Ethics can be a tricky topic to talk about. It is a moral philosophy after all, and if there is one thing people struggle to agree on, it is varying philosophies.
With that being said, one thing we can all agree on is that we want to trust our news providers and the information they share and report on. Your audience needs to be able to trust you.
People often let the broadcast journalists that they listen to govern their opinions on important topics. That is a lot of power to have, and with great power comes — you guessed it — great responsibility.
That sounds hectic, I know.
Don't worry! Alrika Möller from media update is here to unravel the tangled web that is ethics in broadcast journalism.
Where should you begin?
In case you weren't aware, there is an organisation called the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). It created an official code of ethics way back in 1973. Times do change, though, and so the SPJ revised and updated its code of ethics in 2014.
This code of ethics highlights four major aspects that all broadcast journalists need to focus on in their daily journalistic practices:
Seek truth and report it
This one is as simple as it sounds. Journalists need to find the truth and then report on it — regardless of their personal opinions.
Understanding this might be simple, but doing it is not. The world of journalism moves quickly, and all journalists want to be the ones to break the story or report new information.
This need for speed can sometimes cause people to skip a few steps in the process and not check their facts or get all the information regarding a subject or story.
Checking facts is a major part of finding the truth. It forces journalists to verify sources and gather context regarding the information they have before reporting it.
When a journalist seeks the whole truth before reporting, it will make it harder for personal biases to creep in and filter the information.
Minimise harm
I know that journalists don't take the do-no-harm-oath that doctors and medical personnel have to, but that does not give them a free pass!
Focusing on mitigating harm or minimising harm applies to all people — and yes, all people involved, like:
- colleagues
- sources
- story subjects, and
- everybody else.
Minimising harm while reporting information is a balancing act that involves a tightrope, a long stick and a lot of confidence.
Take a moment to think about the people that can be affected by the stories you report. The situation and the story must be handled with care, especially when children are involved. They are vulnerable to the consequences that can follow.
If you report on someone's story, you have to get their informed consent, which is a different thing entirely from consent.
Once all those factors are covered, you have to consider how the information could affect the people who are watching or listening. Is the content upsetting or triggering? Can the images and footage used cause harm or distress?
While people do have the right to information, there is some information that should not be shared.
Act independently
Before we start rioting over all the journalists who work for news stations and channels, let me explain what acting independently means in this context.
Journalists serve the public above all else. They have a responsibility to the public rather than the interests of a singular person or entity.
This means that they cannot report on anything where there is any form of conflict of interest. This applies to all conflicts of interest — big or small — that can cause some type of bias.
Journalists can never offer gifts or payment for information they receive, as incentivised information is not exactly trustworthy and can be biased.
Along the same lines, journalists are also not allowed to receive any gifts or favours that might cloud their judgement or cause some form of bias in their reporting.
By now, it is pretty clear that biases are a big issue when it comes to ethics.
Be accountable and transparent
This one means what it says. Accountability and transparency are about being open and honest with your audience.
Journalists are human — shocking, I know. Human beings make mistakes. When mistakes are made, journalists have a responsibility to own up to those mistakes and correct them.
Accountability also means that all ethical choices, such as the choice to share or not share certain information, need to be disclosed and explained to the public.
One of the biggest and scariest aspects of accountability and transparency is that journalists need to bring unethical journalistic practices to light. This applies to all situations — even within your own station or organisation.
As previously mentioned, journalists serve the public, and that means that they have to hold themselves and other journalists to a high ethical standard.
Ethics often feels like a big word, but when you break it down, you realise that it all comes down to doing the right thing. It is that simple.
via GIPHY
The media industry encompasses a lot of aspects and categories. What aspect of the media industry would you like to know more about? Let us know in the comment section below.
If you are looking to keep the conversation about ethics going, have a look at Ethics in freelance journalism.
*Image courtesy of Canva