227ethics

Ethical Issues in online journalism

 What is ethics?
 Ethics is a major branch of philosophy,

encompassing right conduct and good life.
 It is significantly broader than the common

conception of analyzing right and wrong.
 A central aspect of ethics is "the good life",

the life worth living or life that is satisfying,
which is held by many philosophers to be
more important than moral conduct.

 Members of the Society of Professional
Journalists believe that public enlightenment is
the forerunner of justice and the foundation of
democracy.
 The duty of the journalist is to further those ends
by seeking truth and providing a fair and
comprehensive account of events and issues.
 Members of the Society share a dedication to
ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the
Society's principles and standards of practice.


 Seek Truth and Report It
 Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous
in gathering, reporting and interpreting
information.

Journalists should:
 — Test the accuracy of information from all
sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent
error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.


 — Identify sources whenever feasible. The
public is entitled to as much information as
possible on sources' reliability.
 — Always question sources’ motives before
promising anonymity. Clarify conditions
attached to any promise made in exchange
for information. Keep promises.

 — Make certain that headlines, news teases
and promotional material, photos, video,
audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations
do not misrepresent. They should not
oversimplify or highlight incidents out of
context.
 — Never distort the content of news photos
or video. Image enhancement for technical
clarity is always permissible. Label montages
and photo illustrations.


 — Never plagiarize.
 — Examine their own cultural values and
avoid imposing those values on others.
 — Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age,
religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual
orientation, disability, physical appearance or
social status.
 — Support the open exchange of views, even
views they find repugnant.

 — Give voice to the voiceless; official and
unofficial sources of information can be
equally valid.
 — Distinguish between advocacy and news
reporting. Analysis and commentary should
be labeled and not misrepresent fact or
context.
 — Distinguish news from advertising and
shun hybrids that blur the lines between the
two.


 Minimize Harm
 — Use special sensitivity when dealing with

children and inexperienced sources or
subjects.
 — Be sensitive when seeking or using

interviews or photographs of those affected by
tragedy or grief (keder, üzüntü).
 — Recognize that gathering and reporting

information may cause harm or discomfort.


 — Recognize that private people have a
greater right to control information about
themselves than do public officials and others
who seek power, influence or attention. Only
an overriding public need can justify intrusion
into anyone’s privacy.
 — Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid
curiosity.


 — Be cautious about identifying juvenile
suspects or victims of sex crimes.
 — Be judicious about naming criminal
suspects before the formal filing of charges.


 Act Independently
 Journalists should be free of obligation to any
interest other than the public's right to know.

Journalists should:
 — Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
 — Remain free of associations and activities
that may compromise integrity or damage
credibility.

 — Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special
treatment, and shun secondary employment,
political involvement, public office and service in
community organizations if they compromise
journalistic integrity.
 — Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
 — Deny favored treatment to advertisers and
special interests and resist their pressure to
influence news coverage.
 — Be wary of sources offering information for favors
or money; avoid bidding for news.

 Be Accountable
Journalists are accountable to their readers,
listeners, viewers and each other.

Journalists should:
 — Clarify and explain news coverage and
invite dialogue with the public over journalistic
conduct.
 — Encourage the public to voice grievances
against the news media.


 — Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
 — Expose unethical practices of journalists
and the news media.
 — Abide by the same high standards to
which they hold others.


 What are the ethics of online journalism?
 The ethics of online journalism are, ultimately, no
different than the ethics of journalism.

NO PLAGIARISM
 By now, you've likely discovered that writing is

hard work. You certainly don't want someone else
swiping your effort and presenting it as his or her
own.
 So don't steal others' work.

 Such theft is plagiarism. It includes not just cutting
and pasting whole articles, but copying photos,
graphics, video and even large text excerpts from
others and putting them on your web page as
well.
 If you want to reference something on another
website, link it instead.

 If you are concerned that the page you're
linking to will disappear, give your readers the
name of the publication that published the
page, its date of publication and a short
summary of its content. Just like news
reporters used to reference other content
before the Web. (“In a Sept. 20 report, the
Wall Street Journal reported....").
 When in doubt, do both. There's no such
thing as too much supporting information.


 DISCLOSE
 Tell your readers how you got your information,
and what factors influenced your decision to
publish it. If you have a personal or professional
connection to people or groups you're writing
about, describe it. Your readers deserve to know
what has influenced the way you reported or
wrote a story.


 NO GIFTS OR MONEY FOR COVERAGE
 One common way journalists avoid conflicts of
interest is by refusing gifts or money from sources
they cover. Writers who accept gifts, payments or
honoraria from the people or groups they cover
open themselves up to charges that their work is
a paid advertisement for those sources. Or, at the
very least, that those writers are too "close" to
these sources to cover them honestly. You can
avoid controversy by politely declining such offers.


 CHECK IT OUT, THEN TELL THE TRUTH
 Just because someone else said it, this statement
does not make it true. Reward your readers with
accurate information that stands up to scrutiny
from other writers. Check out your information
before you print it.
 Find facts, not just others' opinions, to support
your comments.

 If you are writing about someone else, call or e-mail
them for a comment before you publish. If your
subject has a blog, link to it. That link will notify the
subject that you've written about them, and will allow
your readers to click-through and read the subject's
side of the story.
 If you want to write satire (hiciv) or spoofs, fine. But
make sure your audience knows that what you are
writing is not literal truth. Tricking readers won't help
you develop the respect, credibility or loyal audience
that truthful writers enjoy and rely upon.


 BE HONEST
 In summary, be honest with your readers and
transparent about your work. If people wonder for
a moment about your honesty or your motives,
you've lost credibility with them. Don't let them do
that. Answer those questions even before readers
ask.
 And most important is to never utilise your power
of press for personal gains or simply annoying
someone.

 Online Journalism - Ethical Issues
 One dilemma is the question of speed versus
accuracy. In all forms of journalism there is
conflict between choosing to publish immediate
information or waiting to verify facts and ensuring
accuracy. This is exacerbated by the online
environment, as one of the major features of this
medium is its immediacy. News updates are often
posted as they happen which allows early access
to information but which can risk the accuracy of
the content.


 Another ethical consideration in online
journalism is the way information and pictures
can be archived indefinitely and accessed
from around the globe (Bowd, 2002: 41-59.)
This means that any mistakes and ethical
breaches would be more damaging and
widespread. Incorrect information may be
archived and the misinformation passed on to
web-users accessing the archives.

 Advertising pressure is another ethical issue for
internet publications. This is significant as
independence is a critical component of journalistic
ethics.
 Hyperlinks, for example, are a valuable tool in online
journalism but can lead to potential problems, as the
web pages they link to may be inaccurate, offensive
or inappropriate. To deal with this ethically, the
content and quality of linked websites should be
monitored and internet users should be warned that
the pages they visit are not part of the news website
(Bowd, 2002: 41-59).

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