Decision Making in Journalism: Is it Ethical?

Kate Farr
kf222414@ohio.edu

Photo by Debbi Vega from Ethics in the World

Today's journalists have developed a reputation for being unethical and publishing fake news and media. How did this happen? What caused these discrepancies? Why now?

When journalists are creating their work they are normally caught between two ends of a spectrum: strictly holding on to traditional journalism and throwing away all values to appear modern and "edgy". This can result in unethical journalism.

Modern journalism can go too far sometimes trying to be relatable or eccentric. Online journalists write what they think we want to hear from them, neglecting vast amounts of rules and guidelines of ethical journalism.

In everyone's own way, maybe absentmindedly, we all have our own code of ethics. This can be for our everyday lives, our school work, our professional work, etc. We all know what's right and what is wrong while making decisions, even if we don't want to believe it. This can be the same situation for modern journalism.

We are all tempted to ignore our values and ethical codes while creating journalism or media. We tend to veer towards trying to please our audience and viewers, versus sticking with our values and ethics. Our writing starts to progress into someone else's writing versus our own personal views. We are pleasers and become mind-numb to social media opinions.

Bob Steele created a guideline code of ethics for journalists to follow and check back on when creating their media or articles. These aren't necessarily rules, but suggestions or guidelines to follows when creating a value-based project.

The first guideline is when creating your journalism piece is to seek the truth and report is as fully as possible. The truth may not always be something journalists want to hear, but need to hear in order to stay ethical and real. Journalists need to remember to be fair and honest when reporting, writing, and creating their works.

Another guideline is to act independently. This is something that I feel, is so immensely overlooked, especially now in the digital age. Young writers are seeking so much attention but trying to be like other writers. We neglect our own creativity and ability by trying to match that of others in our generation. Modern journalism is revolved round pleasing and protesting gathering than showcasing one's own talents and creativity.

Lastly, we need to remember to minimize harm. Today's media is HARSH. Not only do we neglect our own values and ethics, we forget about other people's feelings. Why do we put each other down? Does it make us feel better about ourselves? Do we get a certain rush of adrenaline by putting other people down? Half of the media today is criticizing people about their race, gender, sexuality, beliefs, values, etc.  We become selfish in our writing and neglect anyone else's feelings. This has made media so divided nowadays. Our journalism is unethical and diminishing towards other people.

These ethical codes are just guidelines and suggestions when writing an article or media piece. I previously stated that we have our own personal code of ethics that we have embedded into our brains. If we combine the two then maybe we will eventually make a difference in our unethical media.