Journalistic Practices

The function of journalism in society has two main roles which are to inform the audience and entertain the audience. Journalism whether it be broadcast journalism or written journalism can have a massive effect on social trends and political events. In this essay it will try to examine some of limitations journalists come across such as the law and ethical challenges and the way that truth can be bent in the media. Journalists have to be socially responsible while informing the world about things that they do not always want to hear. A good example of this is the Ethiopian food crisis which no-one was aware of until a famous BBC news report in 1984 by Micheal Buerk. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4015231.stm) This news report had a massive impact across the world and led to band aid and millions of pounds of aids being sent to Africa. This is a great example of how journalism can influence the news and the world and contradicts Edward G.Robinsons quotation.

A.Boyd said “News journalism has a broadly agreed set of values” (Broadcast Journalism, Techniques of Radio and TV News 1994). This reflects the ethical choices that journalists have to make everyday. An example of this is the recent death of Baby P. In the media the child is named Baby P out of privacy for the members of the family involved under eighteen. This is the law which journalists have to follow and also so that journalists wouldn’t want to cause the unnecessary stress to the family members.

The type of paper also helps set the papers values. A more right wing paper such as The Times will more likely focus on the positive side of issues such as The Royal Family and generally are in favour of a conservative government. This is in contrast to The Observer which is seen as a left wing paper politically. In The Guardian they are more likely to be behind the Labour party and focus on more foreign issues than papers like The Times or The Daily Mail. This goes against Robinsons point once again as he says journalists do not influence the news but in papers like The Daily Mail they put a clear political or personal spin on things. An example of this is the recent Mohammed Al Fayed story about the alleged sexual relations with an underage girl. The Daily Mail has had a long running feud with Mohammed Al Fayed and they made sure that this story became front page news. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1085502/Sex-assault-claim-Harrods-boss-Al-Fayed-moved-crime-unit.html) This was made front page news to clearly push the papers own agenda while papers like The Guardian still printed the story but gave it a far less prominent place in there paper.

Journalists have many different types of limitations. One of the main limitations of a journalist will be making sure he stays on the right side of the law and can’t get sued for libel or slander. “Journalists who break the law will be subject to the same penalties as everybody else.” (p66,Newspaper Journalism A practical Introduction Susan Pape and Sue Featherstone Sage Publications) Journalists can’t forget that they are not above the law and journalists are known to occasionally use underhand means to get the story that they want. One story that in my opinion used underhand ways to achieve there goal was The News Of The World with a story about Max Mosley as they apparently bribed a prostitute to film a extreme sex act with the formula one boss. Max Mosley then sued the Daily Mail for invasion of privacy and won the lawsuit for the amount of sixty thousand pounds. Max Mosley was reported as saying; “they had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and film adults engaged in activities which are no one’s business but their own to know” (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4388746.ece) The News Of The World tried to defend itself by saying that as he is the boss of formula one then it is in the publics interest. This is backed up by; “the editors code of practice allows for the use of subterfuge, provided it is in the publics interest and that the story cannot be obtained by any other means.” (P189, Newspaper Journalism A Practical Introduction) Even though The News Of The World had to pay Max Mosley sixty thousand pounds, the profit that they made from the paper and the pictures would probably be higher than the legal pay out. So even if the law is a limitation for journalists there are ways to get around it but it can be highly unethical.

Journalists have to factor in ethical decisions when they write a story. The amount of thinking a journalist puts into an ethical decision to do with a story can be to do with whether you are writing for a tabloid newspaper or a broadsheet. Tabloid papers focus more the celebrity and scandal or soft news where as broadsheet newspapers focus more on hard news such as current political and world events. Tabloids papers such as The Sun are known to use phone bugging to catch out celebrities in compromising positions. In this respect Journalists are actually creating the news by setting up certain people with bugs and honey traps and this again disagrees with Robinsons point. Journalists only don’t effect the news when it is a major world event like the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers but seven years on you get left and right wing papers telling the same story in different ways. Tabloid papers like The Sun or The News Of The World will focus more on personal stories which people can relate to whereas The Guardian and The Times more broadsheet newspapers will focus on more facts and statistics to back there stories up. Journalists will have to factor the safety of who they write about as well as some journalists will hold a story back if it feels like it would jeopardise there own health or someone elses. An example of this is the author of the book and now movie ‘Gomorra’ who after writing his book ;“ lives with a constant police escort. Now they give me three policemen and a bulletproof car.” (http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n8/htdocs/taking-on-italian-mafiant-146.php?country=uk) Journalists have to think If the importance of the story is worth there health.

What gets printed in the newspapers has to be relevant to what is going on in the current day. Hrkup and O’nell said that the agenda of news was including the power elite such as the George Osborne scandal, celebrity, good news, bad news, the magnitude of the story and the relevance of the story. The relevance of the story has to be important because millions of things happen every day but the way you decide what stories you are going to publish has a lot to do with what is relevant at the time. A good example of this is the rise in knife crime stories that are published as a lot of these stories would not of got published a year ago but now because it is a current issue almost every day you will see a story about knife crime in the papers.

Journalism has a very important effect on society as it can effect social, cultural and political change. Politicians can be friendly with certain journalists when they know they will favour them over the opposition and can be a key tool for winning elections. The recent increase in the power of online media means that journalism is becoming more and more socially powerful and people have more mediums that they can access news and information on. Journalism can have huge power in it’s campaigns for example with The Sun and there Madeline McCann coverage which some people said was unfair but it reached a huge audience to supposedly help the investigation into her disappearance.

The function of journalism is to give the audience and the advertisers what they think they want to read. Readers now are a lot more media savvy than they used to be so they will have there chosen paper that they will want to buy and will have certain expectations on the stories they will read from what type of paper it is and what type of political leaning it has. News now is far faster than it was ten years ago with the BBC website claiming that it’s “updated every minute.” (www.bbcnews.co.uk) This and the creation of 24 hour news channels means the influence of journalism is huge because it’s around us all the time and with the rise in people using blogs for news it means that anyone now can be a journalist.