#9 - GLOBAL MEDIA LAW OR ETHICS

 Are ethics in journalism decreasing?

   

    It is not uncommon to hear phrases like "the media is causing division" or "it is the media's fault" or anything along those lines. As more and more news publications and networks make controversial statements on current events, it seems like more and more people are losing their trust in the media experts. While a large majority of this could be just because the news is saying opinions that some people do not agree with, another big reason is also because many people believe that journalists have lost their ethics in reporting. This can be greatly attributed to the rise of news that is found on social media sites. 

    A 2019 survey shows that roughly 60% of people get their news online instead of from a television broadcast or a newspaper. If you spend any kind of time on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you know how easy it can be to find real or fake news in the span of a 60 second video or a short post. Kyle Wong, co-founder and CEO of the influencer marketing program known as Pixlee, says, "I think anytime you have to compact complicated topics to fit within a particular time period, you have to leave out sometimes very crucial information". I very much agree with Kyle's statement. Most news stories that would be considered important at the time would take more than 30-60 seconds of screen time in order to get the whole point across. This brings us to the question of whether or not journalists, are compromising their moral ethics in order to get more screen time for their story. 

     

(play until about 2:45)

     Nowadays, not only are journalists being seen as unethical because of this switch in news forms, but there are now many "trolls" on the internet that create fake or upsetting news in order to make a worse name for the media. While social media sites, such as Twitter, have announced their plan to evaluate algorithm fairness and control fake news and unethical stories, it can still be extremely hard to catch the people that are doing this. 

    However, trolls are not the only people that are helping to create a bad name for journalism among social media users. When reporters and writers from various news networks decide what is important enough to go in a story and what can be left out, it causes a domino effect in the world of global media ethics. It can cause people to start believing whatever they see online even if it is only part of the truth or maybe not even truth at all. I think this is why it is so important to do extensive research before simply believing what you read on social media. It is also extremely nerve-wracking for me as a future journalist because I may have to choose between standing by my morals and ethics and what I believe in, and writing or saying something that compromises those things but may bring me fame and fortune.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#10 - FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

Image
  Protecting the Freedom of Information Act     The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed in 1966 in order to give the public access to federal records upon request. Simplified, the FOIA ensures informed citizens and keeps these citizens "in the know" about their government.  When a request is made by someone towards any federal agencies, these agencies are required to disclose any information unless it falls under one of the nine exceptions. These exceptions include protecting personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement. In addition to fulfilling these requests, the FOIA requires that federal agencies continuously post certain categories of information online.           The basis of the Freedom of Information Act seems simple enough, yet even now some states and cities seem to have a hard time following the rules of the FOIA. On March 31, the Little Rock House committee approved House Bill 1280 which allows cities a...
Read more

#4 - PLAGIARISM AND FABRICATION

Image
  Fabrication in Mainstream Journalism    Personally, when I think of plagiarism or fabrication, I think of the scary rule that looms over the heads of high school and college students everywhere. We have always been warned that breaking the rule of no plagiarism comes with big punishments, even expulsion. Growing up and hearing that rule, it can be hard to imagine why anybody would even try to plagiarize. In this case, the risk definitely seems bigger than the reward. However, fabrication is not just something students have to look out for. In mainstream journalism, being accused of or being caught committing plagiarism can seriously damage not only the journalist's name, but also whatever organization they represent.      A prime recent example of this is with The Post newspaper of Athens, Ohio. The Post is a student-run newspaper located on on Ohio University campus. The publication not only covers news related to the university, but also on the state a...
Read more

#7 - EXPLOITING A NEWS STORY

Image
 Exploiting Tragedies in the Main Media      By definition, exploiting means “to make full use of and derive benefit from”. Exploitation can happen in many different ways and in many different situations. It is not uncommon to now see exploitation take place all over society, especially in American media. Now, especially following an extremely chaotic and stressful election year, it seems like politics can often take the forefront of the media. Sometimes, these political opinions and ideologies end up gaining more coverage than serious issues and tragedies taking place around the country.       While doing research for this topic, I actually found a rather recent example of a political figure exploiting a tragedy for their own benefit. On Monday, March 22, 2021, a mass shooting took place in Boulder, Colorado in a grocery store. In this horrible situation, 10 people were shot dead by one man and a suspect was arrested for the crime. Reading and h...
Read more