What are a journalist’s ethics?

1. What are a journalist’s ethics? • Accuracy – as much as humanly possibly, a journalist must be accurate. • How can you ensure accuracy • Investigate, research the facts • Try to get more than one source • Acknowledge the credibility of the sources • What happens when a journalist makes an honest mistake? • Print corrections and retractions prominently and quickly

2. Objectivity • Objective vs. Subjective • How can you be objective? • Don’t include your opinions or make judgments • Get both/all sides: allow for a simultaneous rebuttal and the right to reply – basically, when you uncover a story, allow all people involved in the story to comment, reply to accusations, and respond to comments, and, as the author, demonstrate a greater interest in uncovering information instead of trying to uncover who is right or wrong.

3. Plagiarism An obvious “no-no”, but how do we guarantee our safety from this evil? ATTRIBUTION – the idea of attributing words, ideas, notions and work to their authors… every time. Always give credit. This also allows the response to the words to be directed at the speaker or the origin of the words instead of the paper or at you.

4. Fairness and Taste Fairness will appear with objectivity. It helps people trust a paper when they believe that a paper (its editor and reporters) are being fair – reputation. Taste is an important part of a journalist’s credibility. The type of news stories, the “yellow” coloring of the presentation, and even the people who appear to be under attack in a story determine the taste.

5. truth Never fake anything. Report only what you know beyond a doubt. Never guess – not even educated guesses are truth. With an honest reputation comes credibility, (and forgiveness when you make a mistake).

6. What do you think is the most important of these? Turn to page 38 and 39 in the text book. Read the code of ethics. Discuss with a partner or trio these ethics and what you think is valid or not. Then choose the most important one and explain why. EVERYONE should be prepared to talk.

7. What is libel? • Printed false defamation of character and damages the reputation of another. • What are some things that you may say about a person that would damage his/her reputation? • What are some outcomes of damage to a persons reputation? • Can photos be libelous?

8. How can you protect yourself from libel? • Attribution • Right of reply/rebuttal • Run corrections quickly and prominently • Only print the truth • Don’t spread another’s lies (even if someone told you the lie, your still the one responsible for spreading it.)

9. “Fair comment” Free to venture any opinion in reviewing books or records, theatrical events, movies, etc. You may express a negative opinion but the facts you state have to be true. Admission of Error • A prompt correction of a published article that has been shown to be false. • Basically telling the judge “Yes, there may be libel here but it wasn’t malicious. As soon as we found out we were wrong, we ran a correction.”

10. What about celebrities and politicians? You still cannot lie about them, but because of their public nature you have more freedom to say what you want. For example: If a senator wants to pursue with a libel suit, not only does he/she need to show the damage, but also must show that the press knew it was printing a falsehood or exercised reckless disregard for the truth.