Journalism Conflicts of Interests

Meghan Machenheimer | mm745416@ohio.edu

https://blog.volkovlaw.com/2017/10/importance-robust-conflicts-interest-program/

The Journalism world is held to the standard of reporting at an unbias level, which is why conflicts of interest cause such an issue in this field. Conflicts of interest arise when money, social growth, or personal relationships are factored into the situation. These three are just a few examples of what can factor into conflicts of interest, but they are very prominent ones. On top of the examples stated above, there are also different levels of relationships that can affect these conflicts of interest. These relationships can vary anywhere from a relationship the journalist has with either a person or a company to a relationship the journalism organization has with another company or cooperation. 

Social Media Influencers Conflict of Interest:

One example of a conflict of interest in today's world is when different companies ask celebrities and social media influencers to promote their products on their social media accounts. Companies will give the influencer the product for free, and then if they promote the product, they will pay them a certain amount of money. The amount of money depends on the number of followers the influencer has. This is a conflict of interest in many ways, one reason being that we don't know if the influencer truly likes the product or if they just posted the picture for the money aspect of it. We also don't know if the influencer is biased toward this product compared to competing brands because they paid them to post these promotional photos. We also don't know if the influencer just took the promotional photos to gain followers on their account from the companies account. 

ESPN Conflict of Interest:

 Another example of conflict of interest is ESPN and what games and teams they are going to be broadcasting. ESPN makes most of their money off of the games they are reporting on, and they can select their schedule for what matches and what times they will be broadcasting them. This is a conflict of interest from a money standpoint and an ethical problem. If there is a significant game on, for instance, Ohio State and Michigan, ESPN will be broadcasting that over a poker tournament because it will bring in more viewers, and they will make more money off of it. By streaming games that make more money, ESPN is showing a bias in games, sports, conferences, leagues, etc. and struggles the most when it comes to conflicts of interest. 

Music Journalists Conflict of Interest:

One example of a conflict of interest is music journalists and their relationships with the record label, the artist, and the music producers of the record they will be critiquing. When it comes to being a music journalist, there are a lot of perks that come with the job, cocktail parties, all-expenses-paid trips, plus one music festival tickets, etc. Although these perks can come with the job, they also come with the possibility of the journalists becoming friends with the artist and the assumption that the journalist will write them a good review. This can be portrayed as a conflict of interest and can hurt the credibility of the journalists if they do fall to the pressure of writing a biased review. 

I feel like as journalists, we are trained to be nonbiased and know it is not ethical to report about something that we do have a bias about. I think it is harder in some cases rather than others to avoid conflicts of interest. Especially when considering ESPN's conflicts of interest situation. Although the more prominent game would bring in more money, it would also please more viewers if it was shown rather than another game. Overall, I do think conflicts of interests can be somewhat avoided if journalists were to turn down opportunities they were offered because they knew they would be biased and if they were to stay non-biased in their place of work consistently.