let's talk ethics.

Ethics in journalism is kind of  big deal.  I mean if not, why on earth would the Society of Professional Journalists write an entire Code of Ethics?!  But don't be fooled into thinking that these ethical compromises are recent developments.  No sir, they've been around for ages.  I feel like whenever we think about the past (back in the "black and white" days of television and film) everything was perfect.  We have this thing I like to call Cleaver Syndrome.  Where we think everything back in the forties and fifties was peachy-keen and everyone was honest and hard-working and contributing to society.  Well let me tell you something, it wasn't.   Last week we had to watch a journalism movie for class and I chose to watch His Girl Friday.  And for some reason I was shocked when the reporters lied about what happened with Mollie Malloy and Earl Williams just to print a story and sell some papers.  Looking back I can't believe I was naive enough to think that in the beginning, journalists were as honest as can be and they've grown corrupt over time.

The Ethical Journalism Initiative has a fantastic editorial on ethical journalism and how they are starting "a new campaign to rekindle old values in media worldwide."  They go on to say how media and technology has greatly changed the face of news as well as it's quality.  It's websites and people like this that cause me to keep my faith in journalists.  Because there are just as many honest journalists as there are yellow journalists.  The Indiana University School of Journalism has a link that provides the reader with (what seems like hundreds) of ethics cases to help future journalists explore ethical issues in journalism.  I know many of us feel like we're invincible to the evil powers of bribery, money and fame, but the truth is, we won't really know until we're faced with those situations.  So there's no harm in reading through a few scenarios and deciding now what we will do in the future.

In The Elements of Journalism it says, "In the end journalism is an act of character" (230).  I hope that as we go out and begin our careers we remember that our journalism is a reflection of our character.