Do Ethics Really Even Matter?

Palmer Bowman
pb501515@ohio.edu

Do ethics even matter? The short answer is a hearty and obvious yes. I completely agree that being an ethical person and making ethical choices based on reasoning and logic is fundamental to how we grow up and learn as people, but do ethics really matter in today's 24/7 news climate? The answer is certainly not as much as it probably should and that's fine.

We live at a time in which anything televised is better off being assumed as entertainment, even if it is a news outlet.  We can tell ourselves that we are trying to stay up to date on current events but every single outlet has a pretty blatant agenda that is being pushed. Fox News has the right, CNN and MSNBC have the left, but all outlets are treading through muddy water with no definitive certainty of fact.  It might not be the most ethical to lean into confirmation bias for the pursuit of ad revenue and acclaim regardless if information is misleading to the viewers, but the best we can do is try to find a positive way to look at it.

Let me try to boil this down even further. The average person works 40 hours a week. Most jobs are not affiliated with politics in the slightest and when you come home you might want to just watch anything to get your mind off work. Being that we live in an embarrassment of riches in the realm of televised content, you do not have to watch anything if you do not want to. I have friends that watch nothing but The Office. They don't watch a single other show.  They do not keep up with politics and when they finish season 9 they come back to square one and watch it all over again. Why do they watch this? The show makes them laugh they know what they are getting every time and and it makes them feel good. Is that bad? Not at all. Why do certain demographics only watch one news outlet? My guess is the exact same thing. People like having their own thoughts and opinions be reaffirmed. Plus, if it can take your mind off of your day to day job then in my opinion the broadcast was effective.

I will unabashedly admit that I find my news from comedians. Stephen Colbert can go on an emotionally charged rant about our president and I'd still feel more secure with that information that most news sources because I know his main goal is comedy and comedy isn't funny with out truth.  He obviously has to maintain an audience the same way Fox and Friends does but Colbert doesn't have an ulterior motive to spin fact or pedal rhetoric. All he has to do to keep his audience is make them laugh.

The point I would like to make is that these shows need to keep an audience to continue being a show and people want to hear things that reconfirm their already established beliefs.  I one hundred percent believe that being an ethical person is very important from a moral and human standpoint but it might be too far gone to fully correct much of the unethical behavior in our media and politics overnight.  As bleak as it might seem the best we can do is try to remain ethical ourselves and hopefully those who stay ethical get into positions of power in the future.

Courtesy of Medium.com

Ethical Philosophy

Kyra Barksdale
kb764715@ohio.edu

Our generation is merely geared to finding our news solely through the Internet. Why? Because of the fast-paced information being transferred, it’s impossible for us to be patient to find out the latest news on our favorite basketball player or what is currently happening with the government. In fact, the statistics on who would gather their news from the internet versus the newspaper/magazine are high. Our society is increasing in technology and social media and we need to be prepared for the shifting away from non-internet outlets for media intake.

Ethical Journalism

It’s very important to have truth and accuracy as core principals in journalism. Although, it is not guaranteed for journalists to prepare the truth, it’s a high possibility for the facts to be right. Why? Because the society is always watching for the latest and accurate news. If your sources aren’t credible, your readers’ attention will not be geared to your story. 

Lets take a look at the Pew Research Center poll…

A study on May 10, 2017 showed that 34% Democrats and 11% Republicans believed that national news organizations like CNN or Good Morning America are believed to be trustworthy--now, that’s a bit of a gap. When it comes to relying on information from those sources, the gap decreases with Republicans agreeing 18% and Democrats agreeing only 30% of the time.

This divide is not surprising especially with the election of Donald Trump. The divide in my view has become more divided since the election.

Social media by far has been taking over how society receives news. During our class discussion, we discussed how we view the news. The most popular answer was the internet and more in depth was the app, Twitter. This app is an online news and social networking service on which “user” post tweets (messages) to the open public. Users with a blue check to their name means they are “verified” as real. For example, when Nicki Minaj tweeted “Q.U.E.E.N will be released early August” This media statement was factual because it came from a real, verified source. Not TMZ, but the actual artist herself. News online comes quick and right at our finger tips. Our nation has become lazy with the growth in technology, that we don’t have to work hard to find out something.

With the studies showing that our increase in social media trust, one could agree that the Internet is a big factor in helping with the ethics in journalism.

source from: thecomiccomics.com

What Media Can Truly Be Trusted?

Brooke Balzano
bb240415@ohio.edu

In today's day and age, it's hard to truly know what you can believe in. We live in a world where a social networking site has now become a main source of news for some, while others think it may not be reliable. The Internet has such a large impact on the way we receive our news, with media outlets no longer focusing solely on television or radio broadcasts, but now making sure they update their website, social media and other outlets accordingly.

How Americans Get Their News

According to PEW Research Center, about four in ten Americans get their news from online. The demand for print newspapers has decreased because people are no longer looking to get their news from a printed source. The benefit to news online is that it can be consistently updated and changed if need be. The Internet allows for rapid updating and makes sources very accessible for consumers to find. Although watching the news is considered the most preferred by some, reading the news online is much more preferred than any other option to read.

Courtesy of PEW Research Center

Four Reasons Why Journalism Is Not Trusted

1. Money:

When it comes to broadcasting news across all types of platforms, money is always involved. Distributing this information to viewers is not inexpensive and can be a lengthy project before everything is finished and running the way it should. The issue is that more times than not with online/broadcast news, the main goal is to be the first one to break the story. If a station catches wind of an urgent story, they want to get it out and published as soon as possible. With that in mind, it is more likely that there will be errors in the post and the story could be painted in a completely different light than what was intended. Not only does trying to be the first one to publish a story runs the risk of tainting your brand if any false information was released, but it also minimizes how much money you are spending because you care more about what is said than how everything was around it.

2. Spinmeisters:

A spinmeister plays a very crucial part in journalism especially on the political side of things with Twitter specifically. President Trump has his own personal Twitter account that he tweets whatever he wishes off of and has the tendency to try to influence his followers greatly with what is said. Most recently, rapper Kanye West began tweeting at President Trump and speaking rather highly of him. Although it is like this was not a true spinmeister scenario, this is something that greatly impacted the general public's opinion because they were such big fans of Kanye. Since Kanye is a very famous and reputable rapper, he now made a statement saying he supports the president, which will now impact all of the fans that interact with him daily.

3. Tabloid Journalism:

Tabloid journalism is very common when trying to bring someone good publicity. Media outlets are likely to cover "astroturf," which is when a fake event is put on, for the public to give them attention and make themselves look better even if it was all pre-planned. Tabloid journalism is also a prime spot for fake news stories to develop. More often than not, an outlet is trying to give a specific area attention to answer some questions and create a storyline off of it, so it is very easy to make up lies about something that you know was not true. 

4. Political Bias:

Political bias is when a group is being prejudiced against a specific outlet or network because it is something they do not believe in. When it comes to major television networks, FOX tends to learn more conservatively while networks like MSNBC and CNN are more liberal networks. By having political bias, it makes it difficult for people who do not have the same beliefs as you because they are automatically going to think that one is bad and one is good, which is necessarily the case. When a source is biased, it takes away the credibility the source once had because it shows that you are learning one way and showing you what you could have. It makes it difficult to trust this source if it has a reputation like this because it will not be something that you could have a neutral conversation with. 

Have the Internet and Social Media Changed Public Perception of the Media?

Ryan Everett
re962714@ohio.edu

There is no question that the Internet and social media have greatly impacted how we receive our news. They give users easy and quick access to any network and any story they may want to see. Many companies have come to rely almost exclusively on the Internet as their main medium, shifting away from newspapers and magazines.

Yet, despite the ease the Internet gives not only the consumer, but the journalist as well, public opinion towards the media has continually declined. Many factors could have contributed to this decline, but the rise of Internet-based media seems to be at the forefront.

Statistics on Media Trust

According to polls performed by Gallup, trust in the media has declined steadily since the Watergate scandal during the Nixon presidency. Media trust was at it highest in 1976, reaching 72%, yet a 2016 poll shows that only 32% of Americans have a great deal or fair amount of trust towards the media. While this can be viewed as a slight outlier, as media trust always plummets during an election year, the number is still staggering.

A 2018 poll by Gallup shows that 62% of Americans believe that news is biased, 44% said it is inaccurate, and 39% said it is misinformation. With nearly half of Americans believing the news they see is inaccurate, it can leave one to question what has caused this mistrust.

Politics' Effect on Media Trust

With the election of Donald Trump, America has become more politically divided than we have in years, leading many journalists to "choose sides." Major news networks such as MSNBC and CNN typically lean left while Fox News typically leans right. This has lead members of both political parties to believe that the opposing networks are unreliable. Political bias, while nearly impossible to avoid, has certainly led to some media mistrust.

Donald Trump's "war" which he has waged against mainstream media has also lead to a great deal of mistrust within the Republican party. The 2016 Gallup poll showed that only 14% of Republicans viewed the media favorably, directly related to the President's statements about the media.

However, divide has been commonplace in American politics since the dawn of our democracy, making it seem clear that there is more to the rapid decline in media trust.

Social Media's Effect on Media Trust

Social media has, without a doubt, changed the landscape on how we receive news, and how journalists can break a story. A story could blow up and spread around the world in a matter of minutes, but there are certainly downfalls to this as well.

With the demanding speed associated with news on social media and the Internet, it can often be a competition to be the first to break a story. This can lead to preventable mistakes and information that is not completely accurate.

There is also a great deal of bias associated with social media, as it is often opinion based, and not based solely on the facts of the story. This has led to serious mistrust. In the same Gallup poll mentioned earlier, it shows that 80% of people believe social media is biased, 64% believe it is inaccurate, and 65% believe it is misinformation, a significant increase over standard media.

With the significant increase in social media-based news, and the decline in trust towards the media, one could assume that Internet, and more specifically, social media has led to the poor opinion the population has towards the media, but this cannot be confirmed. Time could show that a younger generation trusts social media-based news, and the public opinion of journalists could improve, but, without a doubt, the current media-civilian relationship is in shambles.

Image via radioreference.com

Journalism: Profession or Craft

Natalie Butko
nb861214@ohio.edu

In today's world journalism can take many forms. The internet and social media have made it easy for anyone to blog, report on current events and spread information to any corner of the world. Today's political and social climates have shown that journalism is more important than ever. When diving deeper into what journalism is, it is hard to give a label to the industry as a whole. Should journalism be regarded as a profession alongside law and medicine or does the easy access to the industry make it a craft?

For many it is easy to write journalism off as just a craft. No formal education or training is needed to start a career in journalism. In earlier decades, the largest hurdle of becoming a journalist was having an outlet. With the internet that hurdle no longer exists. Anyone with internet access can become a journalist and with most public libraries having a plethora of computers, that "anyone" includes just about everyone.

While journalists are using their hands to make something in a skillful way, the industry is so much more than the craft of writing. Journalists use research, interview, and editing skills which are usually all taught then honed over time. They must also be able to identify newsworthy information, which in today's culture of information overload is no easy task.

Perhaps the biggest argument that journalism is indeed a profession and not a craft is the industry's similarities to other professional industries. Just like medicine, politics and law, journalism is an industry working for the people. Journalism acts as the watchdog to government and society.

Maria Saporta from the Saporta Report says, "It’s no accident that the First Amendment of our nation’s Bill of Rights protected the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech. It is fundamental to our democracy and to what makes the United States special. So it is distressing to hear President Donald Trump call the press the 'enemy of the people' when the reverse is actually true."

Another argument for journalism being a profession is the code of standards for the industry including a code of ethics. The Society of Professional Journalist's Code of Ethics includes four principles to guide journalists:

• Seek Truth and Report It
• Minimize Harm
• Act Indepedently
• Be Accountable and Transparent

These principles are intended for everyone working in the journalism/media field. Just like the other professional industries mentioned, the journalism industry wants to ensure the field is remaining ethical. While it is important to note that the journalism industry does not have an official governing body to ensure these principles are being enforced, many news organizations and individuals are making an effort to show they honor SPJ's Code of Ethics. 

An example of this is NewsGuard, a Microsoft web extension that lets internet users view trust ratings for news and information websites. According to their website, "NewsGuard uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation. Our trained analysts, who are experienced journalists, research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trying to do legitimate journalism—and which are not." 

NewsGuard Criteria. Credit: NewsGuard

NewsGuard and SPJ's Code of Ethics are just two ways the journalism industry is showing it is a profession rather than just a craft. Both of these resources are trying to keep the industry ethical and professional, while continuing to serve the public. 

Earning Our Trust - Social Media & The News

Joe Bartolotta
jb177314@ohio.edu

Social Media - Our Friend

For our generation, we consider social media to be of the utmost importance. We grew up alongside the conception and growth of social media as it has become more and more of a driving force in our society. It was our generation who adopted these social media platforms early on and are a big part of what helped them become so important today. No matter how much or how little you engage in social media, it is impossible to deny its profound significance in our world.

It is quite apparent that social media has dramatically changed the game for journalism and mainstream news media. What was once a job withheld by only certain institutions is now becoming more of an all-encompassing space for anyone wishing to report news.

It is not to say that just anyone on social media is a reliable unbiased news source, of course social media can bring about many false news claims and inaccurate reporting. However, it is the whole idea embodied by social media, that it is one’s duty to question and analyze whatever news may come their way, and to synthesize and make judgements based on more than one viewpoint or account and publicly voice their opinions.

This poses quite a threat on traditional news media outlets. Before the internet and social media came around, these news entities were the only driving force in delivering news to the public. Now, these entities must reflect on viewpoints from all different levels of media power so that they too can synthesize and make judgements based on multiple accounts when reporting news. If a news organization fails to do this, it can have a drastic effect on its public opinion and trustworthiness. 'Trust' in the News Media Has Come to Mean Affirmation 

Older generations must also be accountable for thinking critically about the news they intake, and creating judgements based around multiple sources when constructing their personal viewpoints. Even though they may not have adopted the concept of social media as a news source as early as us, its fundamental role in society is indisputable. To simply disregard smaller, and oftentimes marginalized news outlets goes against all of the advantages that social media has brought about.

Seeing that different groups of people can have the power to voice their opinions and make an impact should be an eye-opener when considering the state of mainstream media in the pre-social media era. Now that we have the power to publicly interact and communicate with both journalists and audiences online, it has created a much-needed transparency in the news media which in-turn helps to create less of a bias for all parties (ideally).

It is important to question mainstream news media, and social media has given us the power to do so. Certain inaccuracies in news stories can have drastic impacts on groups who are being reported on and can further marginalize groups simply because of the biases held by that particular journalist or news organization.

Young Black People See the News Media's Double Standard This is a good example of why it is important for mainstream media outlets to be both transparent and impartial in an effort to be an all-inclusive news source, which is vital to the success of their organization as the general public becomes more and more aware of the types of widespread effects prejudiced news can have. It is imperative that mainstream media organizations abide by these methods to be deemed as credible institutions, and if they do not, the prowess of social media will surely come back to haunt them.

Image via backtoyoumarketing.com

Ethics and Journalism

Marechan Burrows
mb573016@ohio.edu


The question of morals and ethics have been at the forefront of Journalism for some time now. Since the outbreak of the Watergate Scandal, the issue of trust among the media has been prevalent.

In the 1970s, President Nixon created an "Enemies List" of various news organizations that he said were spreading false claims about his administration and vowed that he would avenge his name. Similarly, President Trump claims that the media and news are responsible for the negativity his administration faces. History of Problems with The Press

While local news organizations generally thrive regardless of the media bashing that occurs, larger organizations face salary cuts and greater pounding by the public and politicians. Local vs. National News

Reasons News is Failing the Public 

Critics of the news tend to list a few reasons as to why news organizations are failing in regards to achieving trust and continued respect from the public.

1. Money- The amount of completion and the high stake of money makes it difficult to get news out quickly and still remain ethical. Cable for example, must focus on receiving good ratings which makes it difficult to stay ethical when trying to please the public quickly (but not impossible).

2. Spinmeisters- Philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt says that it is important to always check one's facts before presenting them to others. A lot of media organizations have mastered the art of creating an appealing image rather than actually working on its foundation. Therefore, they sell false information because of their carelessness.

3. Tabloid Journalism- While this has always been part of public interest, over the past few decades, it has become more popular than actual factual and serious news. This is dangerous as it often causes people to unintentionally blend fake news with real news. Tabloid Journalism and its Impact

4. Political Bias- Many organizations now cater to only one demographic of viewers. While it it important to appeal to one's audience, it is also just as important to be aware of the population in general and stay away from biases.


Ethical Thinking 

The Greeks, who are important to the development of ethics in the western world, said that ethics is a fundamental branch of philosophy. Rather than looking at ethics as a word to describe he good vs. the bad, it should be used as a way to describe outcomes because of heavy thinking.

Similarly, unethical should be used to describe outcomes based on ones inner feelings or emotions rather than as a synonym for bad decisions.

The western approach to ethics is not the only approach that can be taken. The eastern world, for example, sees the separation of knowledge and morality as unnecessary. Religious philosophies, for example, neglect the Greek approach to focus on things like learning from elders and dogma.

Western ethics, however, may be a better starting ground, because of its focus on inalienable rights for all people and freedom of the press.

Overall, the main focus of ethics is trying to decide what is justified and if it is the same way for each human or if it changes based on that person.

Socrates argued that when he was in prison, he chose not to escape because of the overall consequence it would have on the public. It would send the wrong message about respecting the law and would result in possible problems. That is an example of ethics.

Socrates thought about telos (Greek word for end goal) while he was in prison. Regardless of how unjust he thought the laws were, he chose to stay behind bars because he felt it was morally correct.

Religious forces, like the Catholic Church, have become prominent in the idea of morals and ethics. Deontology,  a rule-based ethical theory, is comprised of things like the ten commandments that guide the public through what they should and shouldn't do.

They argue that behavior alone has moral importance, not just an outcome.                                                                      

During the Renaissance and Reformation period, scholars stated the the human brain was able to think rationally. These ideas challenged the ways of the church.

The printing press showed people that they were capable of doing more things than they had previously thought. They could now read and learn more knowledge faster than ever before, proving their brains were more complicated than previously believed.

Utilitarianism, an ethics system based on one's outcomes, is linked to two pioneers of that field - John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. The philosophy calls for an equal playing field for all people and insists that everyone should be happy.

However, many critics argue that utilitarianism is not truly fair and does not really focus on the moral reasoning.

The contact theory argues that at one point in the world, people were given the right to do as they pleased without complete thought --for example, killing somebody for their personal belongings. People eventually decided that it was better to work together for a sense of better safety, compared to working apart and ending up in danger.

Although, some philosophers argue that humans are more concerned with their own personal desires. This is called ethical egoism. Friedrich Nietzsche, an ethical egoist, believed that "God is dead" and the world is ruled by a group of people.

Journalism and the culture

Cultural norms, our pre-conditioning of what is acceptable, is something that journalism organizations have take part in; creating ethics codes to express their idea of a norm.

The question of ethics remains prevalent in journalism, especially in the current climate. With ethics codes, can organizations (in particular larger media outlets) gain the public's trust back? It is possible, it just depends on the way the organization goes about ethically on a daily basis.

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