Weighing The Options

Maelyn Kizer

Mk631818@ohio.edu

The power that journalists hold is one that cannot be described with words alone. Though their job is to get the people proper news coverage, it takes an abundance of effort and critical thinking to actually create the story in the right way. When I say the right way a question of what is right versus what is wrong is brought to the forefront. No one can truly be 100% correct or 100% wrong in the world of journalism. It comes down to the beliefs and ideologies of the author.  Journalists are in many ways forced to make tough decisions in story production.

In order to correctly write, produce, and create a good story, people must first understand the characteristics of a true journalist. According to www.nategranzow.com, a successful and trustworthy journalist should be many things like caring, curious, humble, compassionate, and most important of all in a lot of viewers' eyes, trustworthy.  The only way a story can be surely trustworthy is if as journalists we put out what is needed to be understood.

The opinions of a journalist tend to shine through every piece they put out but what most don't know is that before pressing send every writer has one thought to themselves and asked is this the right story for my target audience? The author may second guess the story and weigh the pros and cons of its production, something we all should consider doing.  This process includes taking into account who will read and how they will react, what message are we trying to convey and what could the reader take from this piece.

image from clipground.com

Weighing the options of which work to put out and the consequences of each in terms of sensitivity and audience repercussions, ultimately comes down to the code of ethics. The code of ethics is a basic set of standards that guide professional conduct. In the journalism world, the use of ethics is in a form of finding and achieving reasoning behind a story. Three ideas that come from this thought process according to Professor Rogus are: what should I do [with this information], can I rationally justify my actions, and how can I make the choice that is morally good? All wonderful and extremely important questions to ask. 

To answer said questions we must first get further knowledge about ethical reasoning and its history. Aristotle's golden mean is one idea that has become very popular. There are also many others to understand before choosing which to follow through with; John Milton's idea, Deontology, John Stuart Mill, and Sissela Bok's model. Understanding each and every idea of ethical reasoning is a must in the world of journalism because of the power one sentence may have over a person, their life, and their thoughts and emotions.  The key to every journalist is their knowledge of the topic at hand as well as the knowledge behind journalism itself. They have a responsibility to know what is being/could be understood and taken their work in all ways possible before publishing, ethical reasoning will indeed contribute to confidence in that area.