Ethics of Journalism

By Nico Shorack and Kevin Le | Nov. 27, 2023

Regarding our news organization, it is clear that Real Change holds the ethics of duty as the ethical standard by which the organization operates. We see this through the organization's coverage of the homeless crisis in Seattle and how the news organization focuses on the impact of policies in terms of harming individual homeless actors, even though they can benefit city members. This goes back to the Missouri Group’s 13th edition on News Reporting and Writing in chapter 20, where the ethics of duty is described as the purview that falls under a declaration of duty such as “we have a duty to do what is right.” The book further describes how a journalist under this lens of ethics would regard an event as newsworthy and publish it regardless of the consequences. In other words, to tell the truth, whatever the cost, is to have ascribed to a particular set of values or duties in ethics and hold to it no matter the situation. We see Real Change in many of its stories achieve and hold to its goal of aiding the people affected by the homeless crisis in how it uses its vendor program to aid in this mission, although profits from said distribution method are not as high as other methods. It is also notable that when Real Change interviews government officials or shines a light on government policy and how it affects the homeless crisis, it can offend these same organizations; however, it pursues this duty of accurately reporting on these situations in terms of how it affects the people experiencing homelessness as a matter of course. Its ideal and first goal is towards these people as a matter of justice, and that is why we feel the ethics of duty is the most applicable to this organization.

Image Credit: track5/Getty Images, Chron, 2018, https://work.chron.com/duties-news-reporters-have-15367.html