The Right Ethical Decision

Makenzie Piatt
mp689012@ohio.edu


Journalists are faced with daily ethical uncertainty due to their responsibility to tell truthful and factual stories. With the new fast paced environment and the many different mediums to share stories, it can be hard to determine what information you relay to an audience is truly ethical. While written ethical questions have been published to help journalists make the right decision, it all comes down to the individual person and the choices being made.

Morals
Poynter’s 10 Questions are a great guide to aid a journalist in the right direction for good ethical decision-making. It all comes down to making the correct moral decision when faced with a dilemma. In David Bank’s article, he gave his readers a past situation with an ethical dilemma and asked what they would personally do in that kind of situation. In Bank’s situation, he was asked to reveal the location of a family whose son had been killed in fighting raging in Bosnia. This particular scenario made me think of Poynter’s question, “What if the roles were reversed? How would I feel if I were in the shoes of one of the stakeholders?” This seems like a common question asked about making good moral decisions. A reminder of the familiar rule to always treat people the way you want to be treated. 

 http://becksome.blogspot.com/2011/04/loose-morals.html

Purpose

 Poynter asked a very important question, “What is my journalistic purpose?” With social media being part of a common ethical debate, some news companies focus more on reporting the story first rather than making sure facts are correct. In an article on Slatewritten by Amanda Hess, she discussed the ethical dilemmas with tweets posted by journalists. In the article she stated, “Though journalists should be careful with inexperienced sources, they’re ultimately accountable to their readers”. A simple tweet could be the cause of an accidental ethical mistake. Journalists should always focus on the purpose to deliver trustworthy news. 

Honesty

No matter the situation, a journalist should always be honest about their ethical dilemma and the choices they make. In a video created by Big Think, Jeff Jarvis discussed his view on the journalistic codes of ethics. In the video, he talked about making many mistakes on his own blog. After realizing his own mistakes, he doesn’t delete it permanently, but instead crosses it out and adds the correct information. Journalists who make the right ethical decisions are honest about their mistakes. This scenario is similar to Poynter’s question, “What are the possible consequences of my actions? Short term? Long term?” Jarvis knew some of his readers noticed the mistake, but in the end he tried to fix it. Honesty is a big factor in making the right ethical decisions or owning up to mistakes that have been made.

Questions about morals and ethical dilemmas are questions journalists should ask themselves before publishing any story. While many ethical questions and codes can be written, it all depends on the journalist to make the right choices in the end. The public depends on journalists to produce accurate stories and truthful content. Journalists should always remember their purpose, good moral judgment and honesty when writing the news stories they are held accountable for.