Mass Media And Its Influence

As such, ethics in journalism is important because what is reported and how it is reported shapes lives and opinions. There is the crux of the ethical dilemma that the journalism profession faces by distinguishing between the industry’s responsibility and accountability. The tension between the responsibility of journalists to report news as a matter of public interest and their accountability to a broader social and moral code is at the heart of the dilemma that the media industry faces. This debate has been driven by the emergence of mass media.
Now with the growth in e-commerce and on-line reporting as a branch of mass media development one hundred years on after the advent of the commercial press has grown intense competition among different mass media. The economic pressure to drive a new technology within an established sector places an ethical dilemma before media professionals.
There has been for many years a “consensus within and without the media industries that the accurate reporting of information is important to the healthy exercise of decision-making in society. This consensus has been embodied in the codes of practice of the Advertising Standards Association (ASA), the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) and, in the 1990s, of the Press Complaints Commission”. In the United States, this same consensus is enshrined in the Society of Professional Journalists’.
The SPJ provides working examples of cases that challenge its Code and test its veracity as a practical working tool that will ensure freedom of expression as set against the rights of individuals and groups. For example, it presents the cases of the Caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which were first published in September 2005 in a Danish newspaper; they did not cause much controversy when they were first published. However, after Muslim leaders called attention to their republication in early 2006, there were riots throughout the Islamic world, and several people were killed. Some of the issues that this example raised are to do with the difference in perception between freedom of expression and unnecessary provocation. It is the same as Hodges’ tension between responsibility and accountability. The SPJ advises ‘good judgment’ as a course of action for the ethical journalist, in that the pictures were already available on the Internet, and further publication could have resulted in more loss of life. This case epitomises the ethical tightrope that media professionals must walk in deciding on editorial copy.
The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is charged with enforcing the Editor’s Code of Practice in the United Kingdom. The Code lists sixteen substantive points that media professionals should adhere to as a matter of good practice; these range from Accuracy to Payments to Criminals. The PCC polices this Code, and enforces it where appropriate. Its powers are egalitarian. It is available to ordinary members of the public as well as public figures.
The role of journalists is to report the world; what makes this ever more difficult is that the world is constantly changing. As such, the ethical considerations that define the morals of one sector of society will be fundamentally different to another. Not only is society changing, but the mechanisms of reporting are also developing, thus forcing editors to balance ethical reporting against constant economic considerations. This places further tension on what journalists report, how they report it, and to whom.