Corporate Journalism: How Can Ethical Environments Be Created?

Nicholas Snider 

sniderwx@gmail.com

 

Increasingly, especially over the last 20 years, news outlets have been acquired by large conglomerates. This has especially been true when Nexstar Media acquired Tribune media last fall, making Nexstar the largest local television media corporation in the country. Each company has a set of guidelines foe each employee. Companies also must set a culture of high ethical standards to not only prevent interference with the public's lives, but also to protect the company from the loss of the public's trust once allegations have come out.

Virgil Scudder, a writer for PRSA, wrote about this in his article Follow The Leader: Ethics and Responsibility. In his piece, he talks about many cases in which employees (including the CEO) violated various ethics codes, and in come cases, laws. Two examples he talked about in this piece that stood out to me are 1.) Rupert Murdoch's News of the World corporation, and 2.) The Atlanta School Board's falsely boosting test scores. 

 

In the case of Murdoch, his employees were caught hacking into a missing 13 year old's phone, which hindered the investigation of her murder. Employees testified of a culture that "pressured them to be ahead of everyone else". In the case of the Atlanta School Board, Beverly Hall (the superintendent) demanded that her employees produce higher test scores.

In both of these cases, the person on top (Hall in Atlanta, and Murdoch in The News of the World) claimed they had no idea. However, testimony and news reports both uncovered the pressure from the top of the organization to appear better to the public. Scudder talks about how, in most cases, wrongdoing doesn't typically start with the low level employees. "

How then should companies make sure that the culture they're creating is ethical? Scudder lays out some ideas in his piece. "Reveal the hazards of having lax ethical standards or enforcement, and use examples to highlight your points. Encourage management to set up a “whistleblower line” so that employees can report serious violations anonymously. Suggest bringing in an outside firm to look at standards and practices periodically and indicate any possible vulnerability. Promote the development of a clear set of standards and practices that the organization can convey and post on its website."

The two ideas I personally agree with are setting up the whistleblower line and setting up external audits. A whistleblower line will be very beneficial to not only the company, but also the company's employees. The employees will feel as though they can report anonymously any wrongdoing without worrying about being fired. This too can hold the company accountable. External audits are also a good idea when it comes to setting up a good culture. Companies that do these will be more likely to find areas of wrongdoing than an internal audit would, because there is no bias toward the company they're auditing--it's a third party. Following the suggestions of this third party can be very beneficial to a company's ethics, and culture.

Success: Morally Sound and Mutually Beneficial

Jaelyn R. Smith 

js105916@ohio.edu

 

Within the world of strategic communication, public relation firms often face a tremendous amount of backlash from the public at large. Mark Grabowski claims that 70 percent of the public distrusts public relations specialist, and two-thirds of journalist believe that those same specialists, spin facts too often. Spin refers to the idea of being crooked or manipulating facts. In some firms, those theories have been proven to be true, but on the contrary many public relation firms strive to not mislead, but also not make a mess. 

 

Some may consider that statement within itself a manipulation, but it does not have to be as long as certain criteria is followed. PR firms who stay true to their corporate social responsibility will not participate in activities that create ethical conflicts; they will not portray misleading images or fall short in transparency, that could lead to “astroturfing.” This being said, how do PR firms avoid conflicts of interest, and more so, how do they encourage corporations to uphold an excellent ethical and moral standard? 

 

PR executives have responsibility to communicate with news and media organizations, employees, shareholders, government agencies, and occasionally, customers and suppliers. They must find out the entirety of what happened and where else the problem is coming from. This is a necessity because, when representing an organization during a press conference, simply saying “no comment,” implies guilt. The same could be said for making speculations compared to presenting actual facts.

 

An organization’s cultural and ethical standards trickle down. Meaning, in most cases, employees will act the way that management allows and/ or expects them to. In an article called “Follow the Leader: Ethics and Responsibility,” by Virgil Scudder solutions were provided to prevent ethical conflicts from both a company and their PR executive.

 

 Step one, know your role: CEO’s should create, foster and communicate the culture of an organization and PR executive should communicate and explain that culture both inside of that organization and to the outside world.  Step two, ask key questions: does the organization applaud addressing problems and taking action to fix them or does it reward cutting corners as long as particular goals are met? Step three, hold your organization accountable; there are factors that can contribute to ethical conflicts within decision making: pressure to meet an unrealistic goal, demands to beat competition, willingness within management to overlook small, but consistent things as long as the job is done, and the fear of job loss. However, there are instances when these factors don’t contribute and a singular employee or a small set can stray from an established set of moral and legal boundaries, to achieve personal gain. 

 

This highlights the importance of creating an ethical and morally sound environment within an organization. If all ethical bases are covered, it will be much more rewarding when public relations executives are successful. 

 

Keisha Brewer conducted a TED Talk that presented a four-part process for success in strategic communication. She described strategic communication as “communicating with purpose, while showcasing value in order to achieve a goal.” She assured that this is not a manipulative process when four things are involved: identifying the goal of both parties, understanding your audience, communicating value, and expressing a need. This ensures transparency, holistic understanding of a topic, and mutual benefits. 

 

Picture source: Outlook Money

 

 

These four parts work together to provide a high success rate, but if one of the four parts are withheld, it can create resistance. This is essential because these four parts can work as an outline for ethical decision making within strategic communication, but removing one creates resistance, just as ethical issues do within the public toward PR firms. Overall, meeting particular goals and upholding ethical and moral standards are both imperative for true success. It’s not only about what you say, but how you say it and what you you do to ensure that everything you do say is true and constructive for everyone. 

The Ethical Importance Of a "Call to Action" When Audiences Face a Hard Truth

Alli B. Westbrook

aw263116@ohio.edu

In an era that has an abundance of media and information the call to action puts power back into the hands of the audience. It can be exceptionally necessary to include when the audience faces a hard truth.

The world is full of topics that are difficult to digest. Yet the norm is, to be productive citizens we must seek them out. This seeking of information can become a positive long-term process that expands well beyond the act of reading the article because the audience is given the tools and information needed to effectively engage in discourse. The call to action only heightens the audiences ability to engage. 

Even when one actively tries to seek space from the media it seems to find them. Some prevalent, almost unavoidable issues are global warming, Covid-19, systematic racism, and war. All of the above paired with the current mistrust of media causes many to feel uncertain about the future as they scrutinize what roles the issues above play within their own live. 

This self-reflective scrutiny without a positive outlet or guidance can be negative for ones mental health. Which is why, despite the uncertainty media is more important now than ever. The ethical importance of a call to action as an outlet for the audience is especially critical during an election time when we as a nation face two global crises. Pro-social calls to action have an understated influence, they can be as simple as "support this local artist" or "engage in this behavior". The last few month have made it clear that a call to action can change and save lives.

From a P.R. and advertising standpoint social marketing has saved countless lives. "Masking up" was encouraged throughout the Midwest in response to Covid-19 as the World Health Organization called upon solidarity (WHO, 2020). This pulls from the PRSSA ethics codes of Advocacy and Expertise.

Those who have the expertise, know the ethical obligation they carry to actively serve in the publics best interest and advocate. Which allowed information surrounding Covid-19 to flood the market in a pro-social way. The faces and names of the lives saved are invisible, and the things we have given up from altering our behavior is very tangible. But at the end of the day society as a whole has benefited from social marketing and the calls to action that came with it. 

The black lives matter movement (like all great movements before it) has caused an expansion of art. The call to action became focused on supporting Black communities and culture. With the strategic use of social media, the allocation of funds and positive attention were being channeled directly into the hands of up and coming artists. 

Soon the journalist followed which allowed for a wider scale of national support. Artists like Ciara LeRoy,     saw her follower count increase by the thousands, especially after Insider magazine featured her art because of the way her designs spoke to the nation about black female femininity in a time of stark uncertainty. 

Picture source: Insider & @Prettystrangedesign/Instragram

                                                

The power of smart consumerism was used to positively impact the careers of many artists in a life changing way. This is because of the calls to action that were promoted throughout various forms of media in response to systematic racism. The call to actions empowered the audience as well as an intangible number of individuals whose lives are forever changed and positively impacted. The call to action allows our society to not be defined by inherent negatives.

What Employers want in Public Relations

Charles Savidge

cs351916@ohio.edu

 

When you talk to somebody outside of the field of journalism and say they work in public relations they probably don't think about the ethical decisions involved in what that person does. More likely than not they will figure that they are the person that does write-ups and the messages that are sent out to the public and works on the marketing team. While this notion may not be entirely incorrect it doesn't take into account the idea that the person working in public relations has their own ethical standards and how that is an aspect that is worth hiring for. That added layer of ethics and journalistic practice can help a companies foresight when working with or having the attention of the press. It can allow them to see how what they do would be perceived by the public. This isn't just people outside of the journalism field, but employers too that often miss it.

Photo source: The McKendree Review

In Mark McClennan's piece What Are the Top Ethics Challenges, Skills and Deficiencies Facing Public Relations Professionals?, he talks about the study conducted by The Commission on Public Relations Education. The study found that over the three years of working with employers they ranked ethics as a top three factor when hiring but they struggled to identify it in prospects when hiring, and that their current employees were not meeting expectations. These issues occur for a myriad of reasons whether it be lack of training or employees not speaking up with their higher ups. Both parties seem in agreement that there is a disconnect. While companies may see this as a value for employees to speak up, they aren't necessarily giving the the proper training to their employees such as situational training. A new employee on his first job may not be wanting to speak out in fear of losing their job.

In the article, PR Ethics and Reputation: PR Professionals Are Not “Yes Men” When Pressured to Be Unethical, New Baylor Study Finds, they talk about how important ethics are in public relations are and how it is in the employees best interest to have ethics. What motivates the people in public relations to speak out about their ethics is that once they violate those ethics everyone knows it and it will make it really difficult to continue their future within this industry. While some companies may think they want a yes man, the issues that come with that and the lack of foresight can be very harmful to a firm and their public perception, which can impact stakeholders and revenue.

In the end when a person that works in Public Relations does what's right and sticks to their ethics, it ultimately helps the firm and their stakeholders.

The Many Lines of Conflicts of Interest

Cara Renfro

cr322818@ohio.edu 

 

Journalists act as a source of information for the public. For this reason, it is imperative for journalists and media organizations to not only remain unbiased, but also to avoid being perceived as biased. These biases are, in other words, conflicts of interest. 

Conflicts of interest can appear in many forms and can sometimes be difficult to navigate. This is problematic for those who pursue a career that is in relation to the media, such as those in the journalism field, who are especially likely to encounter issues of conflict of interest. 

Conflicts of interest can arise from familial ties and proximity to a story. Ultimately, emotions are a main foundation of causes of conflict of interest. 

What's the Problem, Anyway? 

Familial ties can be a major issue to journalists, especially when it comes to politics. Paul Farhi dives into the topic in his article, "Media, Administration Deal With Conflict"(2013). Farhi explains different journalists' relations to the Obama administration. He states, "Conservatives have suggested that these relationships may play a role in how the media cover Obama..." With politics being as important as it is, it is evident that these relationships may cause problems. Emotional ties, however, extend beyond family. 

Photo source: The Washington Post

Howard Rosenberg also expressed the issue of emotional proximity in his article, "A Journalist Breaks the Golden Rule"(2002). He explained that a reporter of a story involving the kidnapping of two children, who turned to murder victims, became a speaker at the eulogy. 

Rosenberg unfolded the ethical issue of the situation. He explained the issue as: "...violating a basic tenet of journalism by participating in a story she was supposed to be observing as a reporter, as an outsider".

It is the responsibility of a reporter to tell the facts of a story, without opinion or commentary. Becoming emotionally too close to a story can cause an appearance of unprofessional reporting and call into question the validity of the reporter, organization, and the truth. 

Blurred Solutions 

Conflicts of interest are unethical in journalism and are complicated in avoidance. Navigating conflicts of interest can be a grey area. For example, although it is unethical for a journalist to report in association to familial ties, does that make it right for the journalist to have to uproot his or her career stability in order to avoid a perception of bias? Does avoidance of conflict of interest have more weight than basic human emotion? 

The solution to conflicts of interest are not always clear cut decisions. As conflicts of interest are situational, the solutions are also situational.

Covering Entertainment as a Journalist

Lily Roby

lr158117@ohio.edu

A key goal of being a journalist and writer is to remain unbiased, as that ensures high quality, trustworthy reporting to the public. However, as a journalist one frequently runs into conflicts of interest between their media organization, organizations or people they are covering and even between themselves and those which they cover.

It is essential that journalists recognize these conflicts of interest and address them once recognized, either by turning the stories to other journalists or possibly even other media organizations. According to the New York Times' ethical journalism page, conflicts of interest may "involve the relationships of staff members with readers, news sources, advocacy groups, advertisers, or competitors; with one another, or with the newspaper and its parent company."

One very common occurrence in which conflicts of interest may occur is when covering entertainment such as music, television, or sports. This is because while this coverage of entertainment is considered journalism, the coverage remains biased in that it tends to cover only what the public is interested in.

In traditional journalism, it is necessary to cover all events, organizations and people, not just those that are already receiving views and coverage. However in situations such as with music reviews in organizations like Pitchfork, covering these topics can be skewed because they may only review popular artists or those already receiving clicks and interest by the audience.

This can pose an issue for the media organization because they aren't covering all topics, just those which people would like to hear. To some, this could be considered biased reporting because the organizations aren't being entirely open to what they cover and are instead basing their coverage off of views and clicks.

According to a Pew Research study on media coverage of popular events, a large majority of people believe that organizations should cover what the people are interested in. In sports, this can be seen when larger sporting events such as the Super Bowl are heavily covered because it will get the news organization a lot of views.

News organization cameras are incredibly frequent at the Super Bowl. Photo source: Wired

However, basing views and clicks off of what is covered poses a strong conflict of interest to journalists. When is focusing on coverage which gets organizations clicks and money ethical? When an organization knows they will benefit more from covering specific stories, so they ignore others, that clearly isn't ethical. 

Sometimes covering larger events over smaller ones is necessary, though. The public's interests decide what events are relevant and what deserves coverage, but it is a very slippery slope to taking advantage of advertising money when covering larger events over smaller and possibly more important ones. Journalists must focus on covering events which genuinely deserve essential coverage and won't just get the organization ad money, and then move forward by covering those events in an unbiased manner.

Conflicts of Interest in Journalism

Delaney Ruth

delaneyruth18@gmail.com

 

There are many rules that journalists need to follow to stay unbiased and one of the most important rules is to avoid conflicts of interest. According to Jerz's Literary Weblog, "A conflict of interest arises when someone who is expected to act impartially has a personal stake in an issue (emotional, financial, etc.)." This may not seem like a big deal, but it can really hurt a journalist's credibility. Without credibility, the public can't trust the journalist to bring them unbiased information and this can ruin their career. Some of the most common conflicts of interest a journalist may face have to do with their personal life. Things like political views, religion and family can get in the way of an unbiased story if the journalist has some stake in the matter. 

Picture source: PRSSA

Familial conflicts of interest are complicated. In this Washington Post article, you can clearly see that pretty much all of the major network television stations run into conflicts of interest because many of their journalists are related or married to prominent people in politics. This is a problem because all of these journalists should not work on certain stories when their family members are involved. The journalist may not think there is not too much of a conflict of interest when she reports on a story on the president, but if her husband works underneath the president as an aid or something (no matter how insignificant and unimportant he may be), this is still a conflict of interest. The journalist has a stake in this story. If she reports that the president and his aides are doing a terrible job or are doing something wrong, her husband may get in trouble.

Another complicated conflict of interest journalists may run into is when the station they work for is owned by a company and the company is known for either liberal or conservative views. Reporters may be told by their parent company that they are supposed to put a conservative or liberal spin on a story. This is wrong because journalism is supposed to be unbiased. We are supposed to lay out the facts for the audience and by having a story that leans left or right, the audience may mistrust us. We could lose credibility. But on the flip side, if our parent company tells us to do something, what will happen to our station if we disobey?

These are just a few examples of the many ways journalists can be involved in conflicts of interest. Although it may not be the easiest choice, the best way to deal with conflicts of interest is to avoid them completely. If you have a personal stake in a story, give the story to another journalist. It is the only way to stay truly unbiased.