2. Who We Are
• We are the National Union of Journalists. An
independent Union with it’s own separate rules on
how we believe Journalists should act, in regard to
there responsibilities & Obligations of a writer.
• In this presentation, we will be training you what we
do here at NUJ, what we look at in particular for our
members to follow & examples of wrong doings in
past journalism.
3. Introduction
It is very important for journalists to be socially & culturally aware. One of the main reasons why journalists
need to be responsible in the area is because they are often writing about people that there readers do not
experience them in there own lives, so there opinions will be purely based upon how they are reported.
For this reason, the journalist should not use bias in his work as this can be very damaging to the group/person
they are talking about. An example of bias being used in the news was this cover. There is no factual evidence
to say that it was Putin’s missile that shot the plane out of the sky. If a consumer read this, they would believe
that Putin had done it. Although Putin has/had been in the news, there was no reason to add another reason
that wasn’t even fact onto the pile.
4. How People Are Being
Represented
People are represented in different ways in the media. A responsible journalist should never put a negative
spin on what they are writing. The representation of someone in journalism is important as it may only be the
only opinion they here. It is also important to represent people with facts, not opinions in responsible
journalism. You are journalist and the people need to know the facts, not your opinion.
5. How connotation can influence the
response to a piece of writing:
Words have there initial meanings (denotations) & then the have there connotations, which means what people
think about when they hear/read/see something. It is important that when writing responsible journalism that the
words used in the work do not have negative connotations that can represent a group/person in a bad way. For
example, if you were to refer to young males as ‘lads’, you may think of a group of young males getting drunk and
causing havoc because they're being ‘lads’. We have to be careful with the words we use as journalists: our choice
of words influence many.
6. How Different Groups Can Have
Alternative Readings of a Piece of Writing:
If you are not initially part of a group, you will gain an alternative reading than others. For example, if we read
something negative about immigrants entering the UK, we will have a negative reading. Whereas if you have
a friend/family member who is an immigrant or you are one yourself, you will have a different reading. for
example, if you were reading an article and it said ‘over 1million immigrants are in the UK’. (I have just made
that fact up), you would have different readings. Some people would find this positive and some would find
this negative, depending on what side of the story you were on.
7. Objective:
The objective that journalism has is to be impartial, unprejudiced & unbiased. This is usually not the case
though. Many journalists will write an article based on their own agenda/the publication they are working for.
Most newspapers have a political agenda, whether that be right or left wing & this will be reflected in there
writing. They will gain facts and figures that only link to what they are reporting on. For example The
Independent are a left wing newspaper & would usually write in favour of labour.
8. Accurate:
It is also very important for journalists to be accurate in what they are reporting. This means facts like names,
dates, times, quotes have to be correct. They should be correct, but sometimes this is not always the case.
For example, In the Daily Mail, the below complaint was made under clause 1 Accuracy. The accuracy is
important as if it is not accurate, undue harm & distress can be caused to the person you are writing about,
which should be the number one thing you are looking out for when you are writing a news article. You
wouldn't want lies being told about you in national & international stories, so why write them yourself?
9. Truthful:
The key to being truthful in your journalism is to be truthful throughout your work. Being clear about where you
got/gathered the information & facts in your work is the main way for your work to be seen as truthful. If you
are telling a lie in your journalism, it’s more than likely that you will be found out & the truth will come out
eventually. A lie can damage a persons life, as the lie will be written in a way that will make it seem like fact.
For example, in the Daily Mirror example below, you can see that they didn't fact check & were not being
truthful with what they were saying It was like they were creating a story & lying in it to get a large reaction
(also linked to accuracy). They were then made to update there story based on what they have been told.
Link to article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531440/Sold-Flights-buses-Romanians-Bulgarians-head-UK.html
Link to blogpost finding the irregularities in the article
http://www.britishinfluence.org/13-reasons-taking-daily-mail-press-complaints-commission
10. Fair & Balanced:
When you are a journalist, it is very important to be fair & balanced. This is another key way to be on your
way to being a responsible journalist. All articles that you write must be written open-minded & unbiased
towards a certain viewpoint. A clear argument between both sides is needed for a fair & balanced argument
which allows the audience to decide on there own who they want to side with. Being fair & balanced when
writing for a newspaper can have complications as a lot of these newspapers are either right or left wing. This
will effect the way you write stories on politics & immigration mostly.
11. Defamation
Defamation is to important stay clear of in this profession. When writing, you should stay clear of writing false
stories that include misrepresentation, false accusation, offensive & milieus writing that could possibly be
based on someones actions/words.
Defamation could lead to a libel case against you, which would then lead to possible court costs. Anyone can
make defamation cases against you, including celebrities, politicians & members of the public.
Keith-Smith v Williams was a large libel case in the UK, as it was one of, if not the first, internet libel cases.
The case was made about ex-teacher Tracy Williams after she accused UKIP member Michael Keith Smith of
being a racist bigot & sexual offender on a Yahoo discussion group.
12. Copyright
What copyright does is cover the ownership of work that other people create. As journalists, we must me
careful not to use copyrighted work, as this would infringe on the copyright law. You cannot use another
persons copyrighted material without referencing where it is from & asking there permission. During the
London 2011 riots, many newspapers used photographs from Twitter & Facebook alongside there news
articles without asking permission of the Twitter/Facebook users.
13. Children & Young Persons
When you are dealing with young people & children in your writing, you must
be very careful with what you say about them. Our rules & the editors codes of
practice are very clear on what is and isn't okay. One example of a breach of
these codes is J K Rowling over photographs of her son being taken without
her permission.
14. Confidentially
Sometimes, as journalists, we have to talk to people that are breaking the law or a large part of events that
are illegal. You are protected to not tell the police what you have learnt about. There is a moral obligation for
the public to know about this.
15. Official Secrets
Official secrets act is a piece of law that protects certain secrets to be accessed to the public.This has been
used to get journalists to spill on some of the information they have been given as it could be a risk.
16. Codes of Practice
The codes of Practice are an important part of legislation when writing a journalism piece that concerns
ethics. Codes of practice are covered by the NUJ & the Editors Codes of Practice. These are both self
regulated.
17. Privacy
The Editors Codes of Practice includes a section on privacy. You can
see this to the right. In summary, it states that everyone is entitled to a
private life. This includes family, home, health. This also includes
digital communications, which as you will be aware, was breached
during the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
18. Intrusion
To the right, you can see the rules that the Editors Codes of Practice on intrusion.
It basically sums up what is appropriate and what is inappropriate.
19. Harassment
The Editors Code of Practice is very specific on this. An example of this
would be the Sienna Miller when she sued the paparazzi for
harassment claims.
