Reflection

"Truth is a formidable enemy. Suppress it and it does not disappear.
Hide it and it
shows itself sooner or later. Muffle truth and it ultimately manages to be heard. Truth
is a big problem for those who lie and deceive. Truth does not only survive the lie and
the deception. It even outlives the liar and the deceiver" -Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz,
August 25, 2005
Many people aim for truth. Who on Earth would ever like to be deceived and fooled
by things they thought as truth? We seek for truth in our everyday lives. We acquire
the things we considered as truth from books, from our own experiences, from the
elderly, and from the people whom we consider has the authority to give us such
information that we considered as facts. One of these people that we considered has
the authorities to feed us factual information are the Journalists. Journalists play a
vital role in the field of media. Journalists educate the public about events and issues
and how they affect their lives. (Williams, 2018) They are the source of news and
knowledge about our societies. Thus, Journalists' first obligation is to tell only the
truth, but what does "the truth" really means? How can we say that the information
given to us are truth and how would a journalist can say that the information they give
us are all truth?
From the book "The Elements of Journalism", it is said that information are
considered truth if it is functional, or also called as "functional truth". These are the
practical and functional form of truth, it is not the truth in its absolute or philosophical
sense, nor a chemical equation, but these are the truths that we can operate on a day-
to-day basis. Since news is the material that we people learn about the world, the most
important quality it must possess is that it is usable and reliable. It is usable and
reliable if the news tackles about our everyday life phenomen or if it relates the
people. For example, a news about the weather, to know if the we is good or if it will
rain the next day. Or about what did the president say about the country. These news
that creates awareness and relates the people makes the news usable and reliable.
There are four basic principles that a Journalism must consider in creating an article
or news. These are truth and Accuracy, Independence, Fairness, Humanity, and
accountability. On truthfulness, it states that a journalist is expected to serve emplicit
information to the citizen, the news should be transparent and should make clear the
sources of information and the evidence they offer, or the basis of their knowledge.
Important details should also be evident in the news. Through these, a news would be
considered as accurate. On Independence, journalist should isolate their own feelings
or opinions about the news, they must disregard subjectivity to avoid biased
imformation, and to give people objective information. On Fairness, journalist must
present the news fairly. If the news contains different sides, both sides must be able to
say their piece to avoid deceptive information. On Humanity, it urges journalists to be
cautious about every news they release, especially if this contains sensitive
information. They should respect one's privacy and be sensitive especially if the
interviewee don't like to disclose some private information about them. Lastly, is
Accountability, it only states that journalists are always accountable with every story
they make and with every articles or work they create. So be careful with every details
you present with other people.
For me, being a Journalist is a privilege but has a perilous job. It is a privilege because
other people would look at you as a person with credibility, especially about the
information that they will get from you. Your name would be cited by others
especially if you are a good writer. But it is perilous since they look at you as a person
with credibility, then you are expected that all the details that you give others must be
based on facts. Another task of a journalist that is risky, is whenever they are sent to
different places just to cover a news. Even though the place experiences typhoon or
war just to give us useful and reliable news.
A journalist has a big responsibility in the society that's why following the media
ethics even its basic principles are important in order to become a responsible
journalist.
Whilst the first book focuses on Journalism and the Ethics that a journalist must
abide, the second book focuses on the Ethics in using the new arising media which is
the internet.
Internet takes a big part in spreading information nowadays since most of the people
prefer to use it because it can make our life easier. It can reach and connect people
from different places as long as both have data or internet connection. It creates global
network for instant transmission of information, ideas, and value judgement in
education, politics, religion, and every other field. But, since the internet has the
capability to spread information easily, spreading of false information becomes
quickly also. Moreover, lots of instances happened in which internet has been used as
a medium to do bad things such as crimes. This book tells us how helpful and
destructive the internet is. It also teaches us to be responsible user of this electronic
media and that we should continue to inform others, to spread awareness about the
possible problems we can get through using it to prevent it to happen. Just like in
journalism, e-ethics and e-values should be followed so that we could use internet in a
more useful and sensible way. Just be reminded about the famous quote "Think before
you click" whenever you are in the cyber world.

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"Truth is a formidable enemy. Suppress it and it does not disappear.

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