Modern Day Journalism

Alex Vella
av130415@ohio.edu

In today's society technology runs our world. With the click of a button, news can be spread instantly. It is the journalists' job to provide information to the public that is truthful, factual and newsworthy. It is difficult, however, for journalists to perform their job when social media and political commentary shines the wrong light on them.

Working as a journalist there are many codes of ethics to follow. According to the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), information should be "accurate, fair and thorough." When discussing ethics, it is important to remember that each story is unique. There are multiple ways to solve ethical issues depending on the situation.

It is the journalists' job to explain ethical choices that have been made and to encourage civil dialogue among the public and about the journalist's decisions. Since social media plays a large role in today's world, it is difficult for journalists to provide that level of transparency. Quill Magazine, published by SPJ, shares journalism's complicated relationship with transparency. Quill states that, "Journalists in today's world would likely consider that state of transparency as a luxury." Elements of transparency among journalists have been for the better. Before the internet and social media, journalists could benefit from a lack of transparency. The use of social media's ability to criticize organizations is what has led to an increase of being transparent in one's writing.

One main ethical responsibility of journalists is reporting the truth, which serves as the backbone of journalism. Throughout the past years there has been an increase of hatred towards the media. One term that is constantly fired out is "fake news", which is generally stated by politicians. This negative term fills the minds of citizens and makes them perceive journalists as liars. Because of this issue, it is extra important that the ethical responsibility of remaining truthful is held to a high standard. The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) acknowledges that truth and accuracy should take precedent above anything else. In order to change the perception of journalism and gain more trust within the public, it is important that journalists stand by their stories. Another way that journalists gain people's trust is by providing access to source material when relevant. In addition, if a journalist makes a mistake in their writing, they should be transparent about it and release a statement saying so.

SPJ Code of Ethics goes into great detail of the ethical responsibilities that journalists have. Interestingly, SPJ does not enforce their code. Instead, their code of ethics serves as a guide of abiding principles that journalists are encouraged to engage in. If all journalists take this code seriously then we may see an increase in the percentage of people that support the media and believe what they are writing is truthful. Unfortunately, with our current president this change may not occur for a few years. As long as organizations continue to follow these codes of ethics there is hope that the term "fake news" will disappear.