Everyone Practicing Journalism Today Needs ‘Energy for Ethics’

A recent radio episode reminds us that all people in all media must serve audiences in the most ethical way possible at all times.

Media entrepreneurs, independent publishers and others working to provide accurate information to underserved communities can’t sidestep ethics.

That is a fast way to erode the fragile trust the public has in journalists. According to Gallup, when it comes to honesty and ethical standards, American journalists rank slightly higher than car salespeople and Congress.  

Everyone working in media must act responsibly and in a manner that builds trust with audiences.

Even if people working in media don’t consider themselves journalists, they still have an obligation to understand the expectations that come with practicing journalism. Ethical lapses can have long-lasting negative impacts on them, the profession and society.

A recent radio episode in Philadelphia provides a cautionary lesson. 

Two July 4 radio interviews with President Joe Biden contained “essentially the same questions.” One was with Andrea Lawful-Sanders at WURD Radio, a Philadelphia radio station that describes itself as Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned and operated radio station. The other was at Civic Media, a Milwaukee radio station, with Earl Ingram, whose show in Wisconsin has a primarily Black audience. 

The Biden campaign supplied the questions beforehand. 

Lawful-Sanders, who resigned after admitting she approved the questions, explained in a statement she is not a journalist but a community builder.

While neither Lawful-Sanders nor Ingram claims to be a journalist, they were operating in the arena of journalism. They had a responsibility, like all people in all media do, to engage in the practice of ethical journalism.

This moment presents an opportunity for journalism and the whole media ecosystem to grow.

First, the practice of accepting pre-selected interview questions needs to end. Pre-scripted interviews add little, if any, value. They happen inside and outside politics on all sides. They are another way for high-profile and powerful people to control the narrative and avoid scrutiny. This control can limit the scope of discussions, avoid challenging topics, and steer conversations toward specific viewpoints. 

The practice can also be another gatekeeping tool used against small outlets scrambling to get access. For small outlets, agreeing to use pre-scripted questions can determine who gets access to high-profile interviewees. Larger organizations often have more established connections and resources to secure interviews, while smaller outlets may struggle to gain access, further marginalizing diverse voices and limiting the diversity of perspectives in public discourse.

“It’s not uncommon for public relations and communications teams to try to prime interviewers with questions they’d love to have asked or to ask interviewers what they plan to ask the interviewee,” Jill Geisler, the Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity at Loyola University Chicago, told The Pivot Fund. “Interviewers should make no deals about what they will ask, nor feel obligated to provide specifics about the topics they will address. Journalistic independence is essential to the credibility of a news organization.”

No one is exempt from issues of trust. Whether a person considers themselves a journalist or not, they have a responsibility to respect the principles of ethical journalism, as the Society of Professional Journalists states in its Code of Ethics. 

1. Seek truth and report it. Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
2. Minimize harm. Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.
3. Act independently. The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.
4. Be accountable and transparent. Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Trust is a differentiator that can create value. In the digital age, we must value ethics now more than ever.

“I think that it has declined with the decline of print,” Nora Hertel, the founder and executive director of Project Optimist, a solutions-focused news organization in Minnesota, told The Pivot Fund. “A lot of radio stations and TV stations often reference news like print reporting or used to. There was a lot of pride around doing those good stories that get shared.”

But today, in the creator economy, with people able to create content and publish on multiple platforms, the line between journalism and public relations and marketing has been blurred even more.

“There’s just so little energy for ethics,” added Hertel. “And I think it’s really tragic. People who are trained in journalism school get kind of a basic ethics education. If you’re in a trade association, you get that. I think it’s more important than objectivity. But that’s got to be an industry-wide conversation.”

It’s never too early to start the conversation. ThreeSixty Journalism is a multimedia storytelling program for diverse high school students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ethics are a cornerstone of the program.

“We talk … this idea of technical, ethical, entrepreneurial skill sets and making sure that every single programmatic offering that we create is sort of delivering on those pillars,” Kenzie O’Keefe, the executive director of ThreeSixty Journalism, told The Pivot Fund. “… It was birthed just from what do young people need. What are sort of the categories of knowledge that young media makers need to have to meet this moment that we’re in? And it’s all three of those.” 

More media literacy is another way to help people understand the difference between journalism and community activism and increase ethical standards in media.

“I think media literacy is the best way to go about that and help,” said Hertel. “It won’t be uniform, but to help people discern that. And of course, you can have a mix of like, this is a community organizer and this is a reporter and independent journalist, but for people to actually know, like ‘Oh, I, I heard that from a journalist. I heard that from a commenter.'” 

At a time when it’s critical to recenter the conversation around journalism to focus on audience and build more trust, anyone with a public media platform has to make sure they are serving audiences in the most ethical way possible.

The stakes are too high to do anything else.