“How do we know what is wrong and what is right [in journalism practice]?”, Donna Meiklejohn, the guest speaker of the week throw the hard question that I had always wondered at us. Ms Meiklejohn is an experienced journalist in the field and a UQ Lecturer in this area. “15 years as a journalist, there was not a day went by that I don’t have to deal with such dilemma”, said Ms Meiklejohn. She addressed the issue of ethic in journalism as she guided us through the areas of ethics theory, codes and public interests.
l Ethics Theory
According to Ms Meikelejohn, there are three major ethics theories.
Ÿ Deontology-following the regulations equals to doing the right thing.
The three major ethical codes for media workers:
Journalists-Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA)
PR-Public relations Institute of Australia (PRIA)/ Australian Association of National Advertisers
Nonetheless, Ms Meikelejohn emphasized that the effect of codes are limited as most of the rules are lack of legal effect; thus, they only serve as a sanction.
If ‘good’ or ‘desired’ outcome is achieved and the story may served as the greatest good for the greatest number, any mean that is used during the procedure is justified.
Nonetheless, the issue with this theory is that the ‘greatest good’ and the ‘receiver of the good’ may be different for everyone; hence, the meaning of such ‘outcome’ is ambiguous. And if such ‘positive’ outcome is not achieved, the practiced of journalism is left unjustified. This obscure nature makes the judgment based on Consequentialism problematic as there is no exact way of practicing it.
Ÿ Virtue-if the journalism practice fits into one’s value of virtue, it is justified. There is the doctrine of mean, the virtue one seeks for is the balance point within the practice, too less or too much of it may be considered as vices. For example, ‘justice’ is the mean between the ‘in-justice of overzealous’ and ‘the injustice of lawlessness’.
Moreover, Ms Meikelejohn noted that as a journalist, the encounter of ethics concern in practice is the daily dilemma as different stories comes up frequently and consideration of ethics is required. Therefore, there wouldn’t have time for journalists to analysis the ethical issue on the job, so it is suggested that people should understand the ethics before they step in this profession.
Also, Ms Meikelejohn noted that the biggest controversy of journalism practice is the invasion of privacy being weighed against public interests.
l Public interest
According to the survey result Ms Meikekejohn supplied, most of the audience supposed that public interest is about the audience having the right and need to obtain knowledge. For example, the issues that affect people directly or of national interest (security of country) should be known by the public.
l My Journalism Ethics
For me, I think the balance between public interest should be balanced with my virtue ethics of not hurting myself as much as possible (both mentally and physically). I do understand that there must be unlikable job that a journalist need to do, but if it is threatening my mentality or survival that shall hugely dysfunction myself, I won’t do it. For example, if I know reporting a certain political scandal story falsely will cost people to die, I don’t think I will do it unless I’m threaten that if I don’t do the story I will die. This is because I don’t think I can live with that for the rest of my life and would probably have serious depression. However, on normal occasion, I will probably just follow the deontology, since not violating laws keep me safe.
Consequently, I think I lean to the virtue ethics of ‘doing the right thing for myself’ and ‘keeping myself safe’. Because life is life, and journalist is only a job, I am not going to let a job to cost my life. If you’re dead, it’s game over; what talk about job, then?
l Extra Material
l Journalism ethics
l Journalism ethics: a philosophy approach
l Journalism, ethics and society
l Media and journalism ethics
l The glocalisation of journalism ethics
l Making hard choices in journalism ethics: cases and practice
l Journalism ethics for a new era
l Ethics in journalism
l Journalism, ethics and commonsense
l Online journalism ethics; tradition and transitions
l Ethics in journalism-accuracy, honesty and credibility
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