Talking about ethics: a focus on ethics, enterprise and creativity in the communications industry.
Journalists and the area of journalism are surrounded by ethics. They govern what we as journalists can and cannot say, what we can and can’t report on — they form the very crux of a journalist’s professional career.
Ethics themselves in fact dictate what we see in the news and how it is reported upon. Having now worked as an intern in two very reputable and nationally recognised sporting organisations, I have come to learn more about how important ethics are within not just general reporting for media organisations but also in-house communications which are broadcast to the general public.
Some of the major ethical issues surrounding practitioners in my area of specialization (journalism) are heavily in touch with the use of social media and the ever increasing ability for people to be able to broadcast certain information quicker than ever before.
Both of the media organisations that I have worked at and am still working for (one a state-level cricket organisation and the other an AFL club) both have strict policies about what their employees can and can’t do or say on social media, as well as how we write articles and content for their respective communication channels.
This may not sound particularly relevant to the field of ethics, however to people working in communication or media roles, it is important to ensure your online conduct doesn’t contradict the ‘ethics’ of journalism or an organisation’s policies about what can be reported on.
For example, I was at the AFL club I am working for, taking photos of a training session which were to be published on the website. I saw that two players who had previously been injured were still not training with the main group of players, and so I sent a tweet out saying that they weren’t.
When I got inside, the online and social media manager asked me to delete the tweet, because the football club has a policy that any official information to do with things such as a player’s fitness was to come from the official club channels first, not individual employees.
This responsibility is explicitly touched upon in the book Media Ethics by Clifford, Christians et al. where ‘because of the press’ privileged position, outside critics and inside leaders have constantly urged it towards responsible behaviour’. The responsibility of ensuring responsible behaviour lies not just with journalists reporting for media organisations, but also the communication employees which work for sporting organisations.
There are also certain conflicts of interest and biases to consider when working with different organisations. For example, I have been a lifetime supporter of the AFL club I am currently working at, and so it’s important for me to be able to put whatever feelings about the club I have to one side and write as professionally and as balanced as I possibly can, to ensure that my work is still regarded as credible and professional.
I’ve also just started working on a sports show at the ABC, and so it was important to disclose that information to my supervisor to ensure that the AFL club was aware of what I was doing away from the club. I certainly didn’t want to jeopardise my position by undertaking paid work somewhere else that in some ways can be seen as a conflict of interest, without ensuring that both parties that I am working for both know who I’m working for.
As Mark Deuze points out, ‘The risk of finding and keeping a job has become a strictly individual risk, as most governments and employers in the world today are retreating from collectively negotiated labour and welfare regulations, instead focusing on keeping a core of experienced employees and outsourcing, off-shoring or sub-contracting work… The media, in whatever shape or size, amplify and accelerate these trends — even more so because nowadays people are not just using media in a digital age; we are living in media.’
I feel as though I have a good understanding of this as I myself am already starting to experience the trends that he is talking about in being part of a sub-contracted workforce where there are less permanent jobs. So I need to ensure that any ‘overlaps’ in my professional career are clearly communicated to all involved.
Working within an organisation there are certainly ethical issues involved with things such as working conditions, innovation and creativity.
As a journalist or communication professional, you’re always looking to find ways to improve the delivery of your message to get a leg up on competition in the market place. So it’s important to keep an eye out for things that other people are using that you or the organisation that you work for can use or build upon.
Working at an AFL club, we are constantly in competition with 17 other organisations to ensure our voice gets heard not just by pre-existing club supporters, but also independents. We are constantly on the lookout for things that other clubs are using that we may be able to develop or put our own spin on to make them our own. The ethical side of this is that we have to be careful that we are not just ripping off someone else’s work and taking credit for it, which is why when we see something we like, we have to try and think of ways to keep it the same, but at the same time make it different, to ensure plagiarism is not an issue.
This in some ways comes back to ethics within enterprise as you want to ensure that you can come up with unique and original ideas, that are not entirely someone else’s. As Marcus Powe discusses, ‘most people in business are focussed on their organisation and they might poke their heads up to look at the market occasionally’, so it’s important, particularly when you’re competing with so many other organisations for market share, that we as communication professionals are able to analyse not only what we are doing, but also what other organisations and indeed the market overall is doing as well, to ensure that we are unique in the way we communicate.
In regards to working conditions and more specifically some of the work that communication professionals do, we have to be careful to ‘not place unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics, including race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation, family relationships, religious belief, or physical or intellectual disability’, as specified by the MEAA code of ethics.
I’ve experienced this myself within my internship, where I have had to write articles about, for example, a team raising awareness for mental health issues, or writing about people with special needs playing sport. You have to be mindful that while that is a focus point of the story, you can’t continually identify people by personal traits or characteristics, as it draws people’s attention away from what you’re actually trying to communicate.
Resources:
The Entrepreneurial Process — McManus & Powe (2009)
Key Concepts in the Creative Industries — J. Hartley (2013)
http://www.academia.edu/709282/The_Media_Logic_Of_Media_Work