Should Mirror reporters accept gifts from organizations they cover? Can Mirror staffers cover a basketball game if their roommate is on the team? Can reporters who are also involved in FUSA cover the organization without encountering a conflict of interest?
These are just a few of the issues the editors and staff of The Mirror deal with on a weekly basis. As college journalists, we are presented with a particularly odd situation. Ideally, journalists should report each and every story from an objective standpoint. This seemingly simple task becomes a difficult one when you take into account that as both students and journalists, Mirror staffers are entrenched in the exact situations they cover. Everything from tuition hikes to concert programming affects us in the office and in our residence halls.
The Mirror has always strived to present news on campus in a timely and accurate manner. Still, readers want to know that the information they are reading is not only timely and accurate but gathered in an ethical and professional manner. Readers want transparency. They want accountability.
And now, we’re trying harder to give it to them.
Last Thursday the staff of The Mirror unanimously voted to adopt a new Mirror ethics code, proposed by outgoing Editor in Chief Steven M. Andrews. The code includes 31 points outlining the prescribed actions for Mirror journalists in a number of situations, including the use of sexist language in stories, the acceptance of gifts, staff involvement in other campus organizations and the use of anonymous sources, to name just a few.
“I believe as an organization which acts as a watchdog of the student government and administration, we’d be remiss to not adhere to our own internal code of ethics,” said Andrews. “Defining the specific rules allows us a transparency that makes us more credible and accountable, and ultimately benefits our readers by creating a more objective newspaper.”
Dr. James Simon, associate professor of English and advisor of The Mirror has also expressed his support for the adoption of an ethics code.
“The buzzword these days in dealing with the public is transparency. For journalists, that can mean letting the reader and viewer know how information was gathered, under what conditions and whether it can be trusted,” said Simon.
“These ethics guidelines will ensure that Mirror reporters and editors are conducting themselves in an ethical manner, to the benefit of the reader,” Simon added.
“I hope the guidelines will encourage Mirror staffers to think and reflect more about the news gathering process and how they can best serve readers,” he added. “These guidelines force Mirror staffers to think through the process of attributing information, and it should make stories stronger and more credible.”
The new code outlines standards of behavior for situations that student journalists often face. For example, Mirror staffers are unable to accept gifts of significant value, unless they are CDs or movies that they are reviewing.
Further, they are unable to accept tickets, passes or discounts unless it is for an event they are covering or it is a privilege afforded to non-journalists as well.
The new ethics code requires staffers to declare conflicts of interest and asks them to avoid involvement in stories dealing with members of their families or other people they may have a financial, adversarial or close relationship with.
The code also instructs staffers on how to handle the use of profane or vulgar words and sexually explicit language in their stories. Further, it discourages the use of racial, religious or ethnic identifiers, the use of negative stereotyping and the use of sexist language.
Overall, the new Mirror code of ethics is as much as a service to you, the readers, as it is to us at The Mirror. By creating this code of ethics, and making it available to the public, I hope our readers will gain a sense of confidence in the product we are creating, and a greater understanding of our reporting process.
If we violate the code, we hope you will be quick to let us know. A newspaper is only as good as the dialogue it creates within the community it serves.
Our Jesuit education has always stressed the role of ethics and service to others. Journalism ethics is a difficult subject to wrestle with; some might even say the term itself is an oxymoron. Still, this code of ethics is a service to our readership. Ultimately, it increases our “transparency,” in case the first floor BCC fishbowl we work in wasn’t clear enough.
Readers can read the new Mirror ethics code in its entirety online at www.fairfieldmirror.com.
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