The decision to make or break

This week (week 9) my JN1001 class discussed our most debating and controversial topic yet, 'Ethics'.  Most predominantly a heated debate was discussed within our lecture that will be discussed soon.

Ethics is a very difficult concept for anyone to define. The ethics of one person may be completely different to another, even if they are of the same religion, race or ideological stance. It is for this instance that many debates arises when there is a discussion about ethics. Although, Alas, Gao and Carneiro (2010) define ethics as "a set of prescriptive rules, principles, values and cirtues of character that inform and guide interpersonal and intrapersonal conduct: that is the conduct of people toward each other and the conduct of people toward themselves". From a journalist point of view, it is vital that journalists stick to what they believe in, because when they are faced with ethical issues, it can ultimately make or break their career. There are three main factors that determine whether something is ethical: socio-cultural context, historical context and also political context.

Through the lecture, we discussed many real-life scenarios that have had quite a large impact on journalists. We were asked to position ourselves in the journalist position to decide whether our actions were ethical or not. Although it is hard to 'put yourself into their shoes' in the circumstances and environment that they were in. An example of this was photojournalist, Kevin Carter, which was undoubtedly the most controversial discussion of the class. While reporting in Sudan, Carter captured a photograph of a young, starved Sudanese girl being preyed on by a vulture. The image won Carter a Pulitzer Prize, although many ethical issues heated surrounding Carter's actions. While Marie explained the photograph, many differing opinions of my fellow classmates arose. Personally, I was quite disgusted that Carter was able to capture the image without helping the young girl. Marie also explained that Carter waited 20 minutes in hope for the vulture to spread its wings, which was enough time for him to get the young girl some food from a market a couple hundred metres away. In my opinion, it was pretty heartless of him. I understand yes its him job, but isn't it in all of us to help the needed? All-in-all, I found it to be a pretty unethical thing to do.

Figure 1: Kevin Carter's Photograph in Sudan

It is vital for future journalist to follow their own personal ethics, and ethical practices. When asked to report on an issue or event, investigating the lead/story is crucial to identify whether you can emotionally and physically report on the story without being unethical. Ethics is a great topic that I thoroughly enjoyed exploring this week.

Figure 2: Funny Journalist Cartoon

References

Alas, R., Gao, J., & Carneiro, J. (2010). Connections between ethics and cultural dimensions. In Inzinerine Ekonomika-Engineering Economics, 21(3), pp. 255-262. Retrieved from http://www.ktu.edu/lt/mokslas/zurnalai/inzeko/68/1392-2758-2010-21-3-255.pdf