Part 1: Situation Definition:
I attended both presentations by John Eligon and Douglas Blackmon for the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers Wednesday and Thursday. It was very inspiring and honoring to see two extremely established writers come to Penn State to share their knowledge with us students. John Eligon is a national correspondent covering race for The New York Timesand Douglas Blackmon won the Pulitzer Prize for his bestseller, “Slavery by Another Name.”
Two ethical concerns really stood out to me while listening to these two men speak. One being remaining impartial and unbiased when talking about the subject of race. The second ethical concern that popped out to me, was reporting on issues that would cause distress for the readers. In other words, deciding to publish events that are extremely concerning and unsettling.
Part 2: Analysis:
Diving deeper into my first ethical concern, it must be extremely hard for these men to remain unbiased while reporting on racial issues that occur in our country. With that, it was also interesting to see the similarities and differences in experiences between these two men’s reporting with one being black, and the other being white. John Eligon talked about covering a story on the Neo-Nazi festival occurring in Germany as a black man. This must have been extremely hard for Eligon to tell the story in an un-biased manner while he was being harassed for being black the entire time attending the festival. One scholar reflected on bias reporting by saying, “Journalists have a responsibility to do more than report on the latest news developments. We should we should weave a web of information that ties people together across the demographic spectrum in an un-biased manner, supporting everyone’s involvement” (Lehrman, 2015). Relating this back to Eligon, he was just doing his job by incorporating a web of information in an unbiased way, even if that went against his personal views as a black man. Eligon did a fabulous job of reporting on the event in an impartial manner, no matter the harassment he endured, which is truly inspiring.
Secondly, another ethical concern I had was deciding on publishing information that could upset/unsettle some readers. For instance, Blackmon covered harrowing event such as Hurricane Katrina and wrote a book about slavery and racial injustice. Eligon has similarly covered the Boston Marathon bombings and the police shooting of Michael Brown. Both men decided to publish this information, even though they knew it would upset some of their audience. This is definitely an ethical concern that crossed my mind, but overall, I think they did the right thing by keeping the public informed on the events because they have a right to know the information. One source backs this notion up by saying, “The fundamental objective of journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matter of public interest in an accurate manner” (Ray, 2014). Overall, every journalist has a duty to give the public crucial information no matter the emotional toll, as Eligon and Blackmon did!
When facing ethical concerns such as the above two, I recommend doing some research on the topic, perhaps looking on the library database for more explanation on the issue. When it doubt, ask or research! Ethics are so important in journalism, and measures should be taken to follow all ethical guidelines.
Part 3: Conclusion:
Overall, I learned valuable lessons from listening to both John Eligon and Douglas Blackmon speak for the Forster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers. Since taking Comm 409, I have been able to analyze what information is being given, and contemplate whether there are ethical concerns at hand. After considering the ethical concerns of unbiased reporting, and reporting on sensitive information, I have decided these renowned writers have not broken and ethical codes of conduct. There will always be certain situations where one will be at a cross roads over an ethical situation, but these two men seem to professionally eradicate any of these issues! It is still so pertinent to discuss these issues, because the ethical code of conduct is still broken all of the time. Therefore, the more we discuss it, the more educated journalists and audiences will be on the topic. If we are more aware, we can stop these ethical violations from occurring in the future.
Part 4: References:
Lehrman, S. (2015). Weave a web of diverse sources. Quill,103(2), 31-31. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=14&sid=f622d0d8-4122-45ea-8df86299c82d6004@sessionmgr120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=ufh&AN=102005541
Ray, J. (2014). Preface. Global Media Journal,5(2), 4-5. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=17&sid=a530a751-2fcc-4ccc-8496-c4203f282e98@sdc-v-sessmgr05&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=102670499&db=ufh