Journalists position themselves to be right in the middle of what’s happening in their immediate community or around the globe. They present, or relay, what they see and hear to their audience which makes them intermediaries. This is why the second principle of journalism is so important to the audience. It is that journalists’ first loyalty is to the citizens.
In many countries corruption not only rules law enforcement, businesses, but also journalism (http://tinyurl.com/6rrrjw). Money is what drives those to give in to change stories and sometimes even forget what was seen or heard. Fortunately, many journalists feel a need to bring the truth out without being bought out or influenced by those in power. Journalists have even gone as far as declaring they won’t let their self-interests cloud their decisions when reporting an event. This movement has even spread to whole organizations, making a code of ethics standard in the work place. Some of those organizations include the NY Times, Washington Post and LA Times (http://tinyurl.com/3wac3gr). They include regulations such as fairness to the audience, avoiding conflict with them and even correct attribution (journalism sourcing). This makes it easy for journalists to know that all within the workplace are held to these standards. Unfortunately, even with these principles and regulations, we find examples of occurrences when journalists give in to an outside source and change their story. Sometimes it might even be that journalists don’t convey clear messages to the public and are later caught in situation where they can’t explain themselves, which happened with Dan Rather and the Killian Documents (http://tinyurl.com/5fwam).
It so important for journalism to understands its role in peoples’ lives and for journalists to accept their position as middlemen. They chose be who they are and should stand up for what they know. Their loyalty is not to their boss, their mother or their religion. Rather, it is solely to their TV, radio, newspaper, or magazine audience.
Update
If you read this NY Times article (http://tinyurl.com/3e56go3) about a Pew Media Study, you will find interesting shifts in media consumption among different age groups. I wanted to note that as younger generations are shifting to the Internet for most of their news and information needs, many TV stations might have to change their news agenda. The reason being, many Internet web portals offer everything from local community issues to national news feeds, but adults still read the local paper and watch news on TV. According to this study, adults watch TV for weather, traffic and breaking news, but with the slow death of local newspapers, where are other important local topics going to be found? It is interesting to think about how the downfall of one channel might change the presentation of another.
In many countries corruption not only rules law enforcement, businesses, but also journalism (http://tinyurl.com/6rrrjw). Money is what drives those to give in to change stories and sometimes even forget what was seen or heard. Fortunately, many journalists feel a need to bring the truth out without being bought out or influenced by those in power. Journalists have even gone as far as declaring they won’t let their self-interests cloud their decisions when reporting an event. This movement has even spread to whole organizations, making a code of ethics standard in the work place. Some of those organizations include the NY Times, Washington Post and LA Times (http://tinyurl.com/3wac3gr). They include regulations such as fairness to the audience, avoiding conflict with them and even correct attribution (journalism sourcing). This makes it easy for journalists to know that all within the workplace are held to these standards. Unfortunately, even with these principles and regulations, we find examples of occurrences when journalists give in to an outside source and change their story. Sometimes it might even be that journalists don’t convey clear messages to the public and are later caught in situation where they can’t explain themselves, which happened with Dan Rather and the Killian Documents (http://tinyurl.com/5fwam).
It so important for journalism to understands its role in peoples’ lives and for journalists to accept their position as middlemen. They chose be who they are and should stand up for what they know. Their loyalty is not to their boss, their mother or their religion. Rather, it is solely to their TV, radio, newspaper, or magazine audience.
Update
If you read this NY Times article (http://tinyurl.com/3e56go3) about a Pew Media Study, you will find interesting shifts in media consumption among different age groups. I wanted to note that as younger generations are shifting to the Internet for most of their news and information needs, many TV stations might have to change their news agenda. The reason being, many Internet web portals offer everything from local community issues to national news feeds, but adults still read the local paper and watch news on TV. According to this study, adults watch TV for weather, traffic and breaking news, but with the slow death of local newspapers, where are other important local topics going to be found? It is interesting to think about how the downfall of one channel might change the presentation of another.
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