Evolving Journalism Means Evolving Ethics

Lauren Schumacker
ls242914@ohio.edu

Evolving technology is making it is an extremely interesting time to be entering the world of journalism. However, with new technology comes new responsibility. It is important to remember the basics when it comes to ethical decision making. The Poynter Institute has developed Guiding Principles for Journalists which simplifies a journalist's work into three broad concepts that include being truthful, independent and needing to minimize harm when possible.

However, it seems as though these basic ethical codes are being frequently lost as the news is becoming accessible by only the touch of a few buttons. Because the news is so readily available, there is frequently a race among news organizations to see who can produce the story the fastest.

The most important thing that a journalist has is their credibility. That does not mean that mistakes are not made, but it does mean that it is important to remember that a time crunch is not an excuse to make mistakes. With news spreading faster than ever, it is even more important to give the correct facts, because it is not easy to take something back once it has spread.

Even President Donald Trump's social media director Dan Scavino Jr. incorrectly retweeted a fake video of what he thought was Miami International Airport.

Source: The Daily Caller

As a journalist, it is important to be transparent so the reader is able to follow the story just as the journalist did when they gathered the information to write the report. After all, it is the duty of the reporter to seek the truth and report it. If everything in the report is truthful and the information is gathered ethically, then there is no reason that the report cannot be transparent to the reader.

There are websites that help to check for the legitimacy of a certain site or photograph. Professor Melissa Zimdars of Merrimack College in Massachusetts created a helpful guide for her students to spot fake news.

It may also be helpful to reverse image search which can help a reader trace the origin of a photo if it does not seem quite right in the context of which it is being used.

In addition to fake news and bad sources, people are unknowingly overlooking certain news sources if they do not immediately agree with the headline or the usual angle of the news site. This can be done easily because different news sites with angles of stories that a reader may like better are just a few clicks away. This often hinders a reader's ability to understand the full context of a situation.

Lastly, one of the primary rules of journalism is to minimize harm. However, I think that this is lacking in a great deal of today's sources. Frequently, publications are far more concerned about getting clicks on articles even if it means exploiting a situation and harming members of a community. It is difficult to find a balance of informing the public while also maintaining the privacy of others involved. However, I think that this is something that needs to be worked on as journalism is evolving and situations that may have once been private are able to quickly become public.