Ella Umbarger
eu594318@ohio.edu
Currently I am taking coms 3200: Communication and New Technology. Through the semester I have learned a lot about how technology has affected communication. Through social media many things have changed in communication and journalism. There are new ethical conflicts that have now risen.
Many people compare clickbait to online yellow journalism. Yellow journalism started in the late 19th-century and journalists used sensationalized or biased stories in their reporting instead of the impartial truth. Some characteristics of yellow journalism can still be seen in clickbait journalism today.
From the article, it seems that Goldman and Wade only care about the number of clicks they get and the money they make, not actual reporting. Although money is a huge motivation for anything, I think if that is your only motivation for reporting it may lead to some unethical journalism. They use tactics such as exaggeration, stoking fear, inflaming racial and gender tensions, and using conspiracy theories to capture their audience.
Sharing “news articles” via social media can lead to a lot of misinformation or “fake news”. Ravi Somaiya said , “Facebook is a toxic town square. Social media is Christmas for fraudsters.” and “The best way of sifting the information we find online is, simply, to report before we publish, as we would offline.”
Following the ethical codes biased on traditional print media can still be applicable but there are ethical codes specifically for online journalism. The center for journalism ethics has provided a guide for digital media ethics. It goes over some difficult questions in the age of digital media journalism. They cover anonymity, speed, rumor and corrections, Impartiality, conflicts of interest, and partisan journalism, entrepreneurial not-for-profit journalism, reporters using social media, citizen journalists and using citizen content, and ethics of images.
I believe that educating yourself about these ethical dilemmas and looking at professional codes can help alleviate some of the issues of online journalism. Also as an audience not clicking on stories that have obviously sensationalized headlines can help not give this unethical journalism the attention it seeks. The less clicks the articles get could help steering it in the right direction.
Ella, I enjoyed reading this post from you. I think it's great that you can compare current coursework (even outside of JOUR 3200) to other issues in society and news reporting. Using the logic of reporting online the same information as reporting offline is simple yet powerful advice from Ravi Somaiya. I think it can be easy to overcomplicate these issues with worries about minimizing harm and counteracting "fake news," but it's hard without giving it more publicity/spreading it further. Plus, we would rather spend our time and energy discovering and publishing REAL news rather than defeating the "fake news." So, overall, that's great advice to follow. Thanks for the insightful post; I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDeleteElla, great job on your post. It was very informative. Codes was a huge thing I learned this year taking this class and I think constantly reeducating ourselves on them will keep us all in line when we begin our careers. It can also help us navigate through social media with all the fake news and help us see clearly what is a credible article by how ethical it is.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, Ella. I am also currently taking COMs 3200, so it was nice to see that you were able to tie some of the topics we have discussed into this discussion. The comparison to yellow journalism was very interesting to me, it isn't something I ever necessarily thought about, but I will say I do see the similarities. And I agree that the new phenomenon of clickbait has severely changed the way people use the internet, and it is disheartening to know that it is all deliberate in the way of deception.
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