Julie Brown graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Journalism. Brown has since worked for the Philadelphia Daily News and currently works for the Miami Herald. Brown primarily covers stories that involved those who are less fortunate, such as minority groups. Brown has over 30 years of experience in the journalism world. Having won the George Polk and RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights Story of the Year awards, Brown has, to say the least, been successful in her career.
Brown mentioned two different stories she had covered in the past, where both stories dealt with ethical issues and her following the proper ethic code. Brown really highlighted the importance of being ethical in her speech – ethical being fair, accurate and honest in one’s reporting and writing. One being a story involving police brutality and the death of a young minority. Brown made the decision to cover the story and tell the truth about what happened. Brown followed code of ethics in this situation, by telling the complete truth. She also went explained a story she covered in Florida about an inmate who was severely abused by the guards and the prison system. This story really took a toll on her mentally and led her to continue to cover stories that were mainly focused on the prison system, specifically in Florida. Brown’s care and the attention she gave to the prisoners greatly affected the system, creating justice for thousands. Brown found that not only in the jail from this story, but also in many other jails, sex trafficking of women had been a major issue.
Brown really took the risk by reporting two very controversial topics. She maintained good ethic code by staying truthful and not changing any story. She really took responsibility for her own work and maintained faithful to the people in those stories. Hearing Brown’s stories really helped me understand the importance of ethics in journalism. No matter how hard it is to stay truthful, it is crucial to be successful. Brown taught us students how to not only be a great reporter and journalist, but also a great person. We, as reporters, spend so much of our career living under the unwritten that comes with being a journalist.