HOW THE ONLINE MEDIA POSE PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM

ETHICAL DILEMMAS.

A technical study of the ethical challenges faced by online mainstream journalists in an era of facebook and twitter.

Hypothesis

Accurate reporting has never been easy, given journalism’s deadline-driven nature. But today, accuracy is further challenged, as news-making adopts the internet medium. (Salcito, 2006)

New Questions:• Who is a journalist? – in an era of loss of professional identity and

online environment.• Why are Journalism ethics needed? – Is it the ethics that make a

journalist a professional?• Questioning ethics in the online era – what are the challenges for

professionals when it comes to acting ethically online? Can we use anything that is available online?

• Focusing on speed vs. accuracy – are newspapers acting responsibly (ethically)

• Leading to the question – Do news sites online have an obligation to inform their users when they've gotten it wrong? (Lynch , 2008)

Debates:• If there is anything about which most editors and

observers seem to agree, it's that good ethics is good business. In the increasingly chaotic and fragmented world of online media, newspaper sites have brand names to protect and defend--brand names that set them apart from a ravenous pack of wannabe news providers. (Mann, 1997)

Vs.• The Web 2.0 revolution has peddled the promise of

bringing more truth to more people … but every week a new revelation calls into question the accuracy reliability and trust of the information we get from the internet. (Keen, 2007)

Social Media as a useful tool:• Facebook encompasses public information• Real time feeds provided by twitter • Citizens can provide information reporters may not be able

to access at the time.

• In contrast to print online journalists now have a constant deadline – more pressures.

• “The responsibility for accuracy is to an increasing degree given to the sources and the public, as journalists often do not check the facts before publishing.” (Witschge, Tamara and Nygren, Gunnar, 2009)

Methods/ Findings:

Via Reuters Institute Digital Report 2012

Some 75% of people in the UK read, watch or listen to a news story every day, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism survey suggests.

Methods:

Personal Research:• Books

• Articles

• Interviews

• Surveys

The Guardian:Most journalists use social media such as Twitter and Facebook as a sourceSocial media is becoming viewed as a relevant part of journalistic research, study reveals

Cases– Hurricane Sandy

various news published fake photos

– Margaret Thatcher death (published by LesNews on Twitter who later run an apology)

Who to interview??- professional journalists working in an online environment (freelancing or within a news agency).

WhoScott Carney David Banks

Charles Arthur Todd Douglas

Charlie Beckett Ed Walker

Stephen Ward Jonathan Collett

Interviews Questions:• Do you use social media for research

purposes?• What are the issues when dealing with online

material? Is there enough time to verify it before publishing it?

• Is there a big competition over who will publish first?

• Is it correct to run a correction or is it sufficient to merely unpublish if content turns out to be false or misleading?

Solutions?

• Organising, making lists – following guidelines- “Look for the history of that person, have they been on those platforms for some time, if so they are more likely to be that person. If they're trying to hoax you the account is likely to be more recent” (Paul Bradshaw, journalism academic)

• Run corrections?-"Readers don't expect perfection," Silverman says. "They expect us to work hard to prevent errors, and to correct any that occur." The point isn't to be perfect. If that's our goal, we'll fail every time. The point is to get better: not just better at being right, but better at being wrong. (Schulz, 2010)

PRACTICAL PROJECT

How reporters today gather information

• Focus on one news agency• Shadow for a day, analyse process of newsgathering• According to information gathered either:- a 2 minute video presentation/diaryor -a three minute audio slide show of approximately 18 pictures