treated with decency and compassion. We are in civil in our actions and words, avoiding arrogance and hubris. We listen to others." This is, of course, only one example, but it is hard to argue that NPR has ever been mean spirited or disrespectful to any of their sources. As far as journalism goes, NPR has been widely considered one of the most ethical and fair-minded media sources today. This policy, perhaps, has a great deal to do with why they hold that position in society.

Policies include "strike a civil tone in all your journalistic interactions," "take special caution with those who are less media-savvy" and "be considerate of community norms." Ultimately, the best forms of respect-driven journalism are those that can find a way to respect the victims well-being while also reporting the news. Sometimes, this may not involve reporting the whole story, as noted in the class reading, "How the Media Treated Me," which discussed the reporting behind Maureen Kanka's missing daughter, Megan. While Maureen didn't tell the reporters everything they needed from her to tell the whole story, she did use them as a means of creating what is now known as Megan's Law, or using the media as a way of releasing information about convicted sex offenders. Ultimately, with that story, it was finding a way of making both sides happy; victims can reach out to media to spread news or information while journalists can continue reporting the news.

But Is This Possible?
Ultimately, this may just be a matter of situation. Sometimes, people are not going to want to talk to the media in any way, shape or form. If they are under a delicate situation, then the desire to speak to them is going to be even more limited. If journalists want to keep the public happy, or give them a better image than they have now, they must learn to find a way to push NPR's message back into the media's eye. Is this going to always be possible? Not likely, but whenever it can be enforced, it should.

In The Journalist Code of Conduct, under respect, it says, "it is expected that journalists follow a professional code of conduct and remain respectful at all times in their work as they obtain information and report it. This means they should do everything in their power to lessen any potential harm that might come to a person in their story, such as a source or interview subject." In order to gain respect, journalists have to give it.