Journalism's Code of Ethics Can't Thrive in a Culture that Rewards Doing the Opposite

 Charlene Pepiot

cp872117@ohio.edu

Image from publicdomainpictures.net

Journalism prides itself in following a code of ethics that strives to be fair and truthful to everyone in the hope that the public will see them as such in return. Yet, upholding this code is increasingly met with resistance in the field and from the public itself. 

While all content is influenced by an author's bias, journalists should strive to be fair and present the facts without personal commentary to allow the public to form their own conclusions. Yet much of the news is filtered through the lens of a certain agenda so different networks often form completely different narratives from the same set of facts. A recent example would be the coverage of the pandemic, where certain media outlets ignored broadcasting statistics that the pandemic was improving in favor of focusing on the areas where it was at its worst. This leaves the public at best unsure of what to believe and at worst claiming one side's bias is truth and the others are fake news. In reality, the truth is often somewhere in the middle.

Being truthful is another core value in the code Journalists are meant to uphold. Yet fake news abounds online with conspiracy theories such as Trump winning the 2020 presidential election being treated as fact.

Many models of the journalism code of ethics claim that journalism should serve everyone in the public equally, but with 77% of newsroom employees statistically being white, it can often be hard for other ethnicities to feel that they are being represented fairly.

So why the breach in the code? Journalists are often underpaid and undervalued and usually rely on advertisers for funding. When COVID-19 crippled ad revenue, many journalists went unpaid or were laid off at a time when generating accurate information was needed more than ever. In a world where consumers are drawn to clickbait and there is pressure to please advertisers, some journalists may lean toward a sensationalized title with clear bias or post information that has yet to be verified in order to be the first to cover such news and get more clicks. Not doing so could cost them their jobs and livelihoods.

How can we the public expect journalists to have integrity and do the right thing by seeking out minority voices and providing honest and unbias content when our clicks reward them for doing the opposite? It is no wonder that trust in America's media is at an all-time low, and the issue lies on both sides. Yes, Journalists need to make sure they are following their code of ethics--and many of them do--but the public needs to reward that behavior with their support so the code can be upheld and most importantly sustained.