Conflicts of Interest in Journalism

Courtney Smith
cs340114@ohio.edu

Media Conflicts of Interest
With everything happening today in the world of journalism, professionals are often faced with issues such as conflicts of interest. Whether this is through news and information outlets or public relations and advertising, it is no secret that the media downplay their conflicts of interests to the public.

Though they are many different outlets and mediums in the today's journalistic society, many different journalistic practices face ethical dilemmas that arise from conflicts of interest. This is especially important in public relations. So how does a conflict on interest arise in the first place? As stated by the text, "Basically, a conflict of interest occurs when a professional has interests, usually either professional or personal, that come into conflict with another obligation".

Picture Credit: newsbusters.org, 2016

Types of Conflicts of Interest
Though these may be easy to spot for some, conflicts of interest can come in many different forms and arise in various situations. Examples of these from the reading include a situation in which public and private interests conflict, a situation in which personal interests come into play, etc. It is important to be able to recognize a conflict of interest before it arises so that businesses and professionals aren't negatively affected by them.

As stated in the reading, the core principal is that avoiding real, potential or perceived conflicts of interests builds the trust of clients, employers, and the publics. This is so important in today's media society because there is little trust in the media from the public standpoint. It is our duty as journalists to combat these conflicts of interest in hopes that it will help build a positive and trusting relationship with the public.

Checkbook Journalism
An article listed for reading today discussed the slippery slope that checkbook journalism is in the industry. The article stated, "Once money enters the reporting equation, it has the potential to corrupt the whole journalism/source relationship". In other words, the article explained that sources wouldn't want to talk to a journalist for free when they could have the same conversation with another journalist and be compensated for it.

If community members understand this concept, why wouldn't public and government officials understand this too? This is where a large ethical problem starts to arise. Where does the integrity of journalism go once sources are being paid off?

ESPN's Media Conflicts
As stated in an article by Columbia Journalism Review, no news organization has media conflicts to quite the level that ESPN does. The network's conflicts alone put an emphasis on the need for media independence. Not only should professionals be establishing their own independence, but also in the journalism system in which they operate.

Other Forms of Conflicts of Interest
A downplayed conflict of interest is between music critics and the business that they report on. As stated in the article, "The music business has long been plagues with corruption, at least since the first big payola scandal tainted the most dawn of rock and roll in the 1950s".

This article discussed a pay-for-airplay scandal that occurred in the industry in the 1980s and focused on the concept that music journalists have little to rely on in their industry. They are rewarded with things such as free goods. These territorial perks alone are conflicts of interest.

As journalists, we have to be able to recognize, manage and prevent conflicts of interest in our industry to sustain the integrity of our practices, whether they are news and information based or public relations and advertising based.