The Social Responsibility of Journalism Essay Example

two discuss the function of new engineerings in the life of mass media but this capable takes more important function in portion two of this RP.

The chief Centre of concern of portion two is how media is used by people. Whether for people or against it. destroying the ideal that media is and must be responsible in the face of public. Both portion one and portion two terminal with a inquiry which has some rhetorical colouring in it. I promise myself and my reader to be an honest and nonsubjective journalist and that is my attack in the whole RP and my decision is consequently the same: to work merely for public good in any state of affairs. But as we are all free to do our pick I leave the pick of my readers to them. merely assisting with my thoughts and my grounds.

Part ONE
Good AND BAD JOUNALISM. GOOD AND BAD JOUNALISTS: A FAIRY TALE BASED ON TRUE FACTS Over the old ages I have eventually come to detect what my true passion is. and what I truly want to go as an grownup – a journalist. Many old ages have passed and right now I am a pupil a ready-made specializer with a rich journalistic experience. And now. merely now I will allow myself to compose this RP on the Role of Journalism and the Social Responsibility of the imperativeness based on the great portion on my ain experience. Press has ever been treated as the most efficient tool to act upon people. It is non surprising that politicians. governments and others ever used the power of the imperativeness and media in general

to set their will on populace. Their purpose was the same and alone: to order their wants to people and to overcast their judgement.

It’s a common cognition that those who work as journalists should be or are normally good psychologist as the profession needs it every bit much as the adept authorship or nonsubjective coverage. I see several outstanding facets of psychological science in the every twenty-four hours work of journalists. One of those facets of psychological science is persuasion. Persuasion has a big presence in news media. A few cardinal elements of persuasion are beginning. message. and audience – and the chief intent of persuasion is to prehend and retain attending. While journalists aren’t needfully taking to carry people to believe a peculiar sentiment or belief. news media is all about storytelling and acquiring out the message to the audience. and prehending and retaining the audience’s attending in making so.

Another illustration of psychological science I see in news media is adjustment. Journalists who are holding to constantly study bad intelligence. or those who report from war zones. are invariably holding to work with the mundane emphasis so they can organize some sort of accommodation without fring their sense of pragmatism. The intent of accommodation is to forestall one’s emphasis from going physically and emotionally enfeebling. which some would be surprised to larn is a large factor for journalists that are put under such emphasis from their mundane work. A 3rd. and large illustration of psychological science involved in news media is perceptual experience. Not merely does news media hold an consequence on how we viewing audiences perceive things in the universe. but it besides

has an consequence on how journalists themselves look at the universe. An illustration is a quotation mark from one of my favourite journalists. Richard Engel of NBC News. who’s spent about 12 old ages populating in the Middle East. He wrote the followers after the five old ages he spent describing in Iraq during the most active old ages during the war: “1As Iraq has changed. I have changed. it has changed my mentality.

Violence and inhuman treatment now seem. to me. to come easy to mankind ; a new belief that disturbs me. But I am besides more appreciative of how rapidly life can turn for the better. or for the worse. ” Yes. I do agree with every individual word of Richard Angel: all depends on people: we can make either inhuman treatment and force. or kindness and peace. I will besides add to the above mentioned statement that much of how we see the universe depends on how the journalist will show it on his article or study. To travel on deeper with this thought I will state that the profession of journalist has a dual nature. This can be justified by the fact that journalistic activity is like a throwing stick you get back what you give. Suppose you broadcast a incorrect or biased information today by lead oning people. tomorrow after retiring. let’s say. you will be among the same “vulnerable” and trusting audience whom you. yes. really you. one time used to supply with incorrect information.

Here comes the portion of this profession that attracts me the most: the power and the great duty. Yes I won’t panic that word. state

it once more even louder. power! Journalism is power and the journalist is a powerful prestidigitator who can work admirations or oppress all about. He can make. set up. animate peace and order in the state and at the same clip bring pandemonium. prevarications. hurting. and panic and so on. Journalism is a great duty. I will make bold state that this profession is much more of import that the occupations of an office director or an teacher at a university. it is equal to the profession of that of a physician as in both instances things are about safety. societal sentiment. and other of import facets of human life. A good illustration as a cogent evidence to my words will be the fact that journalists and physicians are sent to war aboard with soldiers. physicians for assistance. journalists to maintain being informed. A journalist born in really state. society should “get along” with the statute law of the province where he works.

The maestro of this profession writes for the society which trusts him. He should take into history the all the people organizing this or that and belonging to different cultural and instruction degrees. holding assorted costumes and traditions. ethical motives and values. faith. etc. While showing any study of intelligence. a journalist should be really careful and cognizant of his duties towards audience. 2Any presentation or authorship of a journalist should bring down no lesson of physical harm to the beliefs. ideals. faith and wellbeing to an person or a group. The authorship of journalist should be animating non merely in maintaining ‘social harmony’ but besides in accomplishing societal development at the same

clip. And harmonizing to this there are at that place basic duties that any non should but must hold: societal. legal and professional. Social Duty: Imperativeness reflects the societal images or images of our society. All the activities of the imperativeness impart many events of our society with a position to show them subsequently on. in nice mode to the society people. The purpose behind such attacks and activities. is to do the society people to intelligent every bit good as well-aware of unit of ammunition about occurrences. So. every presentation of any journalist should be just. balance. true. inspiring and run intoing the demands of common.

A journalist can foreground so many unresolved countries of the society by seeking solution for the same through the activity of news media and must non overlook or avoid this great portion of duty towards the society. 3The presentation of journalist should. originate an environment of understanding within the society and go on the same in sustained mode to continue it satisfactorily. Development of any society largely depending upon the conveyance of originative and nonsubjective journalistic activities. Legal Responsibility: While working as a journalist. one should be good familiar with all legal clasps those may bring forth complicacy or convey problem any manner. For this ground. a journalist must non step in or bring down to someone’s privateness or confidential affair until it is required to be brought to the notice of public. 4Any calumniatory or calumniatory presentation taking with person. any organisation or group is non allowed and should purely be avoided by the journalist.

Calumniatory and calumniatory Hagiographas or images may immediately echo or note among the populace

with larger credence. but it is non pertinent every bit good as non following with the criterion of professionalism. Professional Duty: 6A journalist should hold earnestness and committedness towards its profession. The intelligence of any event that is traveling to be published for the audience should be delineated really clearly and reasonably. A really good prep in this respect for every event. should be done by the journalist with a position to show to the audience confidently and satisfactorily. 7The presentation must be true and indifferent above all and shall ne'er convey any embarrassment or complicacy to the organisation anyhow in future. The aim of any journalist is to circulate the correct and just study in undistorted mode. to the audience instead than herding them deliberately or allegedly to run into the present disputing state of affairs in the intelligence universe.

A intelligence study should be created with greater attention and duty as to keep its grade of criterion at higher degree by avoiding any sorts of inclusion of unwanted and provocative portion or part. A journalist decidedly. would necessitate a high grade of professionalism in showing any public presentations to the audience on behalf of any organisation. and could be achieved so. 8By dint of rock-ribbed attempts and seeking ability. and being respectful to the plants. understanding with the milieus and answerability towards the society every bit good. A journalist must follow the newspaper editor’s deadlines. All the above mentioned are the features that any good journalist should possess and the duties that he should follow but the thing is whether this all is true in pattern or they are merely some beautiful words written

on a peace of paper to be given and taught to get downing pupils of news media to inform them of the illustriousness of the profession without delighting the “dark” secrets of the interior kitchen.

Yes. our teachers would state us all the clip that we should be nonsubjective. responsible. bombast. bombast. blah… but they would besides warn of the slippery facets of the profession. The concluding pick is of class ours: to be a ace honest journalist composing or describing the truth and nil but it. or merely hotfooting to any undependable information merely to acquire that scoop and the celebrity of a dark. Unfortunately nowadays the more journalists face this stage of free pick the greater figure of those taking the incorrect way additions. Another job is that media in most instances take it for granted as their lone want is speedy information. the velocity non the fact. the esthesis non the truth and people have started to handle journalist the same manner as journalist treat them and in most instances the intervention is merely negative. Journalists are frequently perceived by the populace as merely interested in acquiring the “truth” and willing to make anything to acquire it.

Possibly this perceptual experience comes from what the New York Times Chief of Staff. John Winton said when depicting journalists. “The concern of the journalist is to destruct the truth. to lie outright. to corrupt. to revile. to crawl at the pess of Mammon. and to sell his state and his race for his day-to-day staff of life. You know it and I know it. and what folly is this crispening an independent imperativeness? We are the

tolls and the lieges of rich work forces behind the scenes. We are the jumping knuckleboness. they pull the strings and we dance. Our endowments. our possibilities. and our lives are all the belongings of other work forces. We are rational cocottes. ” This is non how journalists wish to be perceived. and the function of the Journalist. harmonizing to the Masterss of this profession is to esteem the truth and the public’s right to information. Journalists describe society to it. They convey information. thoughts and sentiments. They search. unwrap. record. inquiry. entertain. remark. and retrieve.

They inform citizens and animate democracy. They give a practical signifier of freedom of look. They carry for public and their involvement non for esthesis. It is a spot amusing how journalists themselves depict their ain duties and the illustriousness of the work they do without transporting out even the half of the above mentioned. As a justification I will number some illustrations from the journalistic pattern all over the universe of how a journalist should NOT move. ( I have already written excessively much above of how a good and true journalist should be and now it is the clip for frailty poetry ) . One of the problems that people of all professions face today is plagiarism. This is due to engineering and great entree to information. Technology has changed the function of the journalist. cutting out the middle-man. No longer are they merely the newsman. but frequently the lensman. and the editor excessively. non merely may they now be expected to compose an article for print but besides for online. etc. Technology such as the Internet can

be a good and a bad thing for a journalist.

One of the benefits of the Internet for a Journalist is being able to research rapidly. carry on e-mail interviews and video-conferencing interviews. They can besides utilize societal mediums such as Twitter to acquire their voices and narratives heard. Unfortunately it has besides caused jobs for journalists. There is the progressively bleary line between the original piece of composing done by that really journalist and merely 1 that has been copy pasted. Refering the job of plagiarism I will remember the 2003 Jayson Blair Scandal10. in which the New York Times was embroiled in plagiarism allegations. Jayson Blair. a newsman for the New York Times was charged with plagiarism. This led to the public inquiring how many more Journalists at the New York Times have plagiarized. And in existent fact another New York Times newsman. and Pulitzer Prize victor Rick Bragg was besides charged with plagiarism around the same clip. Not merely was this a legal issue that could stain the reputes of other journalists at the New York Times. but it besides had the public inquiring how easy is it for a journalist to draw information off the Internet. and claim it as their ain. Our universe is twenty-four hours by twenty-four hours acquiring more and more industrialized.

This besides comes to impact news media. We all are in a haste. Like people in the forenoon who miss their breakfast and make full their tummy with harmful fast nutrient without believing about the effects. the same manner media and journalists merely describe whatever comes to their manus and they do everything to acquire the intelligence. even

burying about the safety of people. As a protection they merely hold their so called beliefs in the right of look but it is good cognize that the rights of one individual be it a journalist. politician or anyone else terminal when the rights of the other individual are abused: 11The Channel Nine of the Australia’s Television reported a narrative associating to a gunslinger who was keeping kids surety. A besieging developed. with the house surrounded by constabulary and particular taskforce members. The Channel Nine straight disobeyed Police orders by calling the Gunman and Mike Wessel. the host of the Channel Nine. at the clip. conducted an interview with the adult male. every bit good as one of the kids being held surety. The kid was put at great hazard. and the constabulary operation was jeopardized. but the Television channel direction thought it was a great thought for a narrative.

There was a batch of public call and argument following this state of affairs. In Australia it resulted in adding to the 12Code of Ethical motives the protection of others. but besides outlined that while journalists have the right to exert the freedom of look they besides have a societal duty to protect. Traveling on with the s industrialisation of media I will state that even the intervention of journalist to the people has changed. It is a common cognition the chief portion of their income mass media get from commercials and this brings to the industrialisation and commercialisation of journalists. their intervention to people and the nature of the intelligence itself. While it is expected for journalists to describe to the populace. more and more

so it’s going merely as of import for journalists to lend net income to the newspaper they work for. And how far are they willing to travel to derive net income? 13On 23rd August 2005 UK’s Channel Two found losing Alaskan fire-fighter Jim MacDonald who was lost in the Great Sandy Desert.

Alternatively of advising governments the crew waited 45 proceedingss so they could movie him. Despite the fact he was severely in demand of medical aid. MacDonald was made to have on a Channel Two T-shirt and asked to walk about. He was so given a banana to eat. and left to purge while the Channel Nine crew filmed him from their chopper. These images were used as the ‘first sighting’ . Those are the illustrations that project the image of the pitiless journalist. non believing about anything but acquiring the scoop before the remainder of the media. A journalist that merely thinks about acquiring the money and the congratulations of the bully foreman. To be or non to be a good journalist. that is the inquiry?

Part TWO
THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MASS MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS
I think the cardinal inquiry for journalists today is the inquiry whether or non news media brings duty. There are many great schools for communicating and news media. on which journalist learn to compose high quality articles on assorted topics. there is a professional association for each portion of the journalistic handicraft and journalists today can gain a good life from their work. With none of these there seem to be any job. There is merely that other inquiry. Does a journalist have a societal duty? Does a journalist have craft

specified moralss? Can a journalist from one twenty-four hours on the other decide non to be a journalist any more? I think this is a inquiry that we can non get away. The imperativeness is frequently seen as the 4th power in the Trias Politica. the spliting between executive. legislative assembly and judiciary power. As the word says. all these three. with news media four. powers are in the first topographic point political powers. Politicss come with “social dealingss affecting authorization or power” . and with power comes duty.

If the imperativeness is so the 4th power. than that means it has an tremendous power. and with that. a immense duty. That the imperativeness is that powerful is obvious. as an illustration of it will be the three great wars during last hundred old ages that started influenced by the imperativeness: the Spanish-American war. the Vietnam war and the 2nd Gulf war. 14The Spanish-American war was greatly caused by the battle between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst for popularity. Sensation in the documents let to better gross revenues. whether it was true or non. And the war surely gave esthesis in the documents. and at that place for. bettering gross revenues. 1516The Vietnam war was extremely promoted by Nixon favored newspapers. With the 2nd Gulf war the war was strongly promoted by Fox News in the US and other Rupert Murdoch imperativeness Stationss.

The powerful Murdoch endeavor is strongest in the US. Australia and England. We shouldn’t be surprised that these where the states most willing to run into this war. Journalist like plants in a great pyramid called mass media. It is a fact that

really frequently journalists act non in agreement with their wants or for the public good. alternatively they are regulated by the media they work for. Now it is the clip to talk about the duty of media in general without separating editors or journalists they all together taken in the range of mass media. Media authorization is a mark of true democracy. a medium to pass on with the young person and the full universe. Media decidedly has a duty on its shoulders. which is to steer the people. Peoples have blind religion in the media and they are convinced that what they hear or what the media has declared is right. The audience of media today is like my cat. it takes whatever is given. that’s why media now and at the class of clip has been used as tool by dictators. autocrats and of class during war clip.

Media with its rational energy. analytical attitude and steadfast fore-sightedness can turn to. precaution and decide struggle between provinces. communities within the provinces in a multi-cultural society with cultural diverse people. being a accelerator in the armed struggle and internal force through mediation. dialogue and common consent supplying energetic statute law against all signifier of favoritism and incitation to racial hatred and xenophobia of any organisation. group. party. establishment or province that threatens multi-cultural democracy and cultural peace of merely. rational and humanist society.

Catastrophes like armed struggle and internal force have frequently emanated from the unfair. irresponsible. deviated and propagandist air currents and moving ridges of media. be it imperial hegemony. secessionist warfare or conversely. unexpected impetus of regional civil force based on caste. credo and

faith for autonomy. justness. independency or overzealous terrorist act: The blatantly biased coverage by media by and big has non shown a high grade of societal duty during the recent international struggles like Iraq Iran war. Kuwait crisis. 9/11. war on terrorist act. war on Afghanistan and Iraq etc. Media today have assumed enormous importance. Every spot of our activity is non merely reflected but besides regulated and governed through imperativeness ( media ) . Freedom of imperativeness purposes at the freedom of address and look. which are the basic dogmas of society. To some all this up I will merely compose: 19Media and its lead histrion journalist have the power of creative activity and devastation: which one will you take?

Decision
Having studied all the information. books. illustrations. analysing my ideas and myself. sometimes holding with me. frequently beliing. I reached the undermentioned decision: When I was a five-year-old miss my ma told me to take to touch the hot oven or non. When nearing it I felt heats but so it started to ache me and I put my manus aside. From that twenty-four hours I decided for myself to make all with a free pick and I do advice it to everyone. Again coming to media and the function of journalist I would state that there are of class the good or bad. advantages and drawbacks in both instances like everything in our universe. media as good is non ideal.

We the people create it. The journalists who think merely about acquiring the scoop the soonest. burying all the regulations of moralss one time well-known. moving like the enemies of people. The journalist who write

and report merely the truth and nil but it. follow all the regulations of journalistic and human moralss. ne'er forget they are non merely journalist but the guardians of the rights of people. etc. I can recite both the good and the bad infinitely. Here the inquiry is non which one prevails in our surrounding but which one we create and wish to see around us. To be or non be a good journalist? Of class to be. This out of inquiry. at least for me. what will you choose…

WORKS CITED
To: S. Sahakyan
From: Anna Tamamyan
Capable: Writing Skills
Faculty: LIC. Journalism
Year: 4th twelvemonth. 3rd group

1. “Psychopathology in Adopted-Away Medias of Different Countries. ” Cadoret. Remi. 1992. 236-239 pp. 2. “Whatever happened to New Journalism? ” . Robert Boynton. 2003. 89-114 pp. 3. hypertext transfer protocol: //topicsnytimes. com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/a/archives_and_records/index. html 4. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. news media. org/commentary_backgrounder/blur_how_know_what’s_ture_age_information 5. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. nytimes. com/ref/membercenter/nyarchive. hypertext markup language

6. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. omnilogos. com/2011/06/28/theories-of-journalism/ 7. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. zimbio. com/Internet+Marketing+Product+Reviews/articles/SxisXtMK54F/Social+Media+Profits+UK 8. Journalistic Ethical motives: “Moral Responsibility in the Media” Dorian Smith. 2006. 125-134 pp. 9. Media Ethical motives at Work: “True Narratives from Young Professionals” . Lee Anne Peck. 2010 69-74 pp. 10. Story behind a Nonfiction Novel. ” New York Times Book Review” Jim Marchland. 1996. 236-241 pp 11. voices. new York times/the-major-roles-responsibilities-australian-7609850. hypertext markup language 12. The Journalist and the Murderer. Janet Malcolm. 1990. 25-49 pp 13. “Understanding Media Psychology” . Fremlin J. . 2009. 7-19 pp. 14. “The Story of Broadcast Journalism” Edward Bliss. 2003. 78-52 pp.