Irene Kent
ik211817@ohio.edu
Journalists all over the globe are facing a crisis. That crisis can be chalked up to the lack of trust that the public holds for their information suppliers.
People throughout the world have gone through changes over the last 5 or so years. As individuals, we have learned to become more sensitive and empathetic toward the hardships that people have faced throughout their lifetime. The Me Too movement, for example, provided people an opportunity to stand up and support each other against sexual abuse and sexual harassment. This is a very powerful yet sensitive subject area for some. Some people use it as a source of power from which they draw from to fight harder; however, many others are still silenced from speaking up because of the trauma that they faced.
You may be wondering where I am going with this. Well, here it is: journalists have an ethical responsibility to provide information to the public, but how are we to know when the information crosses over the line into harmful information instead of helpful information?
This is a question that journalists ask themselves everyday. One must come to the conclusion that hopefully this information will help more people than harm them. The Code of Ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists lays out guidelines for journalists to follow when they are in difficult situations. Their main focus is to help journalists take responsibility for the information that they put out into the public.
https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
One specific area that I believe to be an extremely difficult reporting area is politics. There are so many different news outlets that are biased, no matter what your political beliefs are. Two that immediately come to my mind are Fox News and CNN. With the heated election that took place in 2020 to the War on Terror, journalists face doubt and hate from people all across the United States.
While President Trump was in office, he was accused by multiple women of sexual assault and sexual harassment. As a journalist, this was big news. There were news reports all over the country of this highlighting this situation. Along with these allegations came a huge slew of people saying that these were false and never happened, thus creating a divide between the people and journalists. However, news stations, such as Fox News, were countering these reports. Fox news, which is mostly supported by republicans, interviewed Rowanne Brewer Lane, saying that she was misquoted by the New York Times.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/donald-trump-likes-women-this-is-news
CNN interviewed E. Jean Carroll, who was allegedly one of Trump's victims, to speak about her assault. As a news station that is more democratically focused, CNN detailed information about the assault and about President Trump's denial of even knowing the woman.
Now, these two news stations reported President Trump's allegations in very different ways. Both of them are painting different pictures of President Trump. Fox News highlighted it by saying that the media is portraying things incorrectly; however, CNN highlighted their segment in a way that President Trump needs to be held accountable for his actions.
How are people supposed to know if journalists are doing their job and reporting accurate and reliable information? It all comes down following a news outlet that reports unbiasedly. The 2020 election gave journalists a very bad reputation, and it divided the media and the people.
It is our job as upcoming journalists to take responsibility for the work that we produce, and to hold ourselves and others accountable. People have the right to fair, unbiased, fact-based news. With this in mind, there is only hope that people will begin to trust journalists and media in the future.
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