Watching the movie Shattered Glass, I understand the importance of ethics deeply. Steven Glass, the youngest reporter worked at the New Republic, fabricated many pieces of news articles without being found until when he covered the story Hack Heaven. The Forbes found that they couldn’t track the names in that story and they couldn’t contact the numbers Glass provided. Being found many details of the story, Glass needed to make up more things to remedy that. However, the card and website he made were weird to people. He got support from the stuffs in the New Republic as he treated everyone well and got along with them. He made the stories entertaining which reporters loved them and found them interesting. This is one of the reasons that people didn’t figure out what was going on and believed him.
However, the truth has been brought into daylight. The editor went to the places in the story with Glass, finding the event and the building weren’t even existing. Glass lied at the end of the story and the editor found he couldn’t be trusted anymore. Reading the stories Glass wrote before, the editor realized many of the articles were fabricated. Glass was fired at the end of the movie.
This movie addresses many ethics issues. Steven Glass might have pressure about gaining stories and the deadline, might want others think he was a good and talented reporter, might want to have the privilege and influence toward the audience. However, these things can’t be reasons for fabrication. I want to talk about the importance of ethics in journalism and why we shouldn’t fabricate things. This case also relates to the decision-making like what we should do as reporters when we face problems and what kind of stories we should run.
First, I want to talk about the importance of ethics. Why the reporters need to be ethical? According to the textbook, journalists need to be honest as most human-beings and need to keep the audience trust them. The journalists need to inform people and defend the right to information (n.d.). Take Steven Glass for instance, after being informed by the magazine that many articles they read were fabricated, people won’t trust the magazine and the person anymore. Brian Williams, a reporter has been working at NBC for over twenty years, was found the news he covered the Iraq war was made up. He had been suspended and a lot of the audience won’t believe him.
Why shouldn’t we fabricate things? According to the textbook, fabrication which is making things up can destroy the credibility of the news organization and the journalist. This act which distort the fact can hurt the audience as well. Reading many cases about fabrication, many reporters who fabricated stories often won many awards. Although they have pressure or deadlines, those won’t be the excuse. A survey in the textbook indicates many people believe that the news organizations are making things up. Due to many fake news, the news organizations tend to lose the credibility. With the development of network, everyone can be a reporter and make voice online. In this period of time, the news organizations need to be more careful about the news and remove the false information.
The four classic theories of ethics are really important to journalists. According to the rule-based thinking, fabrication is wrong which absolutely not the right thing for journalists to do. Basing the ends-based thinking, reporters should find the news which do good for audience. If the reporters think about the golden rule before fabricate stories, they probably won’t do that. Every news organization needs to have its ethical codes.
I want to talk about decision-making. What kind of news should reporters cover? In the movie Shattered Glass, not only Glass made mistakes, others reporters and editors made mistakes too. They didn’t find the problems and stop it at first. Glass always told interesting stories which others found them entertaining. However, the audience need news which are not only entertainments, but news good for people to live better. Journalism gives an essential view on all aspects of public life (Franklin, 2014). One thing goes wrong might affect many aspects of the audience. The journalists have the responsibilities to tell the truth and point out problems about the society. Reading news, people can understand what happened and what they can do. Reporters should analyze the news based on an assessment of what really is important (Ward, 2013).
Also, what the reporters should do if they face some dilemmas. It may be hard for reporters to find news at the certain period of time. However, if the reporters do something wrong, the fact and truth will be uncovered sooner or later. The journalists should always remember the responsibility to the society and the audience. The issues they did before can destroy the long career in the future. I really learn a lot from the movie the class. For me, I won’t lie to audience whatever the situations are. I choose and love journalism because of the proud and responsibility toward the society.
References
Charter of Duties of Journalists. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2018, from http://ethicnet.uta.fi/italy/charter_of_duties_of_journalists
Franklin, B. (2014). The Future of Journalism. Journalism Studies, 15(5), 481-499. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2014.930254
Ward, S. J. A. (2013). Journalists Should Be Careful in Deciding What Becomes News. In N. Merino (Ed.), Current Controversies. Media Ethics. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Terry Jones Syndrome: Guidelines for Responsible News Selection, 2010, September 21) Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010563247/OVIC?u=psucic&xid=b3d92964