A Lesson on Ethics

There are four ethical aspects that media professionals should adhere to. These include truthfulness, fairness, privacy, and responsibility.

• Truthfulness: is the ability to tell the truth, to be honest and open. 
• Fairness: is the ability to present the story from an objective stand point; giving either party a chance to openly state their opinions on the topic at hand.
• Privacy: involves not invaded, intruding, trespassing the subject at hands personal space such as their home. 
• Responsibility: is being able to own and accept any mistakes to come for news pieces that you play a part in. 

Each of the characteristics listed above will make a good journalist. Its a  professional journalist job to present the audience with fair and accurate reporting, that stems away from bias. 

There has been many incidents in which the four rules of ethics have been breached and turned into controversial cases in the public eye.

One for instance was Janet Cooke who fabricated stories of an eight year old drug addict named Jimmy. Her stories were featured on the front page of the Washington Post and she later received the Pulitzer Prize for this piece. Cooke's scandal opened up a door of mistrust between reporters and its viewers in which their credibility is questioned.

In other cases, journalist go to jail for trying to do what they feel as though is the right thing by protecting a source. In most cases this results in jail time. In August of 2006, Joshua Wolf refused to turn over a video tape of a protest in San Francisco in which protesters set a police car on fire. FBI agents and other officials inquired the tape to pin an open investigation on individuals who were responsible for setting the squad car on fire and inadvertently injuring a fellow police officer. Wolf spent 226 days in prison before releasing the tape in its entirety to prosecutors. 

Sources:
Wiki
First Amendment Center

Twelve Years Forward

  For me September 11 was a normal school day for me. I remember sitting in my fourth grade class taught by Mr. Rokita. He was teaching a lesson using the overhead when someone interrupted class to tell me that my father was here for early pick up. I was surprised we didn't discuss me leaving school early today. As I gathered my things it was announced over the classroom intercom that another one of my classmates was getting picked up from school as well. I greeted my dad happily but confused and asked what happened. He had a weary look on his face and as we walked out of Glenridge Elementary school and hopped into the car he told me of the plane crashes in the World Trade Center. We rushed to downtown DC and picked my mother up from work. Outside the Ronald Reagan building were reporters and their crew conducting man on the street interviews. Upon my return home I laid in my parents bed watching a local news channel as they played and replayed the plane crashes over and over again. At nine years old I couldn't possibly fathom why someone would do such a thing and that this could not be justified. My thoughts, feelings, and emotions were warped around this event until I peacefully fell asleep. From that day on tension brew between Americans and the Muslim community who fit the stereotypical description of being a terrorist. And many of us adhered to that.

   Looking back at this tragic event I am no longer confused as to why this attack took place. Its in our nature to behave this way. When ideas, beliefs, and values from two separate entities differ the end result is violence especially if ones ideas are beginning to influence the other. One can argue that the attacks of September 11 could easily be compared to the marches and protests during the Civil Rights Movement as an act of expression. Although it was the wrong way to go about things, none the less it got its point across effectively.
   In the video collage the media didn't hastily jump to conclusions in the initial coverage of the 9/11 attacks instead they used phrases such as "unconfirmed reports", "we cannot confirm", "we don't know anything about", "limited information", "apparently", and etc to convey to the audience that their will be more details to come. The media basically let spectators come on the air and tell there story. Once more information was gathered the media began to tell the stories in what some might consider in a sensationalized manner. Reporters emphasized key words or phrases such as "tragedy", "sad", "terrible", "devastating" and etc to evoke emotion into their audience. In other coverage I seen reporters out in the field interviewing witnesses and comforting tears as well.

SOURCE Youtube