Hi everyone, The topic of my presentation today is Analysis of Ethical Issues in Journalism on

Various Media Platforms.

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My presentation will contain four parts, they are Introduction, A case study of journalism
ethics on different platforms, Solutions to ethical issues in journalism, and Conclusion.

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For the first part, I will introduce the background of journalism ethics. the word "ethics" is
derived from the ancient Greek word "ethos,". In 1889, the word "ethics" first appeared in
newspaper articles in William Lilly's Ethics of Journalism, and in 1924, Nelson Crawford published
The Ethics of Journalism, this book became the foundation of the journalistic profession. In the
1940s and 1950s, the Hutchins Commission published A Free and Responsible Press, and a series
of books and papers, led to further research in journalism ethics. In 1974, John Merrill published
The Imperative of Freedom: A Philosophy of Journalistic Autonomy, this regarded as a landmark
work on the philosophy of journalistic ethics. The publication of these works marked the gradual
entry of journalism ethics as a global issue to a wider range of scholars.
Nowadays, the boundaries of journalism are constantly expanding. From the traditional
media like newspapers, radio, and television, to the new media, more and more participatory
journalism, civic journalism have emerged, Journalists no longer have much influence on what
people see, read, or hear, or what they choose to think about. The focus of what a journalist does
in such an open, congested media environment must change away from the process of selecting
and sharing information, toward stress on ethics.

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For this part, I will give examples about the journalism ethics on different platforms. With
the emergence of print media, Newspapers became the main source of information for people,
and journalists had the right to decide what information would reach the public and influence the
public's judgment of facts and truth. At the same time, some journalists' lack of journalism ethics
has led to the occurrence of fake news, paid news, privacy leaks, and other misconduct. In 2003,
The New York Times was revealed that reporter Jayson Blair had fabricated, plagiarized, and
misrepresented at least 36 press articles. And shortly after, another prominent journalist and
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times, Rick Bragg, was Revealed to be
plagiarized too. And these incidents became the biggest scandal since the New York Times was
founded. Similar incidents include the USA Today reporter Jack Kelly, fabricating key elements of a
foreign story, plagiarizing the article and concocting shenanigans to cover up his transgressions.

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This graph is a survey by the Pew Research Center on the public's trust in news reporting
from 1985 to 2009, it shows that the public's assessment of the accuracy and fairness of news
reporting keeps declining and even at its lowest level in more than two decades. These figures
demonstrate that if the media does not adhere to journalism ethics, it will only result in a
continuous deterioration in its credibility.

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Next is the Broadcasting Media, In a market-oriented environment, the ratings and
listenership of television and radio depend on public demand and interest, This has influenced
the tendency of them to conduct news reporting. This also drives the media to constantly ignore
the truthfulness of the news and only caters to the interests of the audience to attracts the
public's attention. For example, In 2020, shortly after news broke that the plane which famous
basketball star Kobe Bryant was riding had crashed in California, ABC News’s reporter, Matt
Gutman, not only reported Kobe's death, but also stated that all four of Kobe's daughters were
on the helicopter, shocking the public. But it was later confirmed that only Kobe and his eldest
daughter were on the plane. ABC News suspended the reporter and apologized to Kobe's family
and the public. Television and radio themselves have a wide audience, both audio and visual,
infectious and other characteristics, and they are mostly invested by the government to create its
social influence. Therefore, it is more important to ensure the truthfulness and objectivity of
news to eliminate the uncertainty of the public and maintain the order of the whole society.

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The development of new media has changed the media landscape. The network is
characterized by real-time dissemination speed, huge and complex information producers, and
Too much news with no guarantee of truthfulness and objectivity, especially with the emergence
of social media has empowered all people have a voice. As a result, the third reality has emerged,
this is a type of emotional reality with information that is somewhere between true and false, not
entirely objective and not entirely fictitious. For example, the Trump campaign interpreted
China's $500 billion trade imbalance with the United States as an indication that China was not
being fair to the United States in order to sway American voters and win more votes. Another
example is the assertion by Brexiteers that the UK has incurred significant losses as a result of its
membership in the EU, but omitting to highlight the advantages the UK has gotten from the EU,
in order to persuade British voters to vote to leave the EU. As Media formats changed, the media
and journalists can no longer uncritically accept old assumptions about the role and values of
journalism. It is necessary to figure out how to make modifications to their expressions in order
to adapt to the new media environment.

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The next part is some of the solutions I propose. For media, firstly, they must clearly position
themselves, play their role, adhere to the public interest as their guide, and assume the
responsibility of the "public forum". Secondly, it is necessary to improve the self-regulatory
mechanism of the press. This requires the establishment of a reasonable system of recourse and
correction within the media and strengthen the cooperation between different media and
establish a media self-regulatory organization. Of course, in the current new media environment,
the media can also use more technology to more quickly and effectively verify the authenticity of
the information and further reduce the occurrence of journalism ethics problems. for example,
The Duke University Journalist Lab is developing a system called Media Review that will employ
structured data technologies to assist in detecting of fake videos and photos.

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For journalist, they must adhere to the standards of professional journalism and be guided
by the principles "truthful, objective, and impartial" in their reporting of the news. Professional
journalists should prioritize the facts over anything else and don’t spread false information,
engage in purposeful conjecture, or engage in journalistic corruption. Don’t place facts in a
secondary position to ideology or political assertions. Neither kowtow to advertising, nor
conspire with the business interests of publishers, nor cater to the preferences of readers or
viewers. Public trust in journalists can only be earned by fostering strong professional ethics,
understanding the line between freedom of the press and social duty, and enhancing
humanitarian concern.

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For government, Firstly, it is necessary to improve press laws and regulations, such as
developing laws tailored to different types of reporting, proposing appropriate solutions to the
ethical and legal issues posed by technologies like artificial intelligence, VR, AR, and algorithms in
the new media environment. So that both regulation and journalists' work can be based on the
law, and to increase the effectiveness of management. The second is to give full play to the
government's monitoring function. On the basis of the lack of clarity on the subject of regulation
and the scope of regulation, the relevant issues should be defined and penalties refined. But it is
also important to note that excessive repression can also harm press freedom, therefore, The
government, needs to find a balance between press regulation and press freedom.

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And for the public, Ward and Wasserman propose establishing an "open media ethics," which
would allow all members of the public to participate in the development of ethical guidelines.
They encourage the public to actively participate in the dialogue as intended users of ethical
standards, meaningful participants in ethical decisions, and contributors to the determination.
Therefore, in the new media era, the public should accept media literacy knowledge and cultivate
their own critical thinking to increase their ability to distinguish information and think rationally.
Try to use critical thinking skills to critically interpret and reflect on the media, identify true and
false news, and consciously search for the truth.
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Next is the conclusion section. Since the birth of modern journalism in the 17th century,
journalism ethics have undergone four revolutions: the first is the seventeenth-century periodic
press invented journalism ethics; the second is the fourth-estate ethics of newspapers in the
eighteenth-century Enlightenment public sphere; the third is the liberal ethics of the nineteenth-
century press; and the fourth is the professional ethics of the mass commercial press in the late
19th and early 20th centuries. Today, journalism ethic is experiencing its fifth revolution: an
ethics of mixed, global media, and rise of transparency is an important feature of this shift.

With the echo chamber effect, information cocoons, group polarization, and a series of
negative effects growing in the new media environment. And the spread of info-demic during the
COVID-19, journalism ethics code is more important than ever. It is certain that in the future,
journalism ethics will continue to evolve from a global perspective into a set of norms and
principles applicable to more media platforms and more cultural, political, and social contexts.
we also have to face many difficult issues, such as, what is the best way to do justice to both the
particular and the general? how may "local" or "indigenous epistemologies" be integrated into a
global media ethics framework? But Scholars and journalists from all over the world are still
working hard to explore approaches to build a new, more comprehensive, and inclusive
framework for journalism and for the whole world.