Sidebar on p502 and p. 506-522: Ethics in a nutshell

Sidebar: Copied from “Digital Dilemmas” the 7 ethical guidelines that journalists should follow:
1) responsibility to public 2) freedom of press 3) independence 4) sincerity, truth, accuracy 5) impartiality 6) fair play 7) decency

p506-522
“Solving Ethical Dilemmas”
principled reasoning- a journalist is not acting ethically if you do something because you’re told to or because everyone else does.

So how do you make an ethical decision? Why, you use my favorite Potter box! (I had to memorize this once for my ethics in journalism class) Appraise the situation, then identify the values, appeal (or choose) the ethical principle that you prescribe to, choose your loyalties (ie: public, employer, you, culture, etc) and make your decision.

But don’t worry…there’s no one correct answer!

“Ethical Problems”
Journalists should always protect the first amendment, according to journalism ethicist Ralph Barney. Who Ralph Barney is and why I should listen to him is beyond me.
I think that a journalists first job is to inform the public, not protect their right to free speech. They need to be informed before they can say whatever they want.

Using deceit to get a story…as a rule: don’t do it, unless there is no other way to get the information that the public needs. Many investigative journalists lie about their identities and hide their cameras and recorders in order to get the information they need to incriminate deceitful business owners.

Conflicts of interest- Friendship is the most obvious and most frequent, according to Missouri Press…especially when reporters get to be too close to their subjects.
Money-journalists are unable to accept money for their pieces from anyone but their employer. Scully always said don’t accept anything more than the price of a cup of coffee. I think that’s a pretty good rule.
However, check your newsroom’s ethical principles.
Checkbook journalism-can you trust a source if you had to pay them to talk? I think not.
If you have to, make sure you have corroborating evidence. And make sure your boss knows you are paying your source.

Participation in the News- Let your boss know what types of organizations you belong to. Understand that the groups and organizations you join, as well as the protests you participate in can influence your ability to write objectively. So just keep in mind your opinions.

Embedded journalists underwent training at the Pentagon before going to Iraq. In some cases, the journalists went through training simulanteously with their unit. I guess the journalists who participated in the training thought that they became better reporters because of it.

The invisible wall between news and advertising. Sometimes papers, radio and tv stations have rifts between the advertising dept. and management because an article criticizing a certain investor could lose the company a lot of money, money that news definitely needs in order to survive. It’s a challenge to balance, but stick to your guts.

Invasion of Privacy- the right to know and the right to privacy often collide in reporting. The Missouri group says that when it comes to using people’s names, journalists name names, except for protecting children.

Withholding Information
Is it ethical to withhold information from your news organization? It depends. Sometimes journalists withhold information from the public until there is a situation where the information is actually relevant.
Because that’s one of the news values-news must be relevant.

Plagiarism: DON’T DO IT!!! Attribute, attribute, attribute! The end.

Protect your personal ethical principles. They are the most important.