Being ethical means, essentially, doing the right thing. An ethical person abides by a code, which he has set down for himself, founded on his own beliefs. Ethics can be very diverse, what is morally wrong or right from one person’s point of view can be completely different from another’s. Ethics are self-motivated ways of regulating one’s behavior. Behaving ethically often incarnates as being truthful in what you do or say.
Ethics can apply to journalism in many different ways. Keeping a rigid code is very important if you are to be received well by the public. I think that the news watching audience typically likes to see a news entity following with what is morally accepted by the masses. When watching presented news I don’t want to see reporters trash talking subject A or lying about what happened to subject B.
If a news corporation or even citizen blogger does not behave ethically not only will the lose viewers but also credibility. Other viewers can always replace lost viewers, however, if you are not regarded as credible and ethical no new viewers will come. Often news companies might be placed in a situation where they can both be ethical in their behavior and hurt their business or they can do the wrong thing and remain unscathed. Such a dilemma often comes up when displaying controversial news; this is when a code of ethics comes in handy.
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