Electronic Journalism

Lesson 16 : Ethics of Electronic Journalism

Presentation of News

There is unfairness even in presentation of news. One topic may be a good news item and society needs to know the new things happening around. But the way such a topic is presented can be harmful as well.It is important for the media to present anomalous issues taking place in the society to make people aware of issues. Members of public will use their judgment while using the information they receive from the media.

However, if media presentation is optioned instead of reporting of occurring of an event, it can impact the public opinion. All members of the public are not matured enough to handle the explosive information they receive from the media. We have kids, growing adolescents, and youth, oppressed women who could not get good education or worldview.

While dealing with shaping of public behavior media need to be careful to communicate the point as a news item rather than as an opinion. To inform the members of public about a specific incident or behavior pattern allowing them to make judgments, it is important to present the news item straight as event. Mixing the opinion make the story spicy and so more sales worthy but it is not news worthy. The undertones in the reporting often motivate public opinion in the wrong direction.

Topics with positive tone were not getting realistic attention. Few years ago in one part of Hyderabad the police did an admirable exercise. They organized a meeting of the families of people died in road accidents. Each attendee had a sad story to share and the impact was immense. The police wanted to communicate this as a message to careless drivers that these kinds of people are behind you and for their sake take care. This incident was reported in page three stories by some papers and almost very bad coverage from the electronic media. Such events should be carried in the prime time and repeat it couple of times. But that was not the case.

In addition, spicy titles leading to misunderstanding of the topic communicated should also be avoided. Some interesting titles like “does he open his zip” or “new sex icon of a game” etc. this is an attempt to brand an event of a person or just get cheap attention.

If the players in the media are so creative and can sell stories they better start media houses that sell creativity rather than news. In the name of news we cannot report stories that are spicy and impact the society adversely.