Shawn Rudolph
Journalism
is a constantly revelatory business. When looking back a few hundred years, the laws and regulations of
journalism seem humorous, and when looking back a dozen years, the worries and
concerns of journalism seem minuscule, before the exponential development of
new technologies.
With the progressions of technologies and communities being so rapid, journalism will continue to restructure its ethical principles to match the means and mediums of news. The standard ways of reading the news today will not be the standard in five years and certainly not 15 years from now. The ethical principles of journalists will need to adapt alongside the future.
With the progressions of technologies and communities being so rapid, journalism will continue to restructure its ethical principles to match the means and mediums of news. The standard ways of reading the news today will not be the standard in five years and certainly not 15 years from now. The ethical principles of journalists will need to adapt alongside the future.
Another mention of the Poynter Principles
The Poynter Institute developed Guiding Principles for
Journalists in the 1990s, and redefined the principles more recently to
modernize the journalistic approach to ethics. Originally, the principles were: Seek truth and report it as fully as possible, act independently and
minimize harm.
These principles are fine on paper, but technologies like Twitter, BuzzFeed, and The Huffington Post have turned the paradigm of journalism. The updated principles are: Seek truth and report it as fully as possible, be transparent and engage community as an end, rather than a means.
The new principles incorporated the old principles but stress transparency and engagement to serve the public. Journalists should not forget that journalism serves the public, and they have a right to relevant, open news.
These principles are fine on paper, but technologies like Twitter, BuzzFeed, and The Huffington Post have turned the paradigm of journalism. The updated principles are: Seek truth and report it as fully as possible, be transparent and engage community as an end, rather than a means.
The new principles incorporated the old principles but stress transparency and engagement to serve the public. Journalists should not forget that journalism serves the public, and they have a right to relevant, open news.
Point of View
Journalism: The difficulty of fear and
bias infused news
Fear and bias in news is a
modern brick wall audiences need to smash through. Very often, news sources include an apparent
bias. The bias is noticeable at a first
glance, and does not take away from the usefulness for a target audience. Conservatives will head to the Fox News website in the morning, and liberal college students will watch satirical news
clips from The Daily Show or read the news on the MSNBC website.
However,
biased news sources face resistance from partisan viewers when using fear
appeals. If I identify myself as a
conservative, I can watch a healthy amount of MSNBC bearing some disagreement
and without disgust, until MSNBC uses a fear appeal to motivate its
audience. I would otherwise (theoretically)
acknowledge the bias, but I would enjoy learning the other partisan view, until
fear is used as motivation.
The liberal viewers will accept the rhetoric and tune in to hear important news. However, conservative viewers will take the fear appeal and question the validity and reliability of the news. In its essence, fear motivates because of danger, and danger comes from a specific source. In the case of partisan news, a liberal news source might use a conservative homefront as a danger to use a fear appeal and appear as an affront to conservatives.
The liberal viewers will accept the rhetoric and tune in to hear important news. However, conservative viewers will take the fear appeal and question the validity and reliability of the news. In its essence, fear motivates because of danger, and danger comes from a specific source. In the case of partisan news, a liberal news source might use a conservative homefront as a danger to use a fear appeal and appear as an affront to conservatives.
This
predicament does not have a simple solution.
Talk shows and radio show hosts infuse the most fear-based bias in their
shows, and Fox News affiliate shows receive a load of criticism. Point of view journalism sells and informs an
audience, but too often it does so at the expense of another through fear.
How can we define
communities?
With all the partisan sources of
news available, and the multitude of technologies, communities of journalism
are rapidly developing. On a common news
article online, the article creates a community in the comments section, and
when the article is retweeted on a personal timeline, it finds second life in a
Twitter community.
Communities are not as singular as they once were, when news was delivered by paper to the front door every morning. In the modern era of journalism, communities are intertwined, and developing relationships with the first hand audience of news is paramount to healthily reaching the adjacent and tertiary communities.
Communities are not as singular as they once were, when news was delivered by paper to the front door every morning. In the modern era of journalism, communities are intertwined, and developing relationships with the first hand audience of news is paramount to healthily reaching the adjacent and tertiary communities.
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