Media credibility has taken a few hits on a national scale recently, which is why members of the University’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter say it’s more important than ever to educate students and community members about media ethics.
The group is hosting “Ethics Week,” which kicks off today and is intended to promote ethics in the professional world of journalism.
University SPJ Publicity Chairman Tim Rinaker said he hopes the week will help build a more trusting relationship between the media and the public.
“A lot of people just are inherently mistrusting of the mass media,” he said, adding that people think “there’s always more than meets the eye.”
The series of events lasts through May 6, when Los Angeles Times Editor John Carroll will give the keynote speech at the 2004 Ruhl Lecture. The event is sponsored by the School of Journalism and Communication.
Tonight’s event is a panel discussion about ethical practices in radio news. Journalism school Associate Dean Al Stavitsky, along with other professionals from the field, will be part of the panel.
Stavitsky authored an ethics guide commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and a new edition was published in January. Stavitsky said the increase in technological news sources, including the Internet, bring even more questions about media ethics to the table. Add to that the recent media scandals, such as The New York Times’ Jayson Blair incident, and faith continues to fall.
“This is a time when the public is very skeptical of journalists and their motives,” he said, adding that it’s important for news organizations to “put their ethics on the line.”
Stavitsky’s media guide, “Independence and Integrity II,” can be viewed online at http://www.cpb.org/radio/ethicsguide.
Students with questions or comments about the Emerald’s practices this year will have the chance to speak with Emerald Managing Editor Jan Tobias Montry at Tuesday’s public forum. Oregon Commentator Editor in Chief Timothy Dreier, The Insurgent Editor Jack Crocifisso and Duck U TV’s Cascene Gibson will also join the panel to discuss ethical issues journalists face as they work in a student community , according to an SPJ press release.
University journalism Professor Tom Bivins, who teaches media ethics, said one of the key reasons people distrust the media is because news organizations are not being responsible when it comes to distinguishing between editorial content and actual news.
“Look at what passes as news today,” he said. Opinions and news are often mixed into broadcast programs making it difficult to tell them apart, he added.
Bivins said this practice makes the media less credible because people feel opinions and news should be distinctly separated, as they were in the past.
“We live in a media age where that doesn’t happen very much,” he said.
Stavitsky said it can be especially difficult to establish trust with college students who tend to seek much of their information from online sources and watch television programs such as “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live,” which parody the media.
“They also undercut our trust in media by pointing out some of the problems in media,” he said.
Rinaker agreed college students, or the “MTV generation,” may not always turn to the most reliable media sources, which can undermine overall media credibility.
“We want our news in tidbits,” he said. “It’s tough to get too in-depth.”
Junior Megan Barrer, who is studying general science, said she gets some of her news off the Internet but tries to be more skeptical of it than other sources.
“Anybody can put something on the Web,” she said, adding that she tends to trust other sources, such as newspapers and broadcast news, more than online. “I think for the most part, it’s pretty true and accurate.”
But senior math major Ryan Fraback said people need to realize that all media are biased to some extent.
“Obviously, it is biased,” he said. “It does represent a viewpoint.”
He said this probably leads many people to conclude that the media are less credible, and it is therefore important for people to get a variety of perspectives.
“You kind of have to use some deductive reasoning,” he said.
Rinaker said media need to relay the same accurate information to facilitate informed debate.
“Then we can at least debate our beliefs on the same foundation,” he said.