"New" Media Journalism

New media can be any form of technology with a snap shot camera or video camera, such as a cell phone. With “new” media, seemingly, anyone can be a journalist, or an amateur journalist. Easy access to the Internet is a benefactor in this. With easy access to the Internet through wifi, our computers and even our cell phones, an individual can snap a picture or record a video of any incident. The intriguing fact of this is that anyone can publish an incident that had just occurred to their friends and family on any social network in a matter of seconds after taking the shot. Now the issue with this is, in what circumstance is it ethical to take a photo or video of someone or something and publish it on a social network or any form of internet based media? Is it ethical for someone to take a picture of another walking down the street wearing distasteful clothing? How would you feel if that was you and someone had posted it in a Facebook group? Or is it ethical to take a picture of a house on fire and someone is in the window screaming for help? Due to technology being so accessible people have been desensitized in common sense because they rely solely on different forms of technology to communicate.

New media has made it possible for any form of breaking news, whether newsworthy to all or not, to be published to several forms of technology. In being able to do so, there has been numerous cases of controversy, such as the case where a journalist snapped a picture of soldier in his casket at a funeral. Another incident is when a photographer took a picture of a little girl’s dead body being rushed out of her house in hopes of reviving her. New media isn’t necessarily only about photojournalism or videojournalism, it is also about being able to update a Facebook status or able to tweet using Twitter anything that comes to mind. This purposes a problem to journalists who enjoy using social networking sites like these because they may use it as a form of getting news out, which is not a credible way to do so, and accidentally give out the false information. Even though people are considered amateur journalists, the problem is that they do not see the line between what is ethically right and what is ethically wrong.

Fabricating Stories in the Media

In the past few weeks our Media Ethics class has been talking a lot about privacy issues and how news stories can be fabricated. I find it appalling how any journalist or news station can fabricate a story whether it is full fabrication or slight. The issue here is that a news team must be able to give their readers or viewers the truth and try not to be biased about it. Yes it is difficult to not be biased on any given topic, but one can make an effort to bring out both sides to one story. Within the last few weeks we watched a video that illustrated the implications one will give to have a news story “scrapped” or altered. In this video “Fox News Monsanto” two journalists, working for Fox news, were pretty much denied their right to publish a truthful story to the public and had their jobs threatened by the company for pushing publications. After speaking about the altercation with the company, they were bribed to “scrap” their story and to keep their mouths sealed. Upon receiving a contract for said bribe the journalists pursued legal action and received their right to publish their article after over 80 “adjustments”.

Upon hearing that, it disgusted me to see the extent of which people will go to keep a story from the public’s attention. This story, in particular, is about the negative effects of Bobine Growth Hormone, which is injected into cows, has on us through the consumption of milk. To keep such a story from the public’s attention is completely unethical. This hormone has caused sickness and even death/cancer. If there is something in our market that is causing death/cancer that society consumes almost every day, it is wise and completely ethical to raise attention and put a stop to the injection of cows.

I find it interesting that news stations, in general, set out to make the public believe that their news is unbiased and true, while completely contradicting their image and altering some news stories. Obviously the issue here is that there aren’t many people who will stand up to a large corporation in fear of defeat. I did learn that once you have the right resources and timing, you can achieve and overcome a large corporation to do what is ethically right, you just have to be patient.