What is Our Greatest Ethical Obligation as Journalists?

This is a quick overview of a few of the many guiding principles laid out in the code of ethics on the Society of Professional Journalists’ website. It is truly a great resource for both beginning and seasoned journalists. These principles are so important to the idea of what makes up an ethical journalist, that they are prominently held by many journalism organizations. These include the Ethical Journalism Network, and in the NPR Ethics Handbook.   

I do not think that only one of these principles can be labeled the greatest. I believe that these principles need to be incorporated as a whole. They need to inform how reporters approach the responsibilities that they assume when they take on the task of being a journalist. However, the overarching principles of seeking the truth and reporting it, and being accountable and transparent resonated with me the most. These were presented and feel to me like the bookends that prop up the entire code.

Under the principle of seeking the truth and reporting It, I was drawn to the idea that journalists must take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. I feel that if more journalists took this to heart, the public would be able to spend less time fact checking the information put out and more time actually exploring the content provided about the issues that are affecting their lives. While the public should remain vigilant about the information they choose to believe, it can become a daunting task to verify what is coming from the many diverse sources available in the Internet age. Constantly having to comb through these sources to find reliable information can lead to frustration and a turning away from those sources.

This ties in with being accountable and transparent. A journalist should be up front with their audience and explain how and why they approach the job of being a reporter. With the journalist’s motivations clearly stated, the public can spend more time engaging with what is being reported, and less time trying to work out why it is being reported. Also, being able to clearly see the motivations of the report allows the public to build a rapport with and a trust in the reporter.

One last thing I would like to explore is from the middle of this great list of guiding principles. It is a succinct principle that might be easily overlooked. In fact, I feel that it has been overlooked by many reporting in the last weeks of the 2016 Presidential campaigns. The warning about pandering to the lurid curiosity of the public seems to have gone straight out of the window. While the current candidates are working hard to engage our attention, the journalists seem to be buying in and giving the public the entire peepshow. I feel that many are going beyond writing about the antics, and instead, are using the antics themselves as the content of their reports.

Sources:

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
http://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/who-we-are/5-principles-of-journalism
http://ethics.npr.org/