Publishing research, not just in the media but any type of research has to be ethically valid.
When examining the ethically validity of a piece of research there are several factors that have to be considered. For example, were the people involved deceived in any way about what data was being collected from them and were they aware of the reasons as to why this data was being collected?
In general research is considered ethically valid if full consent was gained from the person; this means that they agreed to taking part and giving over certain information, also that they were in a state to give full consent. A child or a person with mental health issues would not be considered to be in a state to give full consent as they would not be aware of what they were consenting to.
Also research should only be considered ethical if the people involved were not affected by the research. For example in any study the experimenter should ensure that the people involved leave the study in the exact same state as to which they entered it. If the participants are in anyway psychologically or physically harmed then the research would be considered unethical.
As mentioned earlier a way in which research is sometimes carried out is by deceiving the people involved which is considered unethical, however there are ways in which deception can be used and if the people involved are debriefed after then it can be ok.
In terms of publishing research it can only be considered ethical if all the above issues have been covered. When discussing if it is ethical to publish research all these points should be taken into consideration. In any type of research publication, whether it is by a journalist or a scientist. Ethics is very important and if at any point the people involved want their data or information to be withdrawn from the publication then they have a right for this to happen. This is called the “right to withdraw” which all participants in any type of research are entitled to.
So when considering how ethical it is to publish something, the real question should be.. how ethical was the research that is being published??
well sometimes it cannot be ethical because the journalists are undercover. take the example of the pakistani spot fixing this summer during the cricket series where the news of the world reporter posed as a potential buyer to extract the information. although what they were doing was illegal it was still an unethical way of gathering information
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Ross, but many of the ways that journalists need to get their information is unethical, otherwise they would have no chance in finding out what is really going on behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteWe have focused a large amount of our time looking at the information published in newspapers and magazine, but TV is also a way for information to be published but in a more media. There are many TV shows that show information being gathered unethical such as the shows on channel 4 when someone is undercover to get the all the information that is needed