Ethical Issues - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Society of Professional Journalists 2). With each of these, there are more particular codes that need to be followed by journalists. Thus, violations of ethics and guidelines led to various ethical issues that journalism profession is facing today. This paper aims to discuss two ethical issues in journalism, which include bribery and extortion. Bribery and Extortion According to the Center for International Media and Assistance (CIMA), bribery and extortion are considered as the most crucial issue in journalism (Nyaira 300). Bribery means the act of accepting or offering some benefits either cash or kind to a certain employee or public servant. In journalism, it is called envelopmental journalism or accepting bribes in exchange for favorable media coverage. On the other hand, extortion is related to bribery, but the only difference is that extortion is the act of obtaining something like money by force or blackmail (Shava 4). Examples of Bribery An editor of a famous newspaper publication accepted money from a government official who committed corruption. The money serves a bribe instead of exposing the official’s wrongdoing; the editor wrote some accomplishments and projects done by the official to cover corruption issue. In this case the editor is not fair, honest, and accurate. Most of all, the editor did not act independently, which is a violation of ethics. ...
Examples of Extortion According to a report, Zimbabwe journalists already disregard ethics since their government already controls what news to write and how to write them. They are forced to do so since their lives are threatened. Politicians only speak to those media outlets they support (Shava). As a consequence, journalists no longer comply with principles of accuracy, fairness, and honesty in writing news stories since they are writing articles based on what is being instructed. Conclusion Ethics is very important in every profession. Journalism as one of the noble careers also has set of ethical principles which need to followed. However, not all journalists sincerely follow the principles of accuracy, fairness, and honesty as it affected by several reasons. Bribery and extortion have become the most crucial ethical issues in journalism. Journalists voluntarily accept bribes in exchange for favorable media, which is called bribery and others like in Zimbabwe, are forced to do so since they are threatened by politicians. Ethical Issues in Advertising Advertising refers “to any paid form of personal or non-personal presentation of promotional ideas, products or services by the use of media like TV, radio, magazines, newspapers etc by an identified person” (Kaptan 8). According to Yeshin, advertising is essential because it helps the people to select a particular product. Since it has a great impact on consumer behaviour, advertising like other fields also has a set of ethical standards, which need to be followed. Businesses need to be honest, fair, and straightforward in advertising products or services (American Advertising Federation 4). Violations of these will lead people to wrong direction. Nevertheless, not all companies ...Download file to see next pagesRead More