►Be Accountable…
Journalists have a moral obligation to be accountable to the public for the work they produce and how they produce it. (This notion of being accountable should be distinguished from “accountability journalism,” a form of journalism in keeping with the SPJ Code’s statement that journalists should “be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable” for their actions.)
There are many internal ways for journalists to hold themselves accountable, and many external ways for others to hold journalists to account. Accountable Journalism, an organization sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Ethical Journalism Network, provides a collection of resources for journalists and their audiences.
Source: https://rjionline.org/accountable-journalism/
►…And Transparent.
These two words were added to the SPJ Code’s 2014 revision, recognizing that it is even more important in the digital age for journalists to “show their work” and how they produce it. As work produced by journalists looks and sounds like non-journalistic content, it is vital for journalists to use transparency techniques to help audiences see the difference. This includes actions such as “Provide access to source material” from the “Seek Truth and Report it” part of the SPJ code, to explaining how journalists did their work and how they made their ethical choices.
Some considerations about transparency include:
- Seeing how transparency can deepen engagement with readers. In a 2015 post in the now-shuttered MediaShift site, Josh Sterns wrote: “If journalism wants to make the case that it is valuable, it has to start showing its work.”
- Accountability for work done by journalists or organizations with some level of partisanship. The Poynter Institute has argued that “be transparent” has replaced “act independently” as a key journalism virtue in the new millennium, as more journalism is being produced by people and organizations with some level of partisanship. Poynter argues that doing journalism without full autonomy “demands that you clearly articulate your journalistic approach, including ‘whether you strive for independence or approach information from a political or philosophical point of view.’ In other words, acknowledge your intentions, and be honest about how that might impact what you report and how you report it. This high level of transparency could mesh with the SPJ code’s edict to “Disclose unavoidable conflicts” under its “Act Independently” section.
- Recognizing that transparency and credibility are not always related. That makes transparency an ethical obligation, even at the risk of perceived credibility.
As Chris Roberts and Jay Black, who were involved in the previous two revisions to the SPJ code, wrote in the second edition of Doing Ethics: Theories and Practical Applications: “Research has shown that greater transparency in a journalistic message does not necessarily lead to higher credibility levels; this may be because news messages are already more transparent than other forms of communication, or because people already made up their minds.”
- Academics Gabriela Perdomo and Philippe Rodrigues-Rouleau offer a cautionary note, saying that some transparency is merely “performative.” They are particularly concerned about podcasts and other media products in which the journalists and their reporting process are the real stars of the show.
Sources:
- http://mediashift.org/2015/08/why-journalists-should-use-transparency-as-a-tool-to-deepen-engagement/
- https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2013/why-be-transparent-is-now-a-better-ethical-principle-than-act-independently/
- https://www.doingethicsinmedia.com/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349677053
►In The Elements of Journalism, authors Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel identified transparency as a key concept in journalism’s discipline of verification. Transparency shows respect for the audience. Among other things, it requires:
- Providing evidence, so readers can better decide whether to trust your work.
- Telling readers what you know – and don’t know.
- Revealing sources, including how they are in a position to know and their biases.
Source: https://www.tomrosenstiel.com/essential/journalism-as-a-discipline-of-verification/
►The Newsroom Transparency Tracker, sponsored by PEN America and The Trust Project, described journalism transparency as a function of a news organization’s best practices and journalistic expertise. This includes how it uses labels to differentiate among types of content, and how it advocates for diversity among its staff and sources. The site measures how news organizations measure up to its standards.
Source: https://www.newsroomtransparencytracker.com/
►Trusting News places transparency as among the important steps for journalists and journalism -organizations to be trusted by audiences. Among its many Trust Kits are practical ways to engage with audiences, to be transparent in journalistic work and in ethics standards, and to explain decisions.