Conflicts of Interest

Jenna Guyot
jg140211@ohio.edu

Conflicts of interest are seen in journalism throughout multiple news outlets nowadays. Although it is a journalist's duty to follow the code of ethics, codes are not always black and white; making it difficult for the journalist to report ethically 100% of the time.

Sometimes it can be a struggle for journalists to report news without any bias present, in a recent article on CBS's show '60 Minutes' lead reporter Lara Logan interviewed Amazon's founder which came off to the audience as a promotion for their products instead of a genuine conversation. Lara Logan was put in an uncomfortable situation, but dealt with it gracefully by proceeding to veer away from further promotional talk.

Conflicts of interest are also extremely prominent in the music industry. The cut throat industry leads to compromising ethics for personal gain. Take a promotional music journalist for instance, they may get added bonus's such as free travel, concerts, food, and other luxuries. Music journalists have to be very careful not to overstep their professional boundaries, because the benefits can be very temping, but often times considered unethical. According to the SPJ Codes of Ethics it is important to, "Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility. Also, be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not. and finally, deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage."

How can we prevent personal bias in journalism? Journalists should report on a topic that they do not have presumption about. Also, journalists should stay away from interviewing people who they know on a personal level. This will eliminate any bias within an interview. Journalists should have ethics, values, and integrity intertwined in their reports to achieve the ideal news stories. The basis of all well-down journalism stems from these three concepts.

Take the Facebook experiment for example, researchers who are affiliated with Facebook tested whether reducing the number of positive messages people sat made those people less likely to post positive content themselves by tweaking the algorithm Facebook uses to analyze any given text that contained positive or negative words. The researchers, however, did not have informed consent from the participants. This action is considered unethical according to the SPJ Code of Ethics which states, "Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public."

It is vital for a journalist to always report unbiased information, which may be hard at times because there are so many ways to insinuate bias into a story un-intentionally. As shown through television, music, and social media, bias can take place in multiple different outlets of media. Bias will be prevented from following the SPJ Code of Ethics.