Journalists Saving Journalists

Madi Kregel
mk790316@ohio.edu


Right now is a landmark time for journalists to give all of their might in their work, which means it is important for fellow journalists to hold each other accountable and remind each other of the ethical principals that go into this career.

My dad has been a high school football coach for over twenty five years. Last year his team did not have the most losses my dad had ever seen, during a season, but the most injuries. Around eight or nine of his starting line up became injured at some point during the season. One of them being the quarterback. He had jumped to celebrate with one of the assistant coaches after a play, and when he landed his ACL tore apart.

It just so happened that the local news caught the incident on camera. I hadn't thought about the fact that the sports broadcasters would have been at the game watching until later that night as my family watched the Friday night highlights as we always do after my dad's football games. And to my disbelief, they released the video of the quarterback injuring himself.

As a journalist I was disappointed. It would have been one thing if the game was live-broadcasted in front of millions of people who were going to see the injury anyway. But this was a high school football game. To me, it seemed that the journalist that shot and ran the footage of my dad's quarterback did not consider ethical decision making. Did it benefit the journalist for releasing that footage? I don't see how it could have. Again, it was a high school student playing in a high school football game. Will it matter two years from now? No, but the point is this, there was no reason to release footage of a minor getting injured in a highlight reel. There is no gain from that for the journalist, there for there's no sense in releasing it.

(Comic source: http://plagiarismiscrime.blogspot.com/)

I wish I would have said something to that journalist. Which leads me to my point in this lengthy story.

We as journalists need to hold each other accountable in our work. There is no room in this industry for sloppy and unethical work.

As a journalist, if you see a fellow journalist release a story or footage that is unethical, call them out on it. Holding each other to a higher standard will only create better and worthy stories.

The Society of Professional Journalists are blunt on their code of ethics, especially on their rules about plagiarism. Simply put, "Never plagiarize. That is a simple, clear statement in the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics that leaves no room for ambiguity( Lauren Bartlett and the SPJ Code of Ethics Committee)."

See what I did at the end of that quote? It's an attribution and it should be placed in every story where sources are named, quoted, and referenced. If you see a story written by another journalist that is not attributed correctly, or resembling another story, call their editor. In order to gain respect and the support of readers, you must have respect and support of other journalists.

Letting plagiarism happen is unacceptable. Hold each other accountable and lift each other up. There is nothing fake about a good journalist doing their job and supporting others in their career.