Why News Publications Should Enforce a Code of Ethics

Kevin McIntyre km675818@ohio.edu Ethical decision-making is a very important aspect of good journalism and reporting. The field of journalism, however, has been under intense scrutiny in recent years. While yellow journalism and muckraking have been experienced by the public for many years, there seems to be an increasing pattern of distrust against journalists and the media in general. A good way to combat this image is to more strongly enforce a code of ethics throughout various news publications. While there are many organizations that provide guidelines and codes for what ethical journalism should look like, often times these codes are not enforced, but rather suggested. According to the Society of Professional Journalists' (SPJ) website,  the guidelines that they provide for journalists are voluntary, and not necessarily enforced. These guidelines include: advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. If these codes were enforced more strongly, it would be...