Ethics

How do we know that what we read is true or factual? How do we know we can trust those that provide our daily news?
Hopefully all the journalists that write the stories for newspapers and magazines have some form of ethical compass. If they have a college degree, they certainly learned about ethics in the classroom. The Newsroom on lds.org suggests that is can be hard to discern between the truth and personal opinion when many newspaper writers today also keep a personal blog where they can record their own slant and personal opinions on the stories of the day.

In class we have covered the SPJ Code of Ethics and many of us have referred back to it in our blogs. It is a great standard that all journalists should follow. I found an article on Poynter.org that gives some great advice for journalists and editors while in the profession. It gives great tips for keeping an ethics-centered mind while working with deadlines and big stories. "The notion of an ethical newsroom is a useful one, given all the second-guessing that takes place . . . Reporters lose perspective. Editors miss nuances. Deadlines overtake us. A leader's job in an ethical newsroom is to keep the behavior of its journalists foremost in the discussion -- and to reinforce at every opportunity that strong, ethical decisions are a shared value. "

I believe that every writer, journalists, or blogger should have their own similar standards or ethics. It's great to take on a code already set by another company or individual. However, it is a much more meaningful and personal thing to write your own list and to follow it. It is much harder to break your own individual code when you created it and made a private vow to abide by it. Adam Cohen, a writer for the New York Times covered the topic of non-professional journalists and their code of ethics. He says that "Some [bloggers] insist that they do not need journalistic ethics because they are not journalists, but rather activists, or humorists, or something else entirely. But more bloggers, and blog readers, are starting to ask whether at least the most prominent blogs with the highest traffic shouldn't hold themselves to the same high standards to which they hold other media."