Journalists are at the front line of traumatic eve Essays - Ethics

Journalists are at the front line of traumatic events when they happen. Journalism has the most restrictive and the highest standard of ethics of any profession that I know about, but that's not the reputation that it has. The first thing that a journalist should do is be honest and pursue the truth. They aren't many professions that involve honesty and truth being two of the most important components. Honesty is important in a personal sense and pursuit of truth is important in a professional sense. Journalists are supposed to practice our profession in the open. This imposes some burdens on us that other professions do not carry. As journalists, we are supposed to act independently. We cannot be totally independent, because we often work for news organizations that have interests. We try to achieve the maximum good and the minimum harm to society as a whole and that is when it gets tough. It is very difficult to determine the maximum good and the minimum harm at times. In general, the maximum good is maximum disclosure of information, but in some instances that has to be modified and negotiated. We have to think about the people involved and the consequences. There are different factors that should be taken into consideration when reporting on tragedies. In some situations it can be difficult to gather sources depending on the severity of the tragedy and the culture of the community that the tragedy occurred. When I was in sixth grade there was a shooting at an Amish school house that was ten minutes down the road from my school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Amish are known for horse and buggies, building furniture and also being some of the most private and modest people in this country. When this tragedy happened they had no interest in speaking to the media and they just wanted to be left alone for the most part. As a journalist situations like this are extremely challenging. You have a duty to the people in the town and local area to let them know what happened and why, so that they feel safe and are aware of what is going on right around them. You also have a duty to be respectful of the culture of the people who were directly affe cted by the tragedy. "Who's whispering in your ear?" The fact that it is a small town also has an influence. The local media were more respectful in terms of privacy than the national media. Sometimes national media can have an idea of a culture and research it, but they may not really know the ins and outs like the local reporters that share the same community. When covering tragedies it is essential that journalists weigh the costs and benefits of key concerns, utility vs. disutility. As the text mentions, all of the decisions we make will are made in a certain amount of uncertainty. In chapter six of the text we discussed values. The values that are important to journalists and the organizations the journalists work for influence the ways in which tragedies are reported. We have to be responsible when we gather and present information in words and pictures. The SPJ Code of Ethics is a great guideline for reporting in a careful, not careless manner. If we are responsible, accountable, transparent and credible this will help us to be able to handle some tough decisions we have to make when reporting tragedies. Thinking about how the decisions we make are going to look helps us to make decisions that can be justified.