Ethics

Alright I wont lie (no pun intended) this ethics chapter was pretty repetitive considering the fact that I am taking an ethics class and just was tested on this thursday but hey ya know i guess it was good review. I learned alot about myself as a person and a journalist.

I knew the purpose of journalism was to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in society. I knew that journalism's first obligation was to the truth, its first loyatly was to citizens, it must serve as an independent monitor of power and provide a forum for public criticism. It must strive to make the significant sound interesting and relevant, and ultimately keep the news balanced and fair. I knew about the ethical dilemnas that can arise on the job and I have started to become familiar with the vocabulary of ethicisits. I knew the definition and the differences between deontological, teleological and situation ethics. But what I learned was where I stand ethically as a person AND a journalist.

I found the ethical guidelines really interesting and although I knew them, I liked how they spelled them out. Journalists must exibit responsibility, acknowledge their right to freedom of the press, practice impartiality, sincerity, truthfullness and accuracy, fairplay and last but not least decency.

I learned alot about ethical problems that journalists face sometimes day to day. I learned how bad it is deceiving people to get a story, reporting with conflicts of interest such as friendships or accepting payment or freebies for stories and for paying for sources. You also need to be wary of advertising pressure and participation in the news. The biggest ones of course are dealing with the invasion of privacy and withholding information vs the public's right to know and of course the biggest sin of all is plagiarizing by passing off someone else's work as your own.

But most importantly I learned the three guildlines that will keep you out of trouble. One should be free of obligations to anyone except the truth, be fair, and remember good taste. Solving ethical dilemnas can be difficult though. Using principled reasoning will help you decide which ways are proper and moral ways to act. But reasoning can be diffiuclt in itself so I really appreciated the Potter Box of elements to help use moral reasoning to make ethical decisions.

Even though you know them I'm going to list them because they are important for me and my professional future.
1. Appraising the situation by gathering the facts from a variety of different sources.
2. Identifying your personal values, your community's values, your nation's values, and your new's organizations values.
3. Appealing to ethical principles and determining how can you fulfill your duty to yourself and to the audience.
4. Choosing who you owe your loyalities to either your news organizations, your viewers, your sources, and the public.

Usually there is no clear answer to a difficult ethical dilemna but at least I know how to TRY to analyze and resolve these problems now. Finally as a member of the Society of Professional Journalists myself, it was really interesting to see their Code of Ethics. It was nice to become familiar with them so I can practice them in real life!!