A Digital Age Creates New Ethics for Journalism

Maria Stroia
ms973013@ohio.edu

While living in a digital age that allows information to be spread to large audiences with the press of a button, dilemmas in journalistic ethics have risen. Between the widespread use of social media, which allows users to share any article with a single click, or the prevalence of 'fake news', serious journalists have had to revaluate what is ethical and what is not.

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According to an article in The New Ethics of Journalism, seeking out truth and reporting it fully is still the number one purpose and focus of journalism. Now more than ever, with so much misinformation being easily spread, sharing the full story is the best way to advocate and protect the public.

Currently, our political climate is very divided, and it can be hard for journalists to avoid their personal bias and share both sides of the story, especially on sensitive political issues. An article in the Orlando Sentinel details this difficulty. Not only can it be hard to avoid bias because facts are usually not clearly laid out for journalists, but rarely are both sides agreeing with what is being said.  Many journalists even have social media accounts with many followers, and are not afraid to share their political views on their accounts. Some argue these opinions are not appropriate. If a journalist explicitly shares which side of the political spectrum they are on, are they able to be trusted to write stories about politics? These things must be considered from an ethical standpoint as social media takes over.

MEDIAographer Online spoke to CBS producer T. Sean Herbert about how the online world is affecting journalist ethics. Herbert said he believes his commitment to original reporting is more important than ever before, because it is so easy to aggregate stories from other news outlets, slapping on a new headline and labeling it as a new article. Everything needs to be fact-checked before something like that is done. Herbert says many people calling themselves journalists are not true journalists due to their lack of ethics and thorough fact-checking.

I think despite the fact that many journalists need to work on approving their own code of ethics and really going out of their way to provide both sides of the story and fact-check before moving forward, the general public reading these stories can help. Many times, panic is created when blatantly fake stories are posted to a social media platform. A place like Facebook allows links to be shared easily and quickly, racking up reads, comments, and potentially spreading information. One quick Google Search will prove the story wrong, but the public doesn't care to fact check.

If the general public sees a story that creates panic, they should do the research, and call out the journalist who created it. If we begin to hold journalists accountable, it may filter out the journalists who are not doing their job in a truthful and ethical way, and allow the real journalists to shine through, so people can begin to trust the media again. Journalism was put in place to protect and advocate for the public, and we need to bring that idea back in this digital age.