Omar Siegfried

April 2016
Op-Ed
The field of journalism is, and always has been, one of the most important and
relevant ways in which information is gathered and distributed to the world. Journalists
have lived and died to spread news and to keep the planet informed on the latest
occurrences, and the field today is highly complex and advanced. With such a great task,
then, comes an even greater responsibility. Being that journalists are often the only source
of information that the public has, it is the duty of a journalist to always present
information in an unbiased, effective, and honest way. It isnt rare for this power to be
abused, however, and ethics have been breached many a time from the earliest days of its
creation. Exploring how this issue affects us as a border community is also especially
interesting.
Journalistic integrity is the never-ending pursuit of a clear, unbiased,
uninterrupted flow of information that adheres to important ethical tenets. These include
accountability, honesty, and trustworthiness, amongst others, and must be carefully
preserved in order to cultivate a sense of trust and agreement with the public. It is
important to observe journalistic integrity carefully because a failure to do so would
severely cripple the analytical and deductive abilities that a person needs when they are
receiving new information, and cause rampant ignorance to become the norm. The duty
of maintaining integrity falls not only on the journalists and reporters, but on the people
who must choose what information becomes important and relevant. Today, there exists
no way of holding people accountable for spreading misinformation, short of a boycott or

a lawsuit. To put it in plain terms, there exists no way of bringing true justice to those
who would choose to misguide the public. More often than not, the general public who is
exposed to news is often ignorant about the majority of the relevant details pertaining to a
story. Thus, it is easy for anyone who is even remotely thought of as dependable or
trustworthy to spin any story in any direction.
Although journalistic integrity is a work in progress, ethics in general, and media
ethic in particular, needs to become more collaborative and participatory if it is to
develop into a truly global project (Ward et al., 2014). In a research article by Ward and
Hasserman (2014) published in the online journal Journalism Studies, it is determined
that global media ethics can be summarized in one short sentence: global power entails
global responsibilities it is therefore appropriate some would say urgent- to ask about
the ethics of global news media, and to what extent it differs from the previous ethics of a
non-global media (Ward et al., 2014).
To this end, I propose a change in legislation that would allow writers who are
found maliciously misinforming the public to be held accountable and be severely
punished for this action. News staffs organize a continuous flow of information and must
choose what to publish (Carter and Kodrich, 2012). Avoiding errors and
misrepresentation is vital, and the process by which professional journalists maintain high
standards of accountability must also be a focus. Currently, there are no laws in place to
punish those who put a malicious spin on a story with the purpose of creating a false
image about important news subjects. Its important, and rather humorous, then, that we
DO have laws in place to punish people who publish false information about other
people; we lack the tools needed to defend society from being lead in the wrong direction

or being kept in the dark, but we have almost endless regulations in place to protect a
wealthy persons image. It doesnt need to be said, but this is somewhat ridiculous.
News coverage of any sort requires a high degree of attention to ethical practices,
especially when messages are being relayed across many cultures to different parts of the
world. Ethical choices of this caliber have broad consequences.

Figure 1
Figure 1 (Gallup, 2012) exemplifies how the public perceives the integrity of
Mass Media, specifically journalism, and how they place their trust in it. The fluctuations
are caused by the public response to events, the focus here being the recession in the
United States in 2008. During this time, there was a strong negative perception of mass
media, with many feeling that those in charge had failed to properly inform them and
help them secure their futures (The New York Times, 2008). The continues misuse of
mass media weakens the public trust in news, and has been shown to destabilize nations
sometimes to the point of warfare and violence. Codes of ethics are the professional face

media and journalistic organizations display for their peers, members, public, and
government (Himelboim and Limor, 2011). This is to say, a strong code of ethics must
not only be maintained but also clearly exhibited in order to increase trust in the media.

Figure 2
Figure 2 displays the public trust in government (Yes, No, Dont Know/Refused)
and matches them up with the Freedom House Press Freedom Status ranking, further
demonstrating how countries with low freedom of the press, in which the news are
typically censored and run by government agencies, have a weaker base of support from
the public they are meant to serve. Many citizens depend on the news media for any
connection to a multitude of faceless others within the international community. Hence,
the role of journalists in achieving a community of interruption is crucial. The journalist
is placed in the uncomfortable position of prophet, where distrust is, perhaps ironically,
key to acting ethically (Szpunar, 2011). The research conducted by Szpunar determined

that a new code of ethics must be developed which will serve the needs of a changing and
growing world, due to factors like shifting ethical perspectives in societies across time.
In our hometown of El Paso, Texas, this disconnect can be seen firsthand. The El
Paso Times is a daily newspaper that reaches and audience of over 80,000 people daily on
the Mexico-USA border. This includes a circulation of around 10,000 in Ciudad Juarez,
Chihuahua, Mexico. The staff of the El Paso Times has a great responsibility to report
issues as clearly and as accurately as possible, particularly due to their position with their
neighboring culture. News staffs organize a continuous flow of information and must
choose what to publish (Carter and Kodrich, 2012). Avoiding errors and
misrepresentation is vital here as in all other parts of the world, and the process by which
professional journalists maintain high standards of accountability must also be a focus.
Good journalists attempt to provide an objective, value-free account of the facts, but they
understand that the process through which media content is formed and delivered can
often be influenced by cultural, institutional, and personal values (Carter and Kodrich,
2012). This example from a local community serves to drive the point of the sheer
importance of high standards. News coverage of any sort requires a high degree of
attention to ethical practices, especially when messages are being relayed across many
cultures to different parts of the world. Ethical choices of this caliber have broad
consequences.
By developing laws that hold journalists accountable for misuse of their power,
we ensure that the world is well informed and ready to tackle rampant corruption and
misappropriation of important cultural and societal means to which they are entitled. The

basic idea of journalism is to present information about events as they occur, without bias
or intent. What are we doing to preserve this pact?

REFERENCES

Carter, C., & Kodrich, K. (2012). Journalistic Ethics at the Border: How El Paso Times
Journalists Balance Reporting the News and Protecting Their Sources. Journal
Of Mass Media Ethics, 27(3), 177-188. doi:10.1080/08900523.2012.700208
Himelboim, I., & Limor, Y. (2011). Media Institutions, News Organizations, and the
Journalistic Social Role Worldwide: A Cross-National and Cross-Organizational
Study of Codes of Ethics. Mass Communication & Society, 14(1), 71-92.
doi:10.1080/15205430903359719
Media Freedom Loses Ground in 2013. Gallup (2013). Retrieved March 09, 2016, from
http://www.gallup.com/poll/168818/media-freedom-loses-ground-2013.aspx
Szpunar, P. M. (2012). Journalism ethics and Levinas' Third: interruption in a world of
multiple Others. Social Semiotics, 22(3), 275-294.
doi:10.1080/10350330.2011.648412
Trust in Mass Media. Gallup (2013). Retrieved March 10, 2016, from
http://www.gallup.com/poll/124859/Trust-in-mass-media.aspx
Ward, S. A., & Wasserman, H. (2015). Open Ethics. Journalism Studies, 16(6), 834-849.
doi:10.1080/1461670X.2014.950882