The importance of ethics in journalism (even for us)

What makes a good newspaper? There are a lot of factors behind that question on the technical level, ranging from print size, readability, layout, the quality of its crossword puzzles and so on. But, lying behind that question is one not just about newspapers, but all kinds of journalistic sources—what makes something a good source of news?

Well, one qualification, and one that most people would care about the most, is accuracy. Be it weather updates, or interviews with government officials, a news source that isn’t accurate and ethical isn’t considered trustworthy.

In the current political climate, the Trump administration is constantly attempting to devalue and discredit news media outlets in the eyes of the American people. This makes having reliable sources of information is more important than ever.

While there is no one definitive source of all journalism and journalistic ethics in America, there are codes of ethics that different news organizations adhere to. The Society of Professional Journalists published a code of ethics.

They write that “ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough.”

The society holds four principles to be the bedrock of ethics in journalism: to seek the truth and report it, to minimize harm, to act independently, and to be accountable and transparent. Obviously, these points are elaborated with specific examples, and those interested can find more information at www.spj.org.

Now, the Lumen is a simple campus newspaper, but the staff and I feel bound to these same ideas, as newspapers that fail to live up to ethical standards will lose the trust of their audience.

For example, in 2015 it was revealed that NBC news anchor Brian Williams gave false information about being in a helicopter that was fired upon back in 2003. Specifically, he was in the helicopter trailing the one that had been hit. According to News Reporting and Writing, a textbook on journalism and ethics, this was a tremendous blow to the credibility of both Williams and NBC news. The audience lost trust in its ability to report events with accuracy.

As such, it is important to uphold journalism ethics and standards, even if we are only a small campus newspaper. For example, one of the issues is the student housing situation, which is something that is of considerable importance to many of our readers. If we were to misrepresent the situation or give faulty information, it would be doing a disservice to our readers and make us an untrustworthy source to get on-campus information.

The Lumen was founded 65 years ago this month, and was intended it to be an “organ of communication” for the university that would establish its worth over the years to come. As the new editor, I intend to continue in that tradition, and hope that the paper will continue to do so for the coming school year.

I will finish this editorial with a similar promise I made as the newly minted editor: I cannot swear that the Lumen will be perfect, but we will always try our best.