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Ethics in the News

The purpose of this memo is to explain the process of ethics in the news.  News is believed to be the report of the recent events. Ethics, however, is considered the process of determining the most appropriate action with some moral reasons to be undertaken in any scenario. Such reasons need to be universal; that is, any person in a similar situation should be in a position to adopt similar reasoning in an attempt to solve the same situations. Ethics is believed not to be about emotions and self-interest. Just like any good science, the adoption of good wichs entails competing views through coming up with arguments based on evidence and reasoning. However, the perception of ethics among different people varies depending on how an individual views morals.

Ethical Paths

Consequentialism

Consequentialism is an ethical path that can be viewed as right or wrong, depending on how the results tend to be good or bad from certain activities undertaken by an individual. Meaning, when the consequence of an action undertaken is considered good, then the action adopted by an individual is deliberated to be right. However, whenever the consequences tend to be wrong, then such actions taken by this individual can be considered as wrong. Therefore, in this simple form of consequentialism, for a particular action to be morally justified, any harm done has to be outweighed by the benefits it will provide.

Deontological ethics

According to the deontological view, actions cannot be considered to be either right or wrong just by checking on the consequences such as good or bad, but rather other considerations deemed to be relevant are also taken into account. Such considerations include the motivation of the person performing such actions and the benefits tied to the actions adopted. Therefore, the concept related to rights is considered a deontological concept in which rights entail the prohibition of certain things regardless of the consequences.

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics is deemed as the assessment of various traits of an individual rather than the actions. Concerning this, morality is believed to go beyond just attempts to evaluate the actions of an individual. Instead, this ethical path tends to be based on the behavioral assessments of an individual. Virtue ethics is always relevant in Research in several ways. First, it usually suggests that there are special obligations undertaken by the researchers. Secondly, it is also deliberated to be relevant while using it to evaluate a particular experiment.

Journalism code of ethics

The code of ethics for journalism mainly intended to ensure the reliability of the information being reported through ensuring that there are acceptable practices in the provision of several guidelines to facilitate this.  Such guidelines are thought to assist the different journalists in identifying and dealing with the ethical dilemmas that they tend to face. Thus, journalism is deemed to be guided by five features that entail fairness, diligence, honesty, and objectivity.  Such value, therefore, presents the responsibilities of a journalist. First, the journalist needs to be truthful in that they should not accept to report information that they feel is wrong as well as reporting of facts in a misleading manner that in turn could lead to wrong impressions. The second responsibility of a journalist is to present facts with neutrality and impartiality, presenting both sides of the story in cases where they tend to exist. Thirdly, the journalist is always tasked with showing some diligence by gathering and presenting pertinent facts that can help provide some good understanding of a particular subject being reported. Finally, journalists are also tasked with showing some accountability in their work area by accepting the consequences and criticisms that tend to arise in most scenarios.

Ethical Dilemma

Some laws tend to regard media disclosure of personal privacy, facts relating to criminal cases, civil lawsuits, and official secrets that tend to make the standards of journalists vary accordingly. For instance, within the United Kingdom, there is a feeling by specific news organizations that it can be harmful to report poll results in a democratic process when voting is still open. Such reports will influence other individuals to participate in voting in the day (John, 2013).  In this, concerns usually arise in which it can be stated that such preliminary results tend to be inaccurate and, as such, can be confusing to the public. Others can also feel that there is no harm in reporting, such as it tends to be essential for transparency purposes.

The value of the news being presented is usually used to determine the type of story for blog, broadcast, and web portals and to the one to print, including the specific topics of focus. To a more significant extent, news value is always assumed to depend on the targeted audience mainly. For example, there is more likelihood for a minor story to appear on CNN in the United States. In contrast, in the Middle East, such a similar story can appear in Al Jazeera due to the geographical distribution of the respective audience of these two channels. Several debates are under consideration on the possibility of the network being less than the objective, which tends to bring some controversy in an attempt to consider coverage of political stories, especially among the different audiences within the political demographics.

Again, specific digital media platforms are believed to use criteria in choosing stories that tend to be different from the traditional news value. For instance, even though Google News portal chooses several stories based on the value of the news, users are considered to set Google Alerts depending on the specific terms that tend to define their interests. News aggregators, social networks, and the search engines feed at times change content presentation depending on most of their consumer’s inferred preferences.   Such usually cheers bypassing traditions and any other biases in favor of any audience-centric selection of any other criteria.

Objectivity, dealing with journalism, is considered to depend on the country and industry in which an individual operates. For example, the BBC found in the United Kingdom is believed to put more emphasis on political neutrality; however, the British newspapers are often deemed to adopt political affiliations and learnings in its coverage and sometimes considered explicit. In the United States, most newspapers tend to have explicit claims on objectivity as the primary goal whenever there is any coverage. However, most are seen to have separate editorial boards who endorse candidates and publish information depending on the public opinion on a specific issue. Adherence to objectivity is something that is considered to be under debate, especially among the different journalists.

There is a dilemma that also arises in scenarios where most organizations are unable to balance the speed and accuracy at the same time. For example, the New York Times is considered for printing more extended, less speculative, more detailed, and a thoroughly verified piece two days later than other newspapers. Viewers can access similar information on television, and as such, this becomes a dilemma since people usually consider fresh materials to be valuable.

Examples of Journalism

In presenting the examples of this news, the path that was adopted is known as a virtue ethics path

“The iEconomy.”

From the New York Times

Keith Bradsher, Charles Duhigg, David Segal and David Barboza

The series revealed some harsh conditions in which various Chinese workers assembled iPads and iPhones and live; higher turnovers within the Apple retail stores with low pay. The length under which the Apple company ahead and reduced the tax bills and the conclusion that Apple could not be manufactured in America.

“Wal-Mart Abroad”

David Barstow

From The New York Times

In this series, David Barstow tends to demonstrate how Wal-Mart’s conquest, located in Mexico, was built under some secret foundation of corruption. It also demonstrates ways in which some of the top officers feared being exposed to their dealings and thus made more attempts to keep their dealings under the dark.

“The Shame of the Boy Scouts”

From Los Angeles Times

By Kim Christensen, Jason Felch and Times staff

Los Angeles Times was deliberated to have made several public documents concerning sexual abuse by troop leaders on a Boy Scout that resulted in the adoption of reforms that would facilitate children’s protection. There has been a comprehensive review of the several files by the Boy Scouts in America that have ensured that they will report the cases that were considered to have not been disclosed. There are also apologies from the Boys Scouts to the victims that faced such abuse and, as such, have offered to pay any counseling expenses.

Critique

The news on “The Shame of the Boy Scouts” received more than 100,000 people who had pored to the database almost 5,000 files on case summaries to attempt and learn more about what happened to the offenders (John, 2013). The news fails to show the actions they have taken on such individuals and the number that have been prosecuted and deemed to have failed in informing the general public.

Secondly, there had been a cost of over $100 million due to the investigation on Wal-Mart. Even before publishing the first Times article, the corruption allegations on Wal-Mart were deliberated to having shaken them and, as such, made them hurriedly inform the federal authorities of the Mexican situation.

The news on the “iEconomy” resulted in more than Chinese workers in Apple’s iPad and iPhone Company getting an increase in salary by around 25 percent (John, 2013).  There was an improvement in the working conditions of this individual. There was also an announcement from Apple that it would invest $100 million to help in manufacturing in iPhones in the United States. However, this is not the case as there are no such iPhone Apple manufacturing industries within the United States.

Recommendations

To avoid any ethical breaches in the future, firstly, there is a need to ensure that there is honesty in the information presented in the news to avoid any cases of biasness. Secondly, there is a need to ensure that they put their interests aside and present the right messages to the public. Finally, it is appropriate to be accountable for the information that an individual presents in any media platform. This can be important in ensuring that the news provided is not based on the wrong information.

Bibliography

John, W. (2013, March 4). Journalist’s Research on today’s news. Retrieved August 12, 2020, from Six powerful examples of journalism’s importance: Recent civic impacts of the press: https://journalistsresource.org/tip-sheets/reporting/six-shining-examples-power-journalism-recent-civic-impacts-of-the-press/