Credibility is everything: A discussion on media ethics by LAT’s Melissa McCoy
We spent two days discussing media ethics will Melissa McCoy, who was until this spring, a deputy managing editor of the LA Times. She was in charge of copy desks, standards and the editorial library.
She joined the Times in 1992 and worked as an assistant managing editor, copy desks, foreign desk copy chief, suburban assistant copy chief and metro copy editor.
It was definitely a comprehensive discussion that could have gone on for several hours. Unfortunately we had to stop at some point. We talked about ethical issues surrounding photos, headlines, social media, and terminology. Melissa raised some excellent points that I had never thought of when it comes to what we’re doing on the web.
And ethics isn’t just about what you’re putting in the paper. Employees should know what their internal ethics policies are. Are you familiar with yours? For instance, do you accept freebies? Can you give money to political candidates? There’s no right answer to these questions, just make sure you know what your company’s policy is … and stick to it!
Keep in mind that the world of print and online really merge. Everything has to have standards, no matter what medium it’sin. Readers are counting on you to use good judgement. And editing is nothing more than excercising good judgement, she said.
In any situation surrounding ethics, it’s important to remember that “going with you gut” won’t cut it, so you have to always think clearly.
Making good decisions involves a couple factors:
- What’s my journalistic purpose? For example, would you run a photo of someone committing suicide?
- What are my concerns?
Going back to to my point about ethics and the Web. The Web is a place where you get into the most trouble because you’re publishing in real time. I’d say things are taken more lightly when it comes to content being posted on the web. Stories go up unedited, headlines are sometimes not double-checked for errors, etc. I think online content producers have the mindset that anything on the web can be easily removed. That’s not necessarily the case, though. The best way to work around ethical questions is to involve others in the decision-making process. That’s difficult these days, mainly because everyone in the newsroom is already multitasking, but certain situations, if handled incorrectly, can hurt your news organization’s credibility.
As Melissa pointed out, credibility is everything.
Accuracy: The single most important application of ethics. Are all your facts correct? Is the story fair and balanced? Remember, if you lose your journalistic integrity, you’ve lost everything.
Tone: Do you use certain words that aren’t needed? For example, do you add unnecessary adjectives in your stories?
Balance: Are you doing enough reporting to ensure that all sides are being represented fairly?
Voice: Editors need to let reporters have a voice. But remember that too much voice = no balance.
Sometimes the best way to achieve transparency in your news organization is to be up front with your readers.
Think about being up front with your readers in the following situations:
- Manipulating photographs: If you’ve manipulated an image, make sure to explain why. Several major news organizations sometimes use cropped images from several photographs and morph them into some sort of illustration. If you’re going to do that, again, be up front with your readers. You must be careful anytime you’re manipulating images.
- Inappropriate photos: When might a photo be inappropriate for publication? What if you’re using file art from several years ago to illustrate something that’s happening now? How do you know if you’re crossing the line? (For more on photo ethics, see Maynard fellow Virginia Griffey’s blog post, Ethical use of photos.) She has a comprehensive list of ethical issues surrounding the use of images.
Finally, to the Web. This is an extensive topic that I’ll continue in another post, but for now, remember this: It’s way more important to be right then it is to be first. This is a basic but important concept that tends to be overlooked because the Web is sometimes treated like a mish-mash of content.
More later …
Recent Comments