Ethical Problems in Journalism

The First Amendment protects journalists, but there are many ethical issues that journalists face every day when writing stories.

One of the many ethical issues is using deceit to get a story because when the journalist lies to uncover a story, he or she may no longer be considered reputable.

Another issue journalist’s face is conflict of interest; they must show no point of view and absolutely no bias. Conflict of interest issues include friendship-which can be the greatest obstacle to the flow of information-they may not accept payment for a story other than from their employer and journalists may not accept freebies.

Plagiarism is yet another ethical issue that journalists face. In fact, according to the book, it seems that nearly every other day there is a story about some reporter admitting to plagiarism.

To resolve these, and other, ethical issues journalists should engage in principled reasoning, principles that will help you decided on proper or moral ways to act. The model of moral reasoning devised by Dr. Ralph Potter is called the Potter Box and has four elements.

The four elements include appraising the situation, identifying values, appealing to ethical principles and choosing loyalties.