Ethical Standards in Journalistic Writing

When it comes to the story published by Rolling Stone, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, about the UVA rape allegations, there are definitely ethical standards in question.  Without a doubt, the basic code of ethics for journalism was not followed in the laying out of this story.  The lack of fact-checking played a huge part when it comes down to determining whether or not Rolling Stone followed the code of ethics established for journalist.  When the victim, Jackie’s, story came into question as not having matched up with stories that the fraternity was bringing forward, in terms of a party having been thrown, the name of her date and his affiliation with the fraternity - or him existing at all - all made Rolling Stone look very ill-educated in what acceptable journalism looked like.  For a journalist, the core principal of writing a story is to be as objective as possible, which relies on hearing both sides of the story and writing a piece the equally reflects the issue from both perspectives, doesn’t judge, and allows for a clean cut of the situation being reported on. Rolling Stone did not follow this technique, so on an ethically expected level, yes - there is cause for ethical concern.

In terms of Rolling Stone reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, having adequately served her source, Jackie, I would have to say that although there were good intentions behind writing the story, she ultimately failed in her attempt because she did not follow the journalist code of ethics.  Sabrina wanted to bring attention to an issue that is extremely prevalent in our society.  Clearly this reporter, and editor were not abiding by Mills Utility principle, which begs to look at the outcome associated with completing a certain task.  If the Rolling Stone team had looked ahead and kept in mind the possible backlash, questioning, and lack of information that they used to write and publish this story, a lot of what’s happened could have been avoided.  It’s true, if the reporter had taken just a little more time to gather information and inquire deeper into those who Jackie mentioned than maybe their article would have been even stronger and would have been able to withstand the backlash it received, because they would have had a credible more objective piece.  But sadly, after having been criticized for the lack of information and accuracy in their published article Rolling Stone stating that their trust in jackie was misplaced, not only discredits Jackie’s claim altogether, but after putting this young woman story in the public eye, lacking all the information possible, and then abandoning her and her story, was not a respectable move on behalf of Rolling Stone.  Rape is a serious topic, and perhaps, as mentioned in Maya Dusenbery’s blog post, it’s a topic that should be left out of the objective realm of writing since there are so many outlooks and beliefs about the act.  Following the idea of Pluralism, which essentially says there are multiple competing values and not one ultimate value, there are certain topics that just can’t be broken down or perceived through an objective lens.  When you have a topic, such as rape, where the victim, the perpetrator, social norms, personal value, and morals are affected it seems like a topic that is almost impossible to restrict to an objective view.  To turn rape into an objective view, for me, discredits just how serious a topic it is.

Now, as we continue our discussion on ethical situations, within the entire series of events that unfolded since the release of the Rolling Stone article, other actions can be brought into question as ethical or not as well.  Charles C. Johnson, who decided to take it upon himself and leak Jackie’s personal information online, shattered a ton of ethical obligations, not just journalistic ones.  Yes, Jackie did agree to sit down and be interviewed for the Rolling Stone story, but no, that does not mean she has relinquished her right o privacy in some extent.  And not at all does that give the right of some attention-seeking “internet-troll” to leak Jackie’s personal information online.  An individuals right to privacy should always be respected no matter what the circumstances.  Jackie’s story should have definitely been fact checked before being published; and this is not at all to discredit her claims and recollections of what happened the night that she was attacked, it just makes for a stronger argument, so that if her story is attacked (which is was, due to the lack of fact-checking) the publishers can at least say that they have heard her story, and have in fact contacted and talked to all involved in order to make for a more compelling argument, perhaps on Jackies case.  Fact-checking doesn’t mean “we don’t believe you” it means, we need to have all the information possible so if we are questioned, or ‘new’ information is brought up, we can say, we know/knew/are aware/ and have done that, it just makes for a stronger story, in the journalism world at least.  Also, if they had fact checked in the first place,  they probably wouldn’t have had to abandon Jackie at all when s*** hits the fan.

When a story is called into question, who should shoulder the “burden” of transparency?  Ultimately I would have to say the reporter.  Although after the story leaves the reporters desk, and undergoes the eyes of the editors, the reporter is charged with the responsibility of having done proper research and accurate fact-checking before presenting the final product to their editors.

Within the series of events that unfolded since this articles release, there have been questions to whether or not “activism journalism” could be a possible thing to flourish and work within the industry.  The reporter wanted to make a statement about rape culture within American universities, and while using her article on Jackie as a foot in to such a topic, ended up with ridicule from the upset journalism community.  The idea of activism journalism holds certain ethical problems, because one, journalism in itself holds its own code of ethics to be followed, and two, activism (the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about social or political change) doesn’t use an objective lens but a persuasive one, to make you think a certain way.  So while the idea is interesting, it ultimately wouldn’t make much since if we’re abiding by the ethical codes of these two realms.  Activism should be done with a persuasive style and the freedom to be bias, whilst journalism needs to abide by its code which calls for an objective lens.  Ethics is a complex topic and idea to grasp, and while forever the core of most issues in the world, it’s still makes for an interesting dinner topic……and maybe the loss of a few friends along the way.

The "Horror In Soweto" & Ethical Responsibility

This post will be a bit deductive/inductive/critically analytical, if you will.  I’ll be using various ethical perspectives and one code of ethics in particular to evaluate the case study “Horror in Soweto” (which is on page 212 of the Media Ethics: Issues and Cases” book, if you care to read along). The code of ethics that I will be using is The Communications Council code of ethics, which embodies “respect, integrity, transparency and honesty”.  This code of ethics in particular is associated with social media conduct, I chose to use this code of ethics as my reference point in comparison to this case, because it is relative to my career path (which were the assignment instructions), which is dealing with social media platforms. 

This photo is not my own. All credit goes to proper owner.

In the “Horror in Soweto” case study, we are confronted with various outlooks in terms of morally acceptable journalism tactics.  “On September 15, 1990, freelance photographer Gregory Marinovich documented the killing, by a mob of African National Congress supporters, of a man they believed to be a Zulu spy”.  “Marinovich and Associated Press reporter Tom Cohen spotted the man being led fro Soweto, South Africa, train-station platform by a group armed with machetes and crude spears.  Marinovich and Cohen continued to witness and report as the man was stoned, bludgeoned, stabbed, doused with gasoline and set afire” (page 212). Given this gruesome imagery, I cannot begin to fathom the amount of moral/ethical obligation the reporter must have felt in that instance.  Do you continue reporting regardless of the murder you’re watching?  Do you continue photographing the stages of this mans murder and bring back the pictures to be placed on the front pages of popular news outlets in the States?  Well, he did, and there were two photos in particular that made for a great ethical debate.  One photo, was of the man right before he was going to be stabbed in the head, and the other was of the man on fire.

The Communications Council code of ethics can be pretty helpful in evaluating the ethical considerations of this case study because it deals with having liability for what you say/post and having respect for others.  Although this code of ethics is dealing particularly with social media engagement, we can ask similar questions for this case.  When engaging with social media platforms you should, “always exercise good judgement when posting and be aware that inappropriate conduct can negatively affect your organization, clients and yourself. Always apply the following test: “Would my manager, client or customers be happy to see this content published?” (Communications Council code of ethics, page 3).  Within this case study the main ethical dilemma were the use of the two gruesome photos that were used on the front cover of many news publications back in the States. We can ask questions such as, is this an appropriate image that you would show your children?  Something similar to the “breakfast test”, which is “Which of those photos would help tell the story without ruining everyones breakfast?” (page 214).

Although this code has a few elements that can be used in evaluating the “Horror in Soweto” case it’s ultimately not the one that should be used.  Because this code was made for social media conduct in particular there are components fundamental to print journalism, and photography that it does not cover.  So, although comparisons can be made this case would be better evaluated if the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) code of ethics was used as the basis of comparison.

There were numerous ethical questions brought up throughout the case, and there are certain ethical theorist that inquire about the concerns of this case. One, is Sissela Bok’s ethical decision making model, which discusses how you feel about the actions, Is there another professionally acceptable way to achieve the same goal that will not raise ethical issue? and how will others respond to the proposed act?  This relates back to the communications council discussion of public vs. private (although not entirely correlated) and whether or not a manager or client would be happy to see this content published.  Another ethical perspective that supplements this case as well as the code of ethics I have chosen is Mills Utility which says to focus on the outcome.  If you’re aware of the backlash that you may contend with due to a certain post, then you probably shouldn’t use it to begin with. 

We can't point the finger at one person in particular; well, perhaps the multitude of editors, but ultimately ethical decision making is formed by the already established moral standings of an individual, so whether it be the photographer, who was just doing his job and got the photos he needed, or the editors from various papers who decided to use one photo over the other, or none at all, was ultimately at the discretion of the individuals perspectives.  Ethical perspectives are subjective, and we can just hope that maybe in the future a collective conscience will change the vast playing field when it comes to right and wrong.

Let's Get Ethical

Our lovely land of the inter webs are a breeding ground for ethical problems to manifest.  Not being tied down to the same laws and protocols as most other forms of media relations (print, radio, television), the digital world allows for the uncensored, ill-advised and devious tongue (or fingers) to get away with some of the most unethical behaviors that would otherwise not fly in our alternate media world.  Since I intend to have a career heavily based within the digital world, I fear that I will encounter multiple ethical scenarios.  I mean, we all know Twitter and Instagram can only stay righteous but for so long.  Living in an age fueled with “leaks” and a gossip hungry society, the realm of ethical problems to be faced is endless.

If we look back, there are a plethora of ethically questionable media stunts. For example: our beloved Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and the beautiful Gabrielle Union had their "goods" shared with the public without their consent due to hackers.  That’s just one type of unethical behavior in our digital media. If we look at broadcast media or print we run into some other issues with ethics, such as whether or not a journalist is being objective or bias in their coverage of an event. 

Fox News…who seems to clash with the understanding of ethics in the media ALOT, has been confronted on many occasions due to their seemingly lack of comprehension of the term ethics.  Fox Business News host, Charles Payne used a certain photo (which he assumed was from the protest) as the image for his discussion on the #blackbrunch protestors. Little did he know (probably because fact checking, research, and maybe even clearance from a supervisor, is something abnormal for Fox News) the photo he used was actually an incredibly old photo, turned racist meme, and not in any way related to the topic he was discussing. Although he never took responsibility or apologized for the mishap, he did mention in a tweet (following his bashing of the image in his understanding of it to be from the protest) that the photo was indeed real, but not from the protest (Read More). Humble much Fox?  Then there's the catalog of well-known satire and yellow-journalistic publications that are available for your entertainment; the media is not a perfect entity, there are many ways it falls short in remaining an honest form of communication, yet so does everything, unless you’re some omnipotent being, which is why you have to be exceedingly cautious when you enter a field heavily involved in media relations. 

As I begin to delve into my media centered career path, I like to think that I am pretty aware of ethical and unethical procedures when it comes to communicating to the masses.  I am currently interning with a national not-profit organization where I maintain their social media platforms.  I ALWAYS….I repeat ALWAYS, check with my supervisor before posting information to make sure it’s accurate, relative, and true.  If you can’t back it up with hard evidence then you shouldn’t be posting it, tweeting it, publishing it.  If you have beef with a competitor organization, you don’t bash them through the media, that’s  childish.  Keep your brand classy and polished, no need to make under the table deals with politicians or stalk your page visitors with cookies. We’re better than that, agreed?

There have been a couple of tools that have helped me build a substantive ethical decision making toolkit.  Having been raised by a journalist probably helped immensely. My conscious is another huge one. I feel awful after accidentally stepping on a worm after a rain storm; so I couldn’t possibly do

something I know is morally and ethically tainted.  I’ve also had the benefit of engaging in a coupe of text that have helped me shape my ethical toolkit such as  “I Know Who You Are And I Saw What You Did” by Lori Andrews, which essentially unveils the stalker-like reality of social media sites and how they track your info in order to sell to you on behalf of ad agencies.  “The Terror Dream” by Susan Faludi gave great insight into the many facets of broadcast and print media during the time of tragedy; which helped me gain awareness into how wording and inflated descriptions can play a huge part in story-telling.

Being that this blog is an extension of my media ethics course, as a student, I am obligated to have many questions, which I naturally do anyway.  One of my biggest questions is when it comes to the internet, our digital media seems to not have many boundaries; in a realm when anyone can be a journalist (authorized or not) and where internet leaks, and digital stalking is a new norm, when looking for information, how do we go about it in the truest of forms?  I’d love to see how some of the most scandalous issues in media history were handled, and I’d love a discussion on ethical issues exclusively in the digital world. I feel like there’s a melting pot of unbelievable awfulness to be explored.