Importance Of Good Quality Journalism

Journalism is the collection and sharing of information about ongoing events to a mass group of people (Bainbridge et al., 2011). Its core principle is to provide information as well as the truth to the public. Reported news serves a role in the society as they inform the public of relevant information on events that happens. Good journalism entails various factors that align with the interest of the public. In this essay, I will show different elements of what constitutes ‘good quality’ journalism and its role in the society. Firstly, journalist use news values as a tool to gauge what issues are relevant and would be in the public’s interest. Secondly, agenda setting and framing of stories shape how news stories are written to create the outcomes

Four theories of the press is a representation of the media’s role in the society (Peterson, Schramm, & Siebert, 1956). Authoritarian theory has naturally been the way most countries practice to produce mass media content (Peterson, Schramm, & Siebert, 1956). Libertarian is another dominant way that news agencies follow base on the social and political characteristics of liberalism (Peterson, Schramm, & Siebert, 1956). The four theories were then developed into different roles; monitorial, facilitative, radical and collaborative roles, which were a driving force for democratic societies (Christians et al., 2009). These roles defined how good journalism could be achieved as watchdogs of the society. However, it is becoming an issue as institutions create news on the media along with advertising which intervenes with the main idea of creating news stories for the public good (McChesney, 2012). Good quality journalism is supposed to serve the community with news but commercial gains are getting in the way of how journalists write. The Daily Mail has been established as a conventional commercial based ownership model where its main aim is to gain the most profit from the content they produce. They operate based on a libertarian theory as they do not have government control and is self-regulated. They wrote the article with an episodic framing where it could create a larger impact by

Quality journalism would encompass the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics within the article. It includes a guidance clause that requires journalists to think about the public interest during the creation of the content. The Daily Mail was unethical according to the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics. The eleventh MEAA Code of Ethics states that, “Respect private grief and personal privacy. Journalists have the right to resist compulsion to intrude.” In this case, the journalist were not respectful towards the relatives of the victims by having a video of the pilot’s father being weak and not able to stand on his own as he is being carried with the help of some people. This demonstrates what journalism should not be as it invades the privacy of the people who are affected by the