Week 8- Ethics in Journalism

This week's presentation led us to think about the ethics and principles in Journalism.

One aspect of reporting that journalists and news writer learn in formal settings is ethics. Responsible journalists research, interview and report through a lens of ethics. The emphasis is on responsible journalist. Some journalists do not take ethics to heart, and are concerned more with their byline, their own 15 minutes of fame, and yes, the payday.

Because journalists and news reporters are struggling for our attention, they sometimes forget they have a responsibility. The responsibility is to produce honest, well-researched, thought-provoking information. The ability of the journalist to grasp these values and apply them in his or her daily practices goes a long way to define his or her quality of work, steer him or her, as much as possible, from ethical controversies, and differentiate his or her work from the rest.

After this term's study, I learned that Journalism is not only about reporting. As some external factors, the journalists have to do something the not beyond their work. For instance, they have to use the PR releases and handouts to meet the tight deadline and production outputs. They have to hide something, otherwise they will destroy some big company or organization's reputation. So, the reputation of journalists is continually being questioned. Nearly every public opinion poll shows that people have lost respect for journalists and lost faith in the news media.

Week 8 - Truth and Objectivity

Journalists first priority is to tell the truth, they have the obligation to present the most credible description as possible of society to itself, thus objectivity is the key. However, in this technology advanced society, can we still believe the information that we are receiving?

Based on the presentation, the journalism is more relay on the PR handouts and materials. Technology is placing demands on journalists to produce production quickly. Consequently, this has resulted in them relying on information supplier by PR companies. So, journalists use the material to produce news production and  meet the deadline and production outputs. But, I am not saying that the journalists are lazy, for them, it is really attractive to sit in the office and receive the handouts and material from PR agency, rather than go out to find the news sources. Actually, a good PR release should be a foundation of a good news story, but the journalists have the responsibility to check the information that the PR release given. It is necessary that journalists have to check the facts and achieve the analytical level of reporting.

To achieve truth and objectivity, journalists should follow the guidelines that we mentioned in our presentation. Journalists should get the whole story first. To do this they need to talk to as many people as many people as they can and keeping asking and re-asking questions. they need to get as many viewpoints as they can. They should also make sure all the information they are given are accurate. Journalists should be as transparent as possible about sources and methods so audiences can make their own assessment of the information.

Finally, even there is some problems exits in the journalism industry, we should still believe journalism as there are still a number of undaunted journalists are upholding the investigative journalism by showing deep investigation or exposing some dark corner of the issue.

 

Week 7 - Privacy and public interest

There is a news caused a great concern among the celebrities in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong actor Wong Chung Chak's nude photos at home were splashed across the covers of some Hong Kong tabloids in recent days. He said that, as a celebrity, he already expected that he will have no privacy, but the nude photos were taken in his bedroom. He mentioned that he usually did not draw the curtains as he preferred to let sunlight into his apartment and had a habit of not wearing clothes just after showering.And this gives a great convenience to the paparazzi to snap photos of him naked.The tabloids also showed Wong's girlfriend Myolie Wu, who recently moved into the apartment above his, visiting and sharing meals with him. Hong Kong television giant TVB issued a statement condemning the actions of these paparazzi and the tabloids they worked for."Photographing our artistes when they are in their homes, in their rooms no less, is immoral and violates their right to privacy.nWe (TVB) condemn these acts and appealto the media to observe reporting ethics and standards," said TVB in a statement, adding that the company and its artistes reserved the right to seek legal redress.Wong's colleagues also showed their support by condemning the tabloids. They said that they can't understand that some people taking photographs on the sly and fabricating stories to attracting readers and increasing sales.

In my personal opinion, the media practitioners can not always use 'press freedom' as an execuse. Home, which is a place that someone should be feeling the most at ease.

However, when we talk about privacy, it is a quite controversial topic, as different people hold different opinions. So, to what extent is the public should know? Do we really have the right to know when Paris Hilton is fall in love with a new guy,or when did a celebrity couple married?

On the issue of celebrities privacy, the artist should be aware that the job they are doing is requires high exposure. They should know that their photos will published on the newspapers, magazines very often; they will become a topic of discussion. But this does not mean that they agree they will expose all their parts to the public, they still have the privacy right. Hong Kong paparazzi have been able to shoot these photos and published to the public showed the government's dereliction of duty in this area. Only moral condemnation is not enough, they should publish some laws and regulations to regulate the practitioner's activity.
 

Week 6 – Journalism & It’s Negotiation of New Media

This week’s presentation is mainly focuses on the question “Are bloggers journalists?”. To answer this question, we should firstly understand what is journalists, what requires them to do, and how do bloggers publish news or information. Journalists write professionally about world issues, local news, comments, fashion trends and etc. There is a great amount of responsibility a journalist faces when presenting material to the public. There are a number of requirements for a professional journalist. Firstly, journalists and reporters have the responsibility to inform the public and keep a watchful eye on the public. They have to provide the fresh and accurate information to the public. They gather the facts and check to make sure they are all accurate.

However, it is no doubt that journalism is in the digital age, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogs, applications in Iphone, these are all the platforms for people to sharing information. A blog is instant publishing, and it lets anyone to post any type of digital file, including text, pictures, sound, and video.

To say bloggers are journalists is like saying that web pages are journalism. However, everyone can summit and share information online, and no one can ensure all the contents are accurate. So, in my opinion, I agree with Suzanne’s group that bloggers cannot be considered as journalists.

However, as mentioned by our tutor Jason, if the bloggers are journalists, my answer will  change.

Week 5 - Globalization VS Localization

One of the most conspicuous trends in the 21^st century is probably the closer connection between people. And this is caused by the globalization. Globalization is a catch-all term that refers to any activity that involves more than one country.

Refer to the presentation by Vanessa and Laura, journalism and the media have greatly influenced by the development of globalization. Facebook, twitter, and blogs are become part of our life. This is something that we can’t avoid due to the development of globalzation and new technology.

With the globalization in mass media, people can connect with others more easily and frequently. We can use Skype and internet to talk to the one that in a far place, we can share our feelings of the issue online, we can send emails instead of writing letters.

Due to the globalization, the international media companies expand across the world. There are also some negative impacts showed in this area. Firstly, the dominance of some international media is a sign of Western cultural imperialism and has the potential to thwart cultural diversity. For instance, Time Warner, control large sectors of the media market, and therefore, they use their media products to change others believes, values and opinions. And this may cause other countries to follow them. For example, due to the success of talent show programs in America, like American Idol. Other countries began to follow and create their own talent show, like Singapore Idol.

Lastly, at the age of globalization, journalists should more aware of the articles they are writing, and ensure the accuracy of the information.

Week4 - Who will pay for Journalism? Is it just about money?

Thanks to the new technology, we are in a new era in terms of communication and unfortunately the news industry, particularly print, have been very slow to change the way they do business.

The new technology might be the greatest achievement in the 21^st century. Though this technology, a great change has taken place in people’s daily life. Before the use of new media technology, people had to seek information from the traditional tools, such as print media. In contrast, the new technology gives people more flexibility in getting news and sharing information, such as online news website.

In addition, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have made news a more participatory experience than ever before. People share links of news stories by e-mail, post articles on their Facebook and other networking feeds and tweet them on Twitter -- often following up by discussing the articles on message boards and other sites.

This shows that traditional media is largely affected by the new media. Through this week’s seminar presentation, we found that more and more people tend to get information from the new media, and it seems to be the inevitable trend of the twenty-first century. New media is more time-saving, space-saving and so on. However, this does not mean that the mainstream media will be completely replaced by the new media. In the past, because of the dominant influence of mainstream media, advertisers are willing to spend money on the mainstream media as most people were getting information through newspapers. According to Warren, “one of the basic principles of free press demands from newspapers to operate in a competitive market, where they depend on advertising clients to make profit” (Warren, 2010). Today, although the new media occupies a great position, a majority of people still believe that the mainstream media represent the professional news reporting and deeper investigative reporting, for instance, senior citizens and middle-aged people still subscribing to newspapers.

After all, we haven’t experienced a communication revolution like this probably since the print media was invented. But I don’t think that means automatically that the print industry is doomed. I just think it means that they are going to have to rethink the way they do business.

Reference

Warren, C., 2010, The Future of Journalism, Life in the clickstream II, Our Audience, P32-33, viewed on 23^th of May, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia.

Week 3 - Journalism as a Public conversation in the 21st century; what is the role of the citizen?

‘Citizen Journalism’ is a concept that can be defined as the idea that every citizen takes an active role in the news reporting. It is embodied in the idea of everybody’s participating in news area, which means that everybody plays a proactive role in the process of news gathering, reporting, analysis and dissemination.

Sometimes called ‘grassroots journalism’ and citizen journalist believe that they provides a higher standard to news organizations and provide news from different angles and views.

The rise of citizen journalism is due to the Internet, which transforms common people from a passive audience of traditional media into active participants in creating news and comments. Thus, the citizen journalism is often related with the new forms of media and includes everything from passionate letters to the editor and comments on blogs and news websites, to bloggers scooping stories exposing doctored or omitted facts from mainstream media reports.

However, not all the countries and areas in the world can achieve the goals of citizen journalism. Take China as an example. We all know that there is a strict government control in china in order to achieve the harmony of the society. In other words, the Chinese government has long tried to keep a tight rein on traditional and new media to prevent any challenges to its political authority. This has often entailed, watchdog groups say, strict media controls using monitoring systems, shutting down publications or websites, and jailing of dissident journalists and blogger/activists. Take my own experience as an example, if people talk about some sensitive words or issues by using the Chinese chatting tool ‘QQ’, the words will blocked by the servicer.

In addition, most citizen journalists are from ordinary citizens, and most of them are non-professional journalists, and thus, the news credibility of citizen journalist is far from the professionals. Unlike traditional media, as most professional journalists have a high quality in education, citizen reporters are from different variety of classes, education levels and occupations. And this leads the reports from citizen journalist are lack to depth and accuracy.