When Conflicts of Interest Appear in the Media

Kendall Schmucker
ks473114@ohio.edu


While creating a news story, conflicts of interest may arise and journalists need to be able to recognize them and assess accordingly. The situation could be anything from someone in the journalist's life being involved in the story, or bribery and payments.

Whatever the conflict, it is important to not let anything get in the way of a journalist reporting the story fairly and accurately.

Source: http://coi.research.nmsu.edu

According to NPR's Ethics Handbook, credibility can be damaged if conflicts of interest are not disclosed. A journalist's number one allegiance should be to the public.

"Under no circumstances do we skew our reports for personal gain, to help NPR's bottom line or to please those who fund us. Decisions about what we cover and how we do our work are made by our journalists, not be those who provide NPR with financial support."

Although many news organizations may have similar bylaws, it does not exclude them from the influence of outside sources. For example, there have been many allegations for years of Rupert Murdoch's sway on the media.

While headline news may be susceptible to influence, other mediums within news media are also at stake. One specific case that deals with conflicts of interest is college football. Looking at the top 10 college football teams that make revenue, one may notice the behind donations and ticket sales, media rights is one of the largest moneymakers for football teams.

Most of the teams are large division one schools with extensive alumni bases and good football teams, such as The Ohio State University and the University of Florida. Furthermore, on viewing the teams' expenses, one will see many of the same schools which make the most revenue, also spend the most money on marketing.

Media rights include deals made with TV, radio, and internet broadcast. Because of media rights along with marketing of college football teams during their games, these schools are treated as more of a priority to media such as ESPN or NBCSN.

However, the view of conflicts of interest can be considered different depending on the type of journalism that is being discussed. For example, in entertainment, monetary expenditure, such as a journalist receiving free gifts or perks, may be more of a norm.

Dark Richardson from the San Fransisco Chronicle online discusses conflicting interests in the 1999 article titled Love Those Perks! / Critics Sound Off on the Ethics of Music Journalism. Richardson states that it is only natural to build relationships within the industry; whether or not those relationships within the music community."

"You can always choose to stand aloof from the artists you write about and type away with supposed objectively in an ivory tower, but the way I see it you can't be a truly involved music critic without developing relationships within the music community.

While there will always be those that choose to go against the objective, truth-seeking mission of journalists, the goal of a news organization should always remain to report the truth as fairly and accurately as possible. No outside sources should influence that.