by Sarah Krieg
In today’s world, there are many values that journalists need to have. Last semester, we were taught that fairness, balance and accuracy were the most important things to ensure we included in our stories. However, for journalists as people, there are different personal values that we must have.
Personally, integrity appears to be the most important value for a journalist to have. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, integrity is defined as ‘the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles’. The ability to be able to stick to one’s morals is important, as journalists may be forced to deal with scrutiny from sources (and those who do not want their misadventures exposed). As such, journalists must be able to stay strong and run the story for the public interest, even if they are being pressured not to. The honesty involved in having integrity is also an important aspect, as journalists need to present their stories and findings clearly and honestly.
Two other important values for journalists are fairness and stubbornness. Fairness is important because journalists need to produce work that represents all parties involved, not just one. If a journalist does not present a fairly balanced and written story, readers will have a skewed view of the situation; as such, the journalist will not be able to claim that they are presenting an honest account.
Being stubborn is also important for a journalist. While it is key to ensure that we are not narrow-minded in our approach to stories, as journalists we must stick to our guns when it comes to running stories. If somebody outside the organisation demands that a journalist doesn’t run the story, but it’s in the public interest, they have no choice but to run the story. It is crucial for journalists to be able to stand strong against criticism, and to make sure that they are acting in the public interest no matter what sources may demand.
The values of integrity and honesty are particularly important in approaching new digital and online tools, and also for intriguing readers in the online world. The integrity of a journalist reflects on the organisation that they work for. As a result, integrity is key in the digital world that the industry functions in– the more honesty and integrity that is reflected in the writing of journalists, the more readers the organisation is likely to attract. As journalists, in our approach to using the Internet and other online platforms to disseminate our work, having integrity is crucial in attracting readers in a world that increasingly turns to social media for news.
Fairness is important for the same kind of reason– if an organisation shows that they can present a balanced story that represents all parties involved, more people will be likely to frequent their site to access quality journalism. In a digital age, online image is increasingly more important for news organisations as the majority of their readership is online viewers and subscribers.
Integrity, fairness and stubbornness are three core values that today’s journalists need to have: not only to attract readers, but also to produce quality journalism for people to access.
Featured photo by Chris Evans is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
