Blog 5 – Reflection on class
Yuqin Yin
As a Communication student, I didn’t expect that journalist needs to think a lot while writing their articles before having this class. There are so many ethical issues in the journalism need to think of, and we might meet them even we are not in journalism industrial. Two of the most critical moral issues I remember the most is credibility and interest conflict.
Credibility involves the objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message. Every journalist needs to attribute their information to the source to show provenance. This is so the fundamental bond of trust between journalists and their readers. Nowadays, journalists are rapidly adapting and enhancing the rules of transparency and accountability, both digital and paperwork. It is their responsibility for journalists to be as open and honest with audiences as they can about what they know and what they don’t.
“Professional electronic journalists should present the news with integrity and decency, avoiding real or perceived conflicts of interest, and respect the dignity and intelligence of the audience as well as the subjects of news.” The act of telling and impersonating the news often puts journalists in the position of working closely with sources. This is where conflicts of interest can occur. Most of the news organizations have rules against this because they think it telegraphs where the reporter stands politically, and it destroys the readers’ confidence as an impartial observer. I think it’s necessary to build a good working relationship with the sources on your beat.
I will definitely remember what we have learned in the class and pay attention to it in my career life. This course is useful to communication student to learn about the journalism overall and have a better knowledge background to start their journalism life. And the cases we talked about in the class are fascinating and educable for me.
I think it’s really beneficial to learn about those ethical issues that we might meet in the future either in our career or life. The knowledge we gained from the cases at class can somehow help us to be calm down when something is happening around us and help us make our decision then.
Reference
Mowry, C., Pimentel, A., Sparks, E., & Hanlon, B. (2013). Materials characterization activities for %E2%80%9CTake Our Sons&Daughters to Work Day%E2%80%9D 2013. doi:10.2172/1096449