Resumo de Professional And Ethical Standards Of Journalism

Professional and ethical standardsJournalists are expected to follow a stringent code of journalistic conduct that requires them to, among other things:Use original sources of information, including interviews with people directly involved in a story, original documents and other direct sources of information, whenever possible, and cite the sources of this information in reports; For more information on using sources, see Journalism sourcing. Fully attribute information gathered from other published sources, should original sources not be available (to not do so is considered plagiarism; some newspapers also note when an article uses information from previous reports); Use multiple original sources of information, especially if the subject of the report is controversial; Check every fact reported; Find and report every side of a story possible; Report without bias, illustrating many aspects of a conflict rather than siding with one; Approach researching and reporting a story with a balance between openmindedness and skepticism. Use careful judgment when organizing and reporting information. Be careful about granting confidentiality to sources (news organizations usually have specific rules that journalists must following concerning grants of confidentiality); Decline gifts or favors from any subject of a report, and avoid even the appearance of being influenced; Abstain from reporting or otherwise participating in the research and writing about a subject in which the journalist has a personal stake or bias that cannot be set aside. Such a code of conduct can, in the real world, be difficult to uphold consistently. Journalists who believe they are being fair or objective may give biased accounts -- by reporting selectively, trusting too much to anecdote, giving a partial explanation of actions, or engaging in one-sided gotcha journalism. (See Media bias.) Even in routine reporting, bias can creep into a story through a reporter's choice of facts to summarize, or through failure to check enough sources, hear and report dissenting voices, or seek fresh perspectives.As much as reporters try to set aside their prejudices, they may simply be unaware of them. Young reporters may be blind to issues affecting the elderly. A 20-year veteran of the "police beat" may be deaf to rumors of departmental corruption. Publications marketed to affluent suburbanites may ignore urban problems. And, of course, naive or unwary reporters and editors alike may fall prey to public relations, propaganda or disinformation.News organizations provide editors, producers or news directors whose job is to check reporters' work at various stages. But editors can get tired, lazy, complacent or biased. An editor may be blind to a favorite reporter's omissions, prejudices or fabrications. (See Jayson Blair.) Provincial editors also may be ill-equipped to weigh the perspective (or check the facts of) a correspondent reporting from a distant city or foreign country. (See News management.)A news organization's budget inevitably reflects decision-making about what news to cover, for what audience, and in what depth. Those decisions may reflect conscious or unconscious bias. When budgets are cut, editors may sacrifice reporters in distant news bureaus, reduce the number of staff assigned to low-income areas, or wipe entire communities from the publication's zone of interest.Publishers, owners and other corporate executives, especially advertising sales executives, can try to use their powers over journalists to influence how news is reported and published. Journalists usually rely on top management to create and maintain a "firewall" between the news and other departments in a news organization to prevent undue influence on the news department. One journalism magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, has made it a practice to reveal examples of executives who try to influence news coverage, of executives who do not abuse their powers over journalists, and of journalwho resist such pressures.Investigative reporting, in which journalists investigate and expose unethical, immoral and illegal behavior by individuals, businesses and government agencies, can be expensive ? requiring months of attention, long-distance travel, computers to analyze public-record databases, or use of the company's legal staff to secure documents under freedom of information laws. Because of its inherently confrontational nature, this kind of reporting is often the first to suffer from budget cutbacks or interference from outside the news department.

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