Journalists have different opinions

What are some of the ethical problems faced by journalists? How are they resolved?

Journalists face many ethical problems. One of these ethical issues are Deontological ethics which is the ethics of duty meaning some actions are always right and some are always wrong. People that are deontologists believe that ends never justify the means. This belief is often called absolutism. Absolutists believe that if an event is interesting, timely, significant or important, it is to be reported, regardless of the consequences.

Another form of ethics is teleological ethics, and this is all about the end justifying the means to get there. In this perspective, if you have to do something bad, such as lie to get a good news story, as long as you have a good news story that possibly exposes something bad in the end you are okay.

Lastly Antinomianism is when journalists believe there are no moral absolutes and that every situation is different and you have to apply your own ethics to each case.

When it comes down to it, journalists have their own opinions of ethics, and have to use there own jurisdiction.

Ehtics and Information

What are some of the ethical problems faced by journalists? How are they resolved?

In today’s news world, journalists face many ethical problems. First off, they have to face the issue with obtaining information illegally then having to choose whether or not they should publish it. Also, when you are stuffing a camera in someone’s face, is that really ethical? Shouldn’t you just wait to have a sit down conversation with the person? Lastly, journalists need to know where to draw the line when they are interviewing them or writing about them—how much is too much?

So today, as you know, journalists have many ethical issues they face each day when they go out looking for a story. They need to decide whether or not it is truly ethical to publish a story and/or photos that were obtained while trespassing illegally. It is important for the public to see this story and photos, but the way it was seen was not legally so the legal power often overpowers the information side. I have seen several times, one in particular, when the New York Times obtained documents from the government illegally about their plans in the Vietnam War and the Times won the Supreme Court case because in their eye it was imperative for the public to see the information in the documents to stay informed. I believe it is unethical to publish a story and photos that were obtained illegally. I would try my hardest to gain them legally then publish the story the right way.

In addition to illegally obtaining a story, I believe it is unethical for reporters and cameramen to stuff cameras and microphones into a person’s face to get a reaction. I remember Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers pushed a cameraman down because he got into Rogers’ face with it. Rogers was fined, but I still believe it was unethical and unprofessional to stuff the camera in the athletes face just to get negative attention around Rogers and the team.

Stemming off that, I think there needs to be a line where the interviewer and/or the person who writes any sort of story follows how much is too much. Therefore, there needs to be a line that the reporter should not cross, where it is okay to ask some questions, and not others, because then it would be unethical and rude to ask some things. For example, when interviewing a Charlie Sheen let’s say, you can ask him about his drug abuse and all that, but questions about how his kids look at him now an how do you think the public thinks of you now is just rude and unethical in my opinion.

First Amendment = Informed Public

Why is the First Amendment so important to journalists? What are some of the rights you have as a journalist?

The First Amendment is so important to journalists because in most countries, it gives them the right to express their thoughts about the current issues in the world. It gives rights to what can be said and what cannot be said. It regulates how the world is able to get information while giving journalists a long leash if you will.

You have many rights as a journalist including the right to the freedom of the press—meaning you can say whatever you please as long as it does not attack someone personally or incorrectly write about in which it would be libel. You do have the right to go into a private property to obtain information as long as you are invited in. Anything besides that would be illegal for the journalist to publish whatever you found while trespassing.

I think the First Amendment is the most important right we have as Americans. It allows us to speak our minds and obviously while doing so we can debate current issues in the areas we live in. It can stir the political pot, and possibly insight change, such as Libya or Egypt. It can result in repression and dissent in China, where they do not have this right, then you and your family disappear without a trace.

We need to remember how important the right is as an American and a journalist because that is how we stay informed. We choose to watch the news occasionally, but we all should watch, listen, read, anything to the news every second we get because many countries don’t have the right to do so.

Ethics: Undefined Lines in Journalism

There are many ethical problems faced by journalists around the world today. For example, many people who have anything negative written about them will instantly look to the writer and sue for libel. Libel is when someone maliciously writes negative comments about someone in a public domain for the world to see. But journalists do have protection from court systems. In a case of libel suit, the accuser must prove to the court system that the journalist in question wrote the comments in some form of hate, trying to maliciously hurt the other person.
Another ethical problem that comes up is blogging. Many of these people who are writing blogs don’t have proper journalism training so don’t know the proper ethics associated with the business. Then they write there blogs and post them online, where everyone can see, and might not be following the rules. The main question of ethics here is who does the blame if something like libel happens? Can the blogger claim that they were ignorant to the situation and get off the hook? Does the blame fall on the owner of the blog website, or can nobody really take the blame because there aren’t really any internet regulations? In my opinion it should fall on the site, unless the site puts up a set of rules and regulations the blogger must agree to before blogging. When they sign that they have read it, it should fall on the blogger and not the website.

The Most Important Write

Ever since I was a child learning about the Constitutional Amendments, I knew the first one, more so than any other, would be important to my life. Being much older now, I fully understand, especially wanting to be a journalist. The First Amendment secures my right to freedom of speech and press, two of the most important things a journalist needs. Without either if these freedoms, journalism simply could not exist. Think about a world of journalism where a journalist could only report the news if it was what government officials wanted them to say. I think that is just absurd. I couldn’t possibly think about living in a society where I wasn’t allowed to have the freedom to say what I wanted to say or publish what I wanted to publish. These ideals will always keep the First Amendment near and dear to my heart and I will always protect those rights for everyone under any given circumstance.

The More, The Merrier: Multimedia in the News

A great multi-media piece relies on many different forms of media coming together to not only create the news story, but showcase the news story. Take your basic written story and flare it up with different genres of media. Add pictures to a devastating story so that people can see the true impact. Instead of just writing down an interview, use the audio clips to show the various emotions the person you were interviewing was doing. Videos are a great way to show what is happening in a particular story. All of these elements in a story together can really add to the story and attract people to read it. We now live in a society where people don’t want to just read, they want to see and hear the news. Different elements of multimedia have almost become as important to the stories as the actual stories themselves. Posted below is an example of this on a story from cnn.com.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/28/severe.weather/index.html?hpt=T1

Public Relations: The Definition is in the Name

Good public relations are about more than good writing. The name public relations is really a great two word definition of what it needs to do, relate to the public. You can have all the great writing in the world, but without being able to connect what you are writing, you don’t have a purpose in public relations. Writing for public relations differs from writing for news because you have to write more in a speech form, yet still get your meaning across to the public in a quick and logical manner. You also have to be careful about what you say when writing for public relations. You need to make sure that you are appeasing whatever audience you are trying to reach so that they will stick with your affiliation.