Chapter 16 Week 13

1. If offered a free dinner i would ring my editor and tell them about the conflict of interest because not telling the editor could reult in suspension (p397). As outlined in the AJA Code of Ethics, journalists should do their best to avoid bribes or any forms of conflict of interest and inform their bosses when in the situation.

2. According to the AJA Code of Ethics (p400), journalists are not to 'allow advertising or commercial considerations to undermine accuracy, fairness or independence'. So in this case I woul write about the experiences of the trip as I found them, be it positive or negative.

3. If I made an error in an already published story I would write a follow up article correcting my mistake, because I believe journalism to be a duty to inform above being a duty to get payed more despite incompetance.

4. Journalists should consider public interest above all when deciding whether to print a story (p382). In this case, on an emotional level I would want to withhold printing the story due to the circumstances where the main person would be affected greatly by the story. However, i also think it is in the public's interest to know about the story.


Points of Interest:

- When it comes to journalism, it is extremely important not to be bias, or give any clues as to what your opinion of the story is in your writing. The readers of your article need to be able to make up their own mind about how they feel about the story, without being swayed by a writer's opinion.

- There are three types of facts (as outlined by Henshall & Ingram)
- facts that have been proven to be true
- facts that are probably true although they have not been proved
- facts that could be true, although they appear to be lies