Ethical Decision Making and Its Importance in Journalism

 Jorja Butt

jorjabutt14@gmail.com

Journalism has been under fire in recent years as readers have begun to lose trust in the professionals who report the news. The media was once considered the "watchdog" of society as they created a public forum, kept public officials honest, and provided necessary knowledge to the public, but now it is the one under close investigation. As the public's trust in the media continues to decline, journalists must find a way to mend the broken relationship with their readers. Publishing a code of ethics is the start to allowing readers an insight into what personal decisions a journalist makes while reporting. 

News outlets encourage their readers to understand the ethical decision making process that they use by publishing their own set of ethical codes they desire their professionals to follow. While each news outlet may have a slightly different set of ethical codes, all provide similar expectations. The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) state in their code of ethics that they expect their journalists to: seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent. These qualities are required for journalists as it would build trust between them and the reader.

When the word "ethics" is brought up in conversation, it has a connotation in most minds to mean deciding between good and bad. However, it has less to do with good and bad and more to do with deep reasoning and rationality. In a chapter of Moral Reasoning for Journalists it is stated that an element of ethics is that it, "requires a moral ranking of the available alternatives..." Journalists are faced with these decisions every day. The question of reporting false information for money or out of political bias is what makes some journalism unethical. This is what the future journalists are learning to avoid. It is the media's job as the watchdog to provide the public with the truth and fair reporting. 

Anybody has the ability to post information that may not be factual and it is up to individual journalists to distinguish themselves through ethical reasoning while reporting. The future of journalism is up to the professionals as they navigate a way to regain the trust that they've lost due to unethical reporting. Ethical decision making has never been so important as the future of the media depends on making readers more confident in the stories they are consuming.

Picture source:  https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/resources/publications/saving-the-news/hate-speech-arab-media