Annotated Bibilography

Journalists & Social Media: Facts Still Matter

What are the expectations of journalists? Above all, the public expresses a desire for accuracy, i.e., for the media to verify and accurately report the facts. Accuracy is ranked as extremely or very important by 87 percent of respondents, far more than any other issue (Project, June 2018). The public has also come to expect that stories are reported in real-time. This puts journalists in a precarious situation as accuracy and speed of reporting does not align. It’s hard to fact-check content in real-time. Reporting the truth is challenging because things are moving so quickly, often content is shared on the social media platforms such as Facebook that the journalist is unsure about in terms of being factual or telling the complete story. The example I used was the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash (Wacc, February 2019). While TMZ reported the story first, many of the facts were inaccurate. This also posed an ethical challenge in terms of informing family members of death prior to pu...

People Still Expect the Facts From Communicators

As a PR professional who regularly creates content for clients and for personal use, I follow the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Code of Ethics offers nine ethical standards to member journalists. I also require my team to follow the NPPA Code of Ethics and teach them in the classroom. The basic premises of the NPPA's nine standards are (NPPA, November 2017): 1. Accurately represent subjects 2. Do not be manipulated by staged photos 3. Avoid bias and stereotyping in work; provide complete information and context 4. Show consideration for subjects 5. Avoid influencing the actions of the photographic subject 6. Editing should not give the wrong impression of the subjects in the photograph 7. Do not compensate persons involved in photographs or in getting a photograph 8. Do not accept gifts or other favors from those involved in a photo 9. Do not purposely interfere with the work of other journalists The last two (8...

Technology Challenges Ethics & Integrity of Communication Professionals

The integration of technology has had a profound impact on professionals who work in the communications field, especially as it relates to ethics and communication of the facts in general. As someone who has worked in the PR and marketing field for 25+, I’ve experienced the transition to technology throughout my career. As an undergraduate student back in the late 80’s, there was no discussion of technology in our journalism and PR coursework. The internet was not widely available, our work was created on typewriters, and we learned to use the old-fashion reporting and content creation techniques using the phone and in-person interaction. Reporting and gathering the facts and information, in general, was guided by the truth and the ethical gathering of the truth. Gathering information for news stories was usually methodical and reputable reporters were careful to report the facts. A good example is the Watergate story. Woodward and Bernstein worked diligently to ensure to ...

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