RESEARCH 4 - 12 Ethical Standards

ETHICAL STANDARDS

 

1. Act honourably – Never put your own gain above the welfare of your clients or others to whom you have a professional responsibility. Always consider the wider interests of society in your judgement.

2. Act with integrity – Be trustworthy in all that you do – never deliberately mislead, whether by withholding or distorting information.

3. Be open and transparent in your dealings– Share the full facts with your clients, making things as plain and intelligible as possible.

4. Be accountable for all your actions –Take full responsibility for your actions and don’t blame others if things go wrong.

5. Know and act within your limitations –Be aware of the limits of your competence and don’t be tempted to work beyond these. Never commit to more than you can deliver.

6. Be objective at all times – Give clear and appropriate advice. Never let sentiments or your own interests cloud your judgement.

7. Always treat others with respect –Never discriminate against others.

8. Set a good example – Remember that both your public and private behavior could affect your own, RICS’ and other members’ reputations.

9. Have the courage to make a stand –Be prepared to act if you suspect a risk to safety or malpractice of any sort.

10. Comply with relevant laws and regulations – Avoid any action, illegal or litigious, that may bring the profession into disrepute.

11. Avoid conflicts of interest –Declare any potential conflicts of interest, personal or professional, to all relevant parties.

12. Respect confidentiality – Maintain the confidentiality of your clients’ affairs. Never divulge information to others unless it is necessary.

 Although all the factors above are equally important, one of the most important ones in my view is the one about being accountable for all your actions and taking full responsibility of the problems you have caused. I believe this one is the most important because of how it links to all the other ones about knowing your limitations and following the law and its regulations both within the law and out for safety and precaution reasons, this is because if you do any of these things it all leads back to the journalist being responsible for all these things, and them having to face the consequences of their decisions.

 Another factor that seems to be one of the most important is about setting a good example, and being professional about the job that you are doing, because people are looking up to that person and they need to be setting an example to show how it’s done and not being misled by others because it is not only the journalist reputation that would go down but the station also.

Lastly one other factor that I believe is important is to act honorable This is because by being honourable and fair it allows the journalist to be thoughtful of others and to understand that the audience and helping the station are the most important thing and that they need to be put first and not the personal desires of the journalist, especially if they’re are putting their own personal gain before the needs of the clients. Overall,  by looking at all these ethical standards it act as guidelines for when doing my own newscast because I will know what rules to follow to ensure that I can report to the best of quality and so that I can avoid any problems that occur.

Sources: Class notes. 

RESEARCH 3 - Research Methods

RESEARCH METHODS THAT I COULD USE...

Research methods are important because they help narrow down the ways of finding out research for specific things, and make things a lot simpler to explore.

Some research methods could be:

·         Looking through newspapers for local news.

·         Looking at online news for more detailed information.

·         Doing interviews with people to get a range of opinions.

·         Doing blogs and keeping them updated to see comments about the topic written.

·         Putting up leaflet or posters to promote the issue, and getting people to come and give their views.

·         Making a face book or twitter account to promote it worldwide, and this way I could also hear views from different age groups.

·         Conduct surveys to see what topic is most popular.

The reason why research methods are used is to find ways of looking into particular stories to get a more detailed response. Some stories that I could find out about using some of the research methods could be about:

·         How do radios get the audience’s attention?

·         How do radio stations make their station different from others?

·         How to use audacity?

·         How to use a microphone correctly?

·         How to use and make a Voki.

·         What are the codes and conventions of a particular genre?

·         How to edit sound?

These are just some of the questions I could apply the research methods too, and use to find out more about these questions so that they apply to the newscast, and how they can be contrasted or compared. Also, it can benefit my own newscast by showing that I can find ways and learning multiple way of how to make my newscast suitable and appealing. 

Source: Class notes

 

RESEARCH 2 - Case study - Defamation

DEFAMATION

Defamation is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government, religion or nation. Although, legal action is allowed to prevent various defamation from going out into the media. Defamation and media law strikes a balance between fundamental values of freedom of expression, including the constitutional freedom of the press, and the need to protect reputation and privacy.

Under common law, to make up defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.

Similar to defamation is public exposure of private facts, which arises where one person reveals information that is not of public concern and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. A person who defames another may be called a "defamer", "famacide", "libeller" or "slanderer".

An example of defamation of an individual could be when Chris Brown the singer had to face defamation from the article written by ‘The Onion’. The article criticized his past behaviour and Rihanna’s recent decision to take him back. Chris wanted to seek legal action against ‘The Onion’ for defamation of character. This shows how important it is for someone else’s reputation to face defamation and how much it could cost the company or person facing this legal action.

Defamation could cause many concerns for many people because it is a big accusation to make and could really bring down a company or group because of the outcomes of defamation. From looking at the consequences of defamation I have learnt that you have to be careful about what you say or write because it could affect someone else and have an impact on them or even their status.

During the newscast that I will produce later on I will know how to keep myself away from defaming someone and making sure that our opinions that we put across will not affect anyone's reputation.




Here is the link to read more about Chris Brown and his issue with defamation: http://hollywoodlife.com/2012/12/06/the-onion-sued-chris-brown-defamation-lawsuit-satire/
with defamation: http://hollywoodlife.com/2012/12/06/the-onion-sued-chris-brown-defamation-lawsuit-satire/

RESEARCH 1 - What is the most popular local news station in London and why?

WHAT IS THE MOST POPULAR LOCAL NEWS STATION IN LONDON AND WHY? 

There are many radio stations that are popular to in London, but account to different people such as Capital FM or KISS. From looking at the statistics it shows that BBC Radio 4 is the most listened to radio station in London.

Majority of people enjoy this radio station because they the radio is open to different topics this includes news, drama, comedy, history and offers daily advice. The use of having this range of topics shows how it is able to appeal to everyone and yet still is able to give vital information about topics that need to be seen or heard so that everyone is aware. Another reason why this radio station is popular is because it isn’t based on one matter, otherwise the radio station subject would last for too long and listeners would get bored, hence why they include a variety so that the audience do not get tired of listening to the same thing. For instance the use of comedy in the radio cast is good because, that allows the listeners to have a break from all the seriousness of the news and have a laugh with the presenters. Without the use of all these topics it would be hard for all those 2,841,000 listeners to tune in, because they might feel that the station is quite tedious and needs something to lighten the mood, which it does.

Overall, what have I learnt from this research? I have learnt what is needed for a radio station to be successful and what they need for listeners to be interested in their stories. I have also learnt about what factors the audience like in a radio station, and how it can benefit them. For example by the radio stations talking about the news they are always updated on current affairs and what is happening around the world, while they’re on the go. Furthermore, in the future I believe that this radio station will keep on improving and more listeners will start to tune in because the radio enables listeners to acknowledge more whether they are in a car or just simply walking, and that the station will start to find more ways of keeping their audience even happier.

Lastly, from looking at how successful BBC Radio 4 is, I can use they’re ways of keeping an audience interested in my own newscast, and I am inspired to use they’re methods in my own station because that way I will know for sure what is appealing and what isn’t.