Why News Publications Should Enforce a Code of Ethics

 Kevin McIntyre

km675818@ohio.edu

Ethical decision-making is a very important aspect of good journalism and reporting. The field of journalism, however, has been under intense scrutiny in recent years. While yellow journalism and muckraking have been around for many years, there seems to be an increasing pattern of distrust against journalists and the media in general. A good way to combat this idea is to more strongly enforce a code of ethics throughout various news publications and outlets. 

While there are many organizations that provide guidelines and codes for what ethical journalism should look like, oftentimes these codes are not enforced, but rather suggested. According to the Society of Professional Journalists' (SPJ) website, the guidelines that they provide for journalists are voluntary, but not necessarily enforced. These guidelines include: advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. If these codes were enforced more strongly, it would be mutually beneficial to both the public and the field of journalism as a whole. 

Source: PBS Learning Media 

In order to be able to enforce a code of ethics, the codes put in place must be representative of what is morally acceptable to the public. This is very important not only in traditional news journalism, but also in advertising and public relations. Many organizations cite similar values to the SPJ when it comes to ethical representation. The Institute for Advertising Ethics, like the SPJ code of ethics, puts truth in the forefront of their priorities. 

What is important to note about these two codes of ethics is that they are both put in place to serve the public in a more ethically responsible manner. Whether the content that is generated is an advertisement or a news piece, the main responsibility as a professional in the field is to give the public the tools to make a decision, and to do so in a way that abides by their respective ethical codes. 

With these codes formulated and always subject to change and evolution in the future, the publications that produce news pieces and advertisements should use them to make decisions on how to represent their ideas in the most ethical manner. While it is very useful and necessary to have them simply as guidelines, they should be enforced strictly. In doing so, both journalists and the public will benefit; the reputation of journalists would be improved and the public would be receiving information in a way that is responsible.