Ethics

I think it is hard for anyone to define their values into concrete will or wont’s. Most peoples standards of ethics are fluid, changing with the times and changing according to the situation. I think this is often the cause of poor journalism. I journalists can sit down and plan out what they would do in certain situations, then we will have a much more honest news media as a whole. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102801172.html.

Most important is that journalists know what their moral standards are ethics are before they are faced with difficult decisions. For example a journalist should decide to never take a bribe for either writing a story or killing one. Then, when faced with such a situation they would already know what they are willing to do. http://www.spj.org

I think that it is important for the journalist to individually do this as well as for news organizations to provide their employees with a company code of ethics. As a news consumer I have begun to look at different papers ethical standards and it helps me to trust certain paper or organizations more than others. It lets me know that what they print is factual and that they are responsible for what is being covered. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html