This assignment was to write a traditional news article on an important ethical issue affecting media writers.
Media Ethics: Where Have They Gone?
Are newspapers, news broadcasts, and the people who write them still following a strict code of ethics? Or have they slipped into a sloppier, more scandalous mode of reporting? There are those in the industry that would answer yes to these questions. There is significant evidence to back their case. However, there are those who make the claim that the media still has a sound ethical code and follows it with every article.
There is a whold handbook that describes, in detail, the code of ethics the hournalists are bound to. The basic topics covered in the handbooks are: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, and independently, and be accountable. Failure to follow this code can result in loss of credibility for readers and employers, severe punishment from an employer, and even termination of your job.
There is not a clear black and white, right a wrong to the ethics issue. The line hetween tabloid and elite journalism has become fuzzy and faint over the past 20 years. This blur adds more complication to the question of fair coverage.
Neal Shine, the former publisher of The Detroit Free Press, takes the stand that journalism has not become unethical ver the years. he argues that journalism has always been driven by profit and that we should "understand that none of this is new." He also claims that American journalism is doing "better than ever" in connecting with the communities they serve.
Another vioce that has spoken up is Barbara Cochran, the president of Radio-Television News Directors Association. She argues that in spite of low public opinion of media coverage and ethics, the press had upheld the importnat standards of journalism.
People often try to make excuses for the apparents lack of ethics in the media. Stuart Taylor of the National Journal explained that "elite publications like the Washington Post and The New York Times are compelled to cover sensational stories if they generate a great deal of public attention." Tight deadlines, commercial pressure and ambition are also common excuses for the sloppy and purposely inaccurate articles.
Despite these comments, there is more evidence supporting that the media has let its ethics slip over the years. For instance, in 1977 the number os government-related stories was about one the three. In 1997 however, that had decreased to one in five. Meanwhile, in 1977 the number of celebrity stories was one in 50, a much lower number than 1997's one in 14.
In June of 1998, award-winning reporter Patricia Smith resigned for her long-tim position at The Boston Globe. She was asked to resign when it was discovered that she had created people and quotes for at least six of her articles. the previous month Stephen Glass was fired from the New Republic. He was including inaccurate and completely made up information in at least 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for the magazine in a year. These types of mistakes have even been traced to CNN. In June of 1998, CNN had to apologize and retract a story run with Time due to "serious faults in its reporting." They charged the U.S. Military with using deadly nerve gas during a mission in Laos.
These cannot be isolated incidents. The Project of Excellence in Journalism performed a study of the kind of news being reported by whom. They found that the leading journalists, columnists and media commentators in the industry over the last 20 years have shifted thier coverage form government and foreign affairs to lifestyle, celebrity, entertainment and scandal reporting. Although there is a rise in the amount of "infotainment" reported, as shown by the comparison between 1977 and 1997, this infotainment had not completely taken over the traditional news stories.
It seems obvious that the media's code of ethics is notvalued as highly as they have been in the past. Less "news" has been apparent in all publications. However, the media should not take full responsibility. There is not a paper, or even news at all, without the audience. The more people that want to know the information a certain paper has, the more successful the paper is. Since this is an age powered by money andgreed, te media is only reflecting the views of our society. to be successful, they must report what the masses want to read. This expalins the increase in infortainment and the supposed decreas in media ethics.
Works Cited
http://www.policy.com.issuewk/98/0706/index.html
http://spj.org/ethics/code.htm