bk849717@ohio.edu
Journalism has been a part of our society for several hundred years. In recent history, there has been accusations of journalists that do not do their job correctly and report the wrong facts in a wrong way. This is known as "Fake News". The term "Fake News" has come up a lot throughout President Trump's tenure. As journalists, we have to tell the truth!
In an article "Here's what non-fake news looks like", the writer said that journalists make news, not find it. This means that journalists are the ones that actually write or broadcast the stories they find. The article also stated that when citizens want to find out what is going on the world, they look to professional news gatherers for information.
Additionally, the article included a list of journalistic qualities that citizens should consider when choosing trustworthy and truthful news providers. One of the biggest takeaways I got from this list was that journalists should have a reliance on professional ethics, including accuracy, an interest in contrary evidence and to follow the story regardless of its political implication.
When it comes to accuracy, we need to spell the names right and tell the story the way it is, not what we think about what happened. We also need to "report against our own assumptions," as the article states. Lastly, we need to tell the story without showing bias towards a political candidate or party we or our news outlet tends to show favoritism towards. In my opinion, if journalists are able to follow these three ethical values, they have a good chance of being truthful.
Newsrooms can also take extra steps to ensure that writers and broadcaster are telling the truth. In an article written for the Columbia Journalism Review titled "Who cares if it's true?", The New Yorker hires full-time staff checkers to make sure every assertion in every article is correct. The article stated that this iconic fact-checking system is nearly impossible to match. I feel that if a publication has enough of a budget, it should consider hiring a few employees that solely check for factual errors. This can benefit not only the journalist, but the publication. At the end, if a publication is well-known for its truthful content written by truthful journalists, it will gain more of a profit than a publication that is not truthful.
In my opinion, we need to always tell the truth as journalists, no matter what our opinions or viewpoints are. I think journalism schools around the world need to strive to teach student journalists to always tell the truth. If these schools are successful in teaching students to be truthful, the students will be better off in the professional field. If journalists are found to not be telling the truth in their work, news publications need to reprimand the journalist!
Telling the truth is very important because citizens rely on journalists for news every day. Without truthful journalists, how will the public get reliable information on what is going on around the world?
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