But what about friendships? Couldn't they too influence how you feel about an issue and cause you to be swayed when writing an article?
This issue is even more important as a high school journalist. If you are covering the basketball game and your best friend is on the team, then you would be more inclined to interview him or her about the game. You would most likely agree with their viewpoint, even if it was only about a basketball game and not a political issue. But still, this could be a considered as a violation of the code of ethics.
Please express your stance on where the line is drawn between friendships and reporting.
1 comment:
Until our lesson on personal ethics in journalism, it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be able to date or befriend a certain person because I was a journalist. However, I now realize that yes, it is hard to be social and be a serious journalist.
I completely agree with your example about high school journalists. Often times these writers choose to quote their friends in articles in order to spotlight their opinion or to cut corners so that they won’t have to do an interview with a stranger.
In this way, the journalist is not representing the opinions or statements of a random or knowledgeable individual, but of a friend. This causes a serious disturbance in what should be one of a journalist’s main focuses – fairness. When quoting or interviewing a friend, one often allows bias to get in the way of reporting. Almost any journalist, amateur or professional, that is reporting on a friend would want to present this friend in a good light to the public, agreeing with his or her ideas and avoiding any topic that would bring him or her criticism.
However, during the class lecture by Doug Tallman, I remember Adrianne Flynn saying that the best way to build trust with a source is to have a relationship larger than simply interviewing him or her for a story. Journalists should treat their sources like a fellow human with sincerity, not just as someone they need for work. This advice makes it even more difficult for a journalist to decide draw the line between friendship and reporting.
But on the other hand, does it mean that a journalist cannot have any friends at all in case he or she may have to interview them some day? That would be too extreme. I guess a journalist must choose his or her friends and beat wisely and hope that those two paths never cross. Or maybe the best advice was that given by Tallman: “Don’t be stupid.” A journalist has to use his or her judgment and be able to recognize and accept when a friendship has gone too far and end the friendship or switch beats to ensure the credibility of his or her career.
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