Ethics in Journalism


Ethics are in many professions. For this post we will focus on ethics in journalism. The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have a few "rules" that journalists should follow to have the best work. Those rules are seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, be accountable and transparent. There are many case studies that deal with these rules. The one that I will be discussing is about Kobe Bryant.

Kobe Bryant died back in in January of 2020 at the age of 41. A lot of people loved Kobe Bryant and after his death a lot of people praised him and everything that he had accomplished. Many people took to social media to talk about how much they will miss Kobe and how he had impacted their lives. Felicia Sonmez was a reporter for The Washington Post and only hours after Kobe's death she tweeted an article from 2003 about sexual allegations against Kobe.

Now the question about this post is, is there a limit to truth telling? How long (if at all)should a journalists wait after a persons death before resurfacing sensitive information about their past? Sonmez received a lot of hate after that tweet and left many people not happy. The SPJ answered these questions by saying, "Although there should not be a limit to telling the truth, respect and timeliness need to be considered when doing so. If Sonmez had tweeted the article a few days after Bryant's death, there probably would not have been as much backlash."
#Ethics #Journalism #Respect

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Certain Body Types in Media

Image
Anytime you get on social media or even when you're watching television, you see celebrities or models who have the "perfect" body. In media you see men and women with similar body types. They are always very fit, skinny, a nice hour glass shape and toned bodies. I don't know if it is only me that thinks this but, I'm always wishing that I had a body as a celebrity or model. I say to myself, wow I wish I looked like that. The media has made this image that everyone should look like these people, when in reality, all body types should be represented.  On the Boys and Girls Club of America website it says, "In fact, 8 in 10 girls say they compare the way they look to other people on social media, and 50% of them say idealized beauty content and unrealistic filters on social media is damaging to their self-esteem." The idea that people have to look a certain way to be accepted in society, hurts peoples self-esteem and damages their mental health. Not only ...
Read more

Defamation in the Acting World

Image
  Defamation is speaking (slander) or writing (libel) something that is false and can ruin some ones reputation that they have. There are many court cases that deal with defamation. Many of which involve celebrities and important public figures. The case that I will be discussing is Keira Knightley V. The Daily Mail. The Daily Mail wrote an article in 2007 about a young girl who died from an eating disorder and used a picture of Keira in a bathing suit showing her slim physique. On the Elawtalk website it says, "The title of the article sporting the photograph was 'If pictures like this one of Keira carried a health warning, my darling daughter might have lived.'" This article claimed that Keira Knightley has anorexia and is part of the reason that the girl died from this eating disorder. Keira denied the allegations that she suffered from anorexia and that she just has a smaller physique. She sued The Daily Mail and won. She donated all of the money to an eating dis...
Read more