Person Code of Conduct

Everett Shell
Comms 239
Professor Cressman
April 13, 2010

Personal Code of Conduct


My own personal view of the code of conduct in journalism is simple, being we all have a duty and responsibility as journalists to report only the truth in our stories, as well as to be the people’s voice. Being a reporter comes down to having a voice in society that whatever story we may produce, it will help the people in a way to feel they too have an influence or say that can decide what is ethical in terms of making self-governing decisions. I have come to realize over the course of the semester that a journalist’s personal code of conduct and ethics are the foundation of what makes a good reporter. Ethics is one of the most important factors of being a journalist, getting all sides of a story and not being biased or skewing a story just to obtain a bigger audience. When it comes down to it, news reporting is not about us and our glory as journalist, but what is most significant, is in the honor of reporting reliable accurate news to the people.

Journalist should use the media in their best interest when reporting, remembering the audience first before their own opinions. This semester I interned with ABC 4 News in Salt Lake City, and found that it is important in the newsroom that they all work together as a team in order to have the best news reporting, and therefore, a more successful news station. When a reporter was out in the field and they couldn’t get the footage they needed, then it was my job to search in the video archives for some great b-roll to go along with the reporters’ story. Verification is another important factor of journalism. Always double-check your data and facts to make sure they are correct and accurate before reporting. Often, there will be occasion when some information may change within the next couple of days of an occurrence, so it’s a journalist’s duty to go back and update the story as needed.
I also realized during this semester that I’m not going into journalism to get rich, it’s more about making a difference in the society that I live in by reporting the truth. Journalist should keep an independence from those they cover by maintaining accuracy, verification, and serving the public’s interest, as well as the desire to inform the people. Parts of the trade in journalism includes, adhering to the principles of truthfulness, which is of the up most importance to journalist if they truly want success. Another may be an allegiance to the citizens and community, that as a journalist, you will give them the news they need as pertaining to their community. In many cases of reporting, it may involve playing a watchdog role and providing a forum for public debate, but this can often tend to become more opinion based. It's not wrong to have opinions in reporting, but we must keep in consideration not to be bias towards the other party, but to back up all opinions with facts that support the statement you are considering. The objective for journalism should be less of your opinions, and more of the people’s opinion.

Our goal as a journalist is to report accurate reliable news for the people and not to always state our opinions towards the subject. I have noticed some journalist start out with a story in mind, so that when they ask their sources questions, they will ask in a way that can verify or favor the initial story they would like to report. It seems like it is more towards the journalist’s interest and not for that which favors the people’s unbiased needs. Journalists tend to report from ideologues based off a set of aims or ideas to obtain one's goal. In reporting you often have a vision of what you want to report first, and a lot of those come from our own experiences. We should remain neutral not favoring any one stance or opinion but reporting only the facts as they are. Therefore we should not write from our own perspective but report truth from an unbiased standard. Before starting a story, we should first be well rounded in our story by researching out all its facets, issues, and possible stances. Any great story should always be researched, and time invested in collecting data and information before writing or reporting it.

We all see the world in our own perspective according to culture, religion, traditions, and political stand points. It is just in our nature to have an opinion on most things, which can control our reporting in the way we present a story. For example, if a reporter isn't as familiar with a certain group of people, the reporter may report the story only through personal experience or what he or she have seen or read in the media, which is not always the best way to report news. I know that we all have opinions, but it is important to not let our opinions effect our reporting. News should be more based on facts, evidence, and human sources we interview to make a great story, and therefore should not be skewed in a particular way that would make it appear biased. Journalist’s main focus on objectivity is reliance upon truth. It is more of a practical truth understood that journalists have opinions, of course they do, they are human, but since journalists have assumed a duty to report the news to the people, it is critical that each journalists should follow the guidelines of fairness, balance, and accuracy in every story. In other words, journalists should not be influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice in their presentation of the news, but more so by that which is based on facts.
Watchdog journalism is a form of investigative reporting that consists of finding the truth in a confidential story by searching beneath the surface and finding out what is really going on, particularly in political or economical issues that our government may be withholding from its people. I tend to interpret watchdog journalism as a balance in the media by uncovering the truth behind crooked and greedy people. There are always records and evidence of truth within the government, but it is up to the journalist to find it. If something doesn't seem right, then start investigating and find out what is really going on; this can lead to a breaking news story that will put the government or whomever in check. It is important to realize that investigative reporting is not opinionated journalism because with unbiased facts and data, it is not the journalist’s opinion anymore. We may have assumptions towards someone or an organization, but without facts it's not a story. I also liked what we talked about in class over the credibility of a reporter who becomes a celebrity like Anderson Cooper, or Barbara Walters. Should they still be considered reliable reporters? I think they should, because they know the rules and ethics of journalism. They are telling the truth, but they add more emotion into their stories, which is not always the best approach to reporting. It can cause lack of credibility; people don’t trust their emotion-driven intentions. When Anderson Cooper went out to Haiti and helped move a little boy, who was bleeding due to people throwing bricks off a rooftop, I saw Cooper more as a hero, and not as the traditional journalist. Who knows, that may be where journalism ends up? What the clip resulted in was that it caught my attention, and I wanted to know more about this story in Haiti and why the people were fighting each other.

My own personal code of conduct that I plan to live by as a journalist is to be steadfast in getting all the facts and information that I need to have a great story by researching each story before going out and interviewing people, and always remembering to keep my morals and standards as a follower of the LDS faith. I can make a difference in this world, as well as be a voice to the people in reporting reliable and credible news stories by making ethical judgments in all of journalism. It is not my opinions that matter; it’s the facts that matter in news. I really enjoy journalism, and I think it is truly inspired by the gospel as it is grounded in serving others from an ethical point of view, and doing what is right for the greater good of society.

Engagement and Relevance

As journalist we are to engage the audience with captivating stories that they want to hear and know about, grabbing their attention by the stories we report.

The key to a successful journalist is to connect with the audience to receive feedback on how your story is portrayed in the media. It is always a good thing to get some feedback even if it may be a little critical, it will only improve our journalism skills. In the news today, it is important to engage and connect more with the people. On a lot of the news websites they have online polls and surveys as well as comments that can be posted with each story so the people can voice their opinions and give comments on the piece. For example on KSL they even have live chat for the audience to connect with the reporters and broadcast announcers to express their opinions on a story.

I think it gives the journalist a check and balance from the interaction with the audience. If it is the journalists initiative to tell the truth to the people, then the online comments, and surveys are a great way for the people to voice their opinions and thoughts in the news and how we can improve journalism.

It's also important to get the audiences attention in the stories we report. News is intended to tell a story to keep the audience interested and attentive in the story that relates to them in their community. A reporter must also remember that good journalism consists of the story it's not because of the advertisements in the article.

Another way to be engaged and have relevance within a story is to research a story thus, having more evidence and date into the story which will add interest to the viewers. Each story that is more in depth consist of more credibility and is affirmed to be more accurate.

It was hilarious during the presentation when they brought up the People magazine about Brad Pitts beard and how the social media is trying to be newsworthy. I don't consider People magazine to be news worthy material. From a journalist perspective People magazine is more on the basis of selling a product and advertising viewers, but it's true people love or adore certain celebrities wanting to know what's going on in their lives. Also, the comparison of a journalist being a celebrity, will it hurt their reputation or credibility as a journalist? Well if society is all about fame and glamorous life styles then it may not hurt the journalist reputation, but only boost their careers, like Barbara Walters and Anderson Cooper. I think as a journalist our job is not to seek fame, but to tell the truth and report accurate reliable news to the people that they want and should know. We are the voice for the people that they can have in society.

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Comprehensive and Proportional Journalism

As journalist, it is our drive to cover certain stories. We all have our best stories that we like to cover most and the stories that tend to get the audiences attention.

During the presentation, I thought it was really interesting of how we come to cover certain stories. For example, The Ease, are the stories that we see, the Economics are the stories we cover that people want to read, and the Elitism are the stories what educated people care about. We write and report news stories according to how these three principles applies to each journalist. I know a lot of journalist who are assigned to a specific story he or she may not want, but have to go ahead and report the story in order to make their news director happy. A lot of journalist argue in the sense of, "are we reporting for us or the people." Do we write the stories that the audience want to know or the stories the audience should know? I think as journalist we are free to write whatever we want, and the most important kind of story is reporting the truth, so the people can have a voice and know the things that are going on in society.

Some journalist tend to be pressured to hype a story because the news is subjective and some stories may not be as important as others, so the journalist will juice up the story to interest viewers.

In the presentation it was spoken that sensationalism coverage isn't proportional journalism, which is true I don't think by putting emotion into the story should be a value of what good journalism is. It seems like the journalist who add an emotional tied for the readers is not credible. They want an emotional story, not an emotional journalists.

The best support for a strong reliable story, is a story that has been highly researched. Research helps journalists make judgments, it doesn't replace their judgement according to market research.

In journalism, sensationalism is a strong mechanism that attracts audiences attention like the example of Michael Jackson's Death it was the top story at every news station and paper. Of whether he committed suicide or if he murdered, which captured audiences and fans to know the truth behind Jackson's death.

Reality-TV entertainment are taking the role of journalist to be more credible, which is an outrage because reality TV stars do not have any kind of journalism background or ethics pertaining to the field, but what they can do is capture an audiences attention.

We all know the famous journalist Walter Cronkite who is the man to be trusted and I thought it was ridiculous that people didn't trust him and thought he wasn't reliable from him tearing up when he announced the death of JFK. I watched the video and you can't really tell his eyes were watering, he just took off his glasses and paused then proceeded to announce the JFK assassination. If you call that emotional what would you call some of the reporters today, cry babies? The most emotional reporter in my opinion is Anderson Cooper, especially when he gets involved in natural disasters like Katrina, or Haiti earth quake victims where he acts like he is a raging citizens protesting for rights and for people to help these victims.

It seems like original reporting is just getting more expensive and time consuming. A lot of news are leaning towards soft news or featured news stories that just captures ratings and news that are not as significant as something that really affects the people. For example Anna Nicole Smith death was in the news and replaced other hard core news because it sells. Hopefully the journalist of today will take a stand on reporting news that the people want and need to know, so they can make self governing decisions on the matter and in society.


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