A State of Turmoil for Media Ethics

 Carly Graman 

Cg105511@ohio.edu

Code of Ethics in a State of Turmoil.

Behind every journalist is their own personal set of ethics. And behind every company is a set of ethics. Whether these ethics and set of values are always followed is the question. Today we live a world where we try to minimize harm. With the videos surfacing of two journalist being beheaded, moral questions are being raised. The videos are all over social media and journalists are forced to address the subject. These videos and horrid actions are causing us to act. We have a duty to report on what’s happening and try to minimize the harm in the U.S.

With the practice of journalism constantly changing, it is hard for journalists to always know what’s right and wrong. There is a lot of turmoil going on with ISIS and the U.S. has to respond as ethically as possible.  Posting the video of the beheading has been a conflicting matter. People have a right to see the video but we have to remember that this is someone’s son, brother, friend that is in the video that has lost his life. Some outlets have chosen to show the video and some have chosen only to write about it. This falls back on your own ethics code and what would minimize harm for the public.

http://kevin.lexblog.com/2012/05/09/is-all-use-of-social-media-subject-to-legal-ethics-rules/

Views to live by?

Journalist are often faced with conflicting viewpoints, heart breaking stories, controversial stories and stories the public may need to know but don’t want to hear. As a journalist it our job to convey the news to the public in the most honest way that we can. Codes of ethics are used to keep us inline when writing a story so we can report fairly. No matter how heartbreaking the events that are going on overseas are, we have a duty to keep the people in the know while following our ethic codes. But when the rest of the world seems to be spinning out of the control and killing our journalist overseas, are these codes of ethics so easy to follow?

Sometimes having a code of ethics can be constricting on journalist. Journalist writing to minimize harm can also mean withholding truths.

What’s really important?

Journalist should always follow one code no matter what the situation and that is to write with good intent. We should evaluate our pieces on the intent of the writing. Was the intent to inform the public? Was the intent to state your own viewpoints? Was the intent to inflict conflict? Finding out the intent behind a piece is crucial. Hard news has the intent to inform the public, while feature news has the intent to appeal to human interest. It is in our intent that our ethics are revealed. Our intent describes what kind our journalist we are. Our intent can show how we feel on a topic.

While telling the truth, and keeping the public first are important ethics to maintain, it all comes back to the reason of why we are writing the piece to begin with. Our intent of the story will then convey our ethics. This also means our ethics code can evolve and change throughout our career. When faced with different stories and different controversies our intent will be pushed to the limits, but we fall back on our ethics to help us do what is right for the public. It is an endless circle of a journalist’s life.