Download to read offline
Uploaded byMel Storey
Task 10 homework
This document discusses guidelines for responsible and ethical journalism from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). It provides guidance on avoiding biased or harmful representations of groups in writing, and on sensitive topics like mental health, suicide, and immigration. It emphasizes using accurate, truthful language and considering alternative perspectives. Guidelines include avoiding offensive terms for mental illness, not defining people by their conditions, and describing suicide attempts factually rather than with value judgments. The NUJ aims to promote media freedom and ethical standards while protecting journalists' rights.
More Related Content
Similar to Task 10 homework
Task 10 homework
- 1.
- 2. NATIONAL UNION OFJOURNALISTS The National Union of Journalists is the voice for journalists and journalism. We are an exclusive union that represents a range of professionals. We strive to improve the pay and conditions of our members and protect and promote media freedom and ethical standards.
- 3. SOCIAL AND CUTLERAWARENESS As a journalist you will often need to write about certain groups of people, and for some readers they may not have any first hand, or little experience with these groups. It is important for journalists not to be biased or create unhelpful representations of groups of people. The NUJ has a guide on how to talk about specific groups in a way not to harm anyone and so journalists know how to talk This guideline is the ethical guidance sheet it is a guidance on ways to write about Termism, Race, Asylum and Immigration, HIV, Disability and Suicide.
- 4. Here wehave the Do’s and Don’t when reporting mental health and deaths by suicide. This is a quick round up of what to do and what not to do. But there is a 23 page guide helping you how to write about these topics. o When writing about mental health words like ‘psycho’, ‘loony’, ‘nutter’, ‘madman’, ‘schizo’ and ‘bonkers’ should not be used. o They have not been to prison therefore they would be discharged not released. “Avoid defining people by their mental health problem as in ‘he’s a depressive’ or ‘she’s a schizophrenic’” You can find out more on the NUJ Guidence for Reporting Mental Health and Death By Suicide.
- 5. Suicide isanother topic that needs to be looked at carefully when reported in the media. For example too much coverage can cause copycat suicide. “This risk is increased “if the coverage is extensive, prominent, sensational, or explicitly describes the method”. (Source – World Health Organization Preventing Suicide – A Resource for Media Professionals (2008)) The effect on the suicide rate depends on the amount, duration, and prominence of media coverage.” The language used when coving a story like this should not be described as ‘successful’ if someone dies, or ‘unsuccessful’, ‘failed’ or ‘suicide bid’ if it doesn’t result in death. It is better to use the phrases ‘died by suicide’, ‘took their own life’, ‘ended their own life’. Or ‘attempted’ or ‘non-fatal attempt’ when someone survives.
- 6. CODE OF PRACTICE 1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed. 2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair. 3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies. 4. Differentiates between fact and opinion. 5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means. 6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest. 7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work. 8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge. 9. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation. 10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed. 11. A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story about her/his welfare. 12. Avoids plagiarism
- 7. CONNOTATION Thelanguage used is a journalists most powerful tool on shaping our views. This is why you must be carful when choosing your words as different words connote a different meaning. For example ”psychopath” gives intentions the person is crazy and angry all the time. These terms could be put into the wrong way when talking about a person who is not this. The coverage on benefits and immigration in the media is usually negative therefore the use of negative words to portray this is high. But even the word immigration is linked to negative effects such as ‘failed’, ‘bogus’ and ‘steal’. The same is for benefits this is linked to connotations such as ‘lazy’ and ‘hand outs’.
- 8. This headlinefrom the Daily Express has the word ‘immigration’ crossing the whole of the front page, making it look important and almost like a warning. If the word was replaced with something like ‘foreign workers’ it would have a different impact because the reader would link that to be a good headline as it is boosting the economy rather than a bad thing.
- 9. This isan example on the guidelines for how to talk about certain groups of people on the NUJ website. It tells you how you should only use the word ‘Gypsy’ or ‘Traveller’ if it is accurate to the story. Both these words have negative connotations to them. The same with ‘Immigration’. Words such as ‘failed’ or ‘illegal’ should not be used with the word immigration as it creates a negative portrayal on immigrants.
- 10. ALTERNATIVE READING Journalists usually have a specific audience in mind but they also need to consider others that may come across the report. Journalists should think carefully about the minority, subcultures and victims that could read their report as they will have different views due to their experiences. Thinking about Stuart Halls Reception Theory (1980) will help include everyone's point of view with them being Dominant, Negotiated or Oppositional. For example a story on immigration should have a balanced argument because if it was portrayed to be against immigrants this could upset and offend a group of immigrants and it will also portray, for the rest of society, a negative representation.
- 11.
- 12. OBJECTIVE Beinga journalist you need to be creditable, trustworthy and reliable so people will not question your reports, therefore you should be unbiased, truthful and impartial. Most newspapers have a political agenda, if this is left wing or right wing. Editors will push stories that support their political view. Whichever side they are more towards they will find evidence to support their main agenda and ideas, and discard evidence which does not. Left Wing: The Guardian, The Independent, The Mirror. Right Wing: The Express, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Telegraph.
- 13. Daily Mail TheGuardian The picture of Lee in the Daily Mail shows a smart young man, serving his county but on the other article it shows him defenceless and making people feel sorry for what has happened to him by showing respects. The Daily Mail say things like, “The social network’s staff failed to tell MI5 about the ‘graphic and emotive’ posts from Michael Adebowale.” warning and questioning why Facebook didn’t do anything about these graphic posts on several accounts Lee Rigby’s murdered had just 6 months before the attack. The guardian say, “The former global counter-terrorism director of MI6 has said it would be impractical and unfair to expect Facebook to monitor messages for terrorist intent and report them to the security services.” This says how they cant blame Facebook for something like this happening.
- 14. ACCURATE Names,dates, times, quotes etc. all need to be accurate. This means gathered together correctly and have evidence to support this. Accuracy is very important to be a credible journalist. Failure to report accurate information can cause harm and distress to the person/people that have been written about and this could damage their public profile. If someone feels they have been effected by an inaccurate report they can complain to the Press Complaints Commission who will investigate the case. If required they can force the publication to print a correction or retraction.
- 15. Here are someexamples of ways the press has had to deal with complaints: Wired: “A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston saying “anyone with nipples” instead of “anyone with a pulse.”” The Sun: “In an article on Saturday headlined ‘Flying saucers over British Scientology HQ’, we stated “two flat silver discs” were seen “above the Church of Scientology HQ”. Following a letter from lawyers for the Church, we apologise to any alien lifeforms for linking them to Scientologists.” The New York Times: “An article last Sunday about the documentary maker Morgan Spurlock, who has a new film out on the boy band One Direction, misstated the subject of his 2012 movie “Mansome.” It is about male grooming, not Charles Manson. The article also misspelled the name of the production company of Simon Cowell, on whose “X Factor” talent competition show One Direction was created. The company is Syco, not Psycho.”
- 16. TRUTHFUL Presentingthe truth to people as a journalist is important, especially when reporting. If the full truth is not given then their fictional words could have serious legal and ethical consequences. This rule is bent though. Newspapers do this to grab the attention of readers and again to follow their political agenda. The most common way this rule is bent is but changing statistics to make things seem better or worse. For example universally it has been said “There are 3 million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa.” But really there is 800,000 to 1 million. The reason this is said is because of one American journalist. This journalist exaggerating statistics causes wrong integrations about this group of people. This also happens a lot in stories about immigration and benefits.
- 17. FAIR AND BALANCED The NUJ code of Ethics specify that journalists should not produce work this is likely to lead to hatred or discrimination. To produce credible journalism, reporting topics should give a balance argument of both sides and allow the reader to make their decision based on the facts presented to them. But unfortunately again this overlooked and ignored. Stories that are covered will reflect on the political view of the news paper. This is handled very unfairly in American journalism. With politicians in the party they follow, in their agenda, they portray them with good, helpful stories. And the other parties the reports are all against the work they have done. This is power, being able to shape what the public heard and their choices. This is why journalism needs to be fair and balanced.
- 18.
- 19. DEFAMATION Defamationis when a false statement harms the reputation of an individual, a business, product, group, government, religion, or nation. In print media defamation goes against being truthful, fair and accurate and can lead to a liable case. For example: Jim Carr, father of Jimmy Carr, won his seventh apology and settlement for defamation from a national newspaper. The Daily Express apologised to Jim Carr, for a headline that was written by Vanessa Feltz saying: "Jimmy Carr's dad has a lot to answer for". It falsely stated that he had been unfaithful to his wife.
- 20. COPYRIGHT Copyrightcovers the work that people create. Journalists must be careful not to steal people’s work without permission. They should be careful not to plagiarise peoples work either. Plagiarising work could lead to an infringement. For example:
- 21. CHILDREN/ YOUNGER PERSONS The Editors Code of Practice has a clear demand on how to talk about a story concerning children and young people. It says: Young people should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion. A child under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial parent or similarly responsible adult consents. Pupils must not be approached or photographed at school without the permission of the school authorities. Minors must not be paid for material involving children’s welfare, nor parents or guardians for material about their children or wards, unless it is clearly in the child's interest. Editors must not use the fame, notoriety or position of a parent or guardian as sole justification for publishing details of a child’s private life. It also has guides on stories about children in sex cases.
- 22. CONFIDENTIALLY Sometimesjournalists have to talk to people who are breaking the law in some legal activity such as drug dealing or people trafficking. This is good way to get an exclusive story and people who are in this trade would not want to be found out therefore names, faces etc. must be kept confidential. The Editors Code of Practice states that, “Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information”
- 23. OFFICIAL SECRET ACT The Official Secrets Act is used in the UK, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Canada and New Zealand to protect secret and official information that is mainly related to the national security. People, as well as journalists will have to sign this Official Secret Act before and after seeing something that has something to do with the secret act such as going into a private army base to cover a story. Only certain information will be able to be let out into the article and if more information does arrest can be a consequence.
- 24. CODE OF PRACTICE 1 Accuracy 2. Opportunity to reply 3. Privacy 4. Harassment 5. Intrusion in to shock or grief 6. Children 7. Children in sex cases 8. Hospitals 9. Reporting of crime 10. Clandestine devices and subterfuge 11. Victims of sexual assault 12. Discrimination 13. Financial journalism 14. Confidential sources 15. Witness payments in criminal trials 16. Payment to criminals
- 25. CODE OF PRACTICE Looking at the Codes of Practice again, but this time for ethical views. It gives journalists great guidelines to achieve an ethical article. It helps journalists understand what to put in and to know what is fact and what is factual. Although not every journalist follows the NUJ Code of Practice and these rules are broken, we feel that this is the best way to create an ethical and truthful article. Some people may break these rules to get a more exciting story or for the “publics interest”. But if someone feels a journalist or newspaper has acted inappropriately then they can complain to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
- 26.
- 27. PRIVACY Everyoneis entitled to their own privacy. Or at least that is what is written down in the Editors Code of Practice, but people still break this rule for the publics interest. The NUJ says in the code of conduct that journalists should not ‘intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest” This happens quite a lot, for example NASA have broken this rule by looking into peoples files, News of the World hacked into phone calls and messages and photographers and journalists regularly go and take pictures of weddings or funerals of celebrities or their families.
- 28. INTRUSION Thisleads me onto intrusion. In the Editors Code of Practice it says journalist must not intrude in to grief or shock. This is also covered in the NUJ Code of Conduct. But again this rule is broken because journalists say it is in the interest of the public to know. But there is a fine line between the public interest and the interest of the public.
- 29. HARASSMENT Hereis the code in the Editors Code of Practice for harassment. Journalists should stop contacting the person when asked but again this rule is broken for the publics interest.