Ethical Problems for Journalists

Journalists may have a fun job, but they do face some ethical problems. Deceit is one of them. According to the book, Journalists who are covering a story and may use deceit should think about short and long term consequences of deception, the impact, of credibility, legal implications, motivations for actions, consistency of reasoning and action, and the congruence between the deceptive act and the organization’s editorial mission. Friendship is another problem faced by journalists. This can keep you from getting information that is important. To overcome this obstacle, it’s better if the journalist asks their editor to give the story to someone else, that way you don’t have to worry about getting information from your friend. There’s also payola, which means that journalists can’t accept payment for a story other than from their employer.
Another obstacle is freebies. If journalists accept free gifts from people, they cover, they may not stay objective, write stories that they might not write, and the public could see the reporter as someone who is suspected of or accepted freebies as an objective. In order to avoid any problems, journalists should not accept freebies at all.