Ethic Among Journalism

 By Mackenzie Phalen 

mp309018@ohio.edu

Journalism covers a wide range of professions and responsibilities, but all journalists provide people with information in some fashion. Social media is everywhere in today's society; journalists and public relations professionals engage with it very frequently on a professional level. While journalists have personal social media accounts and opinions outside of their professional opinion, journalists need caution. An article posted by Bryan Guerrero on Medium highlighted that though journalists may think that their Twitter Feed, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, or other social media account may be private to the outside world, that is not the case. Whatever you post as a journalist will affect yourself and others regarding who you work for.

                                                       Photo By Medium

However, Social media is essential and practical for journalists to express messages and engage with their audience. Without social media, most journalism work would not occur or be as successful. According to Medium, "Social media has given us access to more information sources than ever."

Several journalists work on the politician side; The Washington Post stated that 78 percent of journalists align with a specific political ideology/party and that political journalists in the United States are mainly liberal. With this statistic, journalists mustn't create bias based upon their personal beliefs to be ethical to whom they work.

                                          Photo By Medium

Journalists are people too and want to express their beliefs to others through social media as other people do. The Medium stated that "As journalists continue to create increasing amounts of augmenting content for social media, guidelines are starting to become implemented for reporters and social media influencers alike. "

The organization has different regulations regarding ethics with journalists. New York Times has a set of guidelines; according to them, if a journalist employee engages in opinion-based content on social media, it can negatively affect the credibility of the whole newsroom. The SPJ Code of Ethics mentioned that it is essential that journalists take responsibility for the correctness of their work before relating it to the public. They also stated, "Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations." The SPJ Code of Ethics made it evident that as a journalist, if you find content that does not align with the truth, it needs to be exposed, even within the organization, to try and decrease fake news and bias among information in the media.