News Reporting: An Essential Service to Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

News reporting can be considered as one of the essential services in most societies today. It is an important channel through which people can get information, education, entertainment, and insights. Events that unfold in different areas including politics, religion, education, culture, and economy. Cushion (58) elaborates that news has a democratic value to a nation especially during times of war, calamities, and conflicts among many other situations. News helps people to access the information about the things they are concerned about such including but not limited to food, fashion, technology, and automobiles. Without the presence of news reports, the world can be a blind place where many events occur and go unnoticed by the public. Therefore, it is essential to have news reporters working around the clock to feed the public with reliable and authentic information. However, the success of news reporters and researchers is dependent on the freedom of the media and the availability of supporting processes and technologies. Whenever one of these elements is eliminated, it becomes hard for news reporters to work. COVID-19 is one catastrophe that has disrupted many areas of people’s lives including that of news reporters. This essay will look at the different ways in which news reporting has been affected by the existence and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Impact on News Providers

Many news providers have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways. Most news providers rely on revenue collected from conducting business and other forms of adverts. However, COVID-19 has had a sweeping effect on many areas if the economy thus affecting the overall revenue of businesses. As a result, media providers have found it challenging to maintain their recurrent expenditure. According to Kelly, the public demand for news has increased during the pandemic era but news organizations are forced to lay off workers. It turns out that most media outlets are experiencing low revenues that make it impossible to sustain their financial obligations such as paying employees.

Most companies have cut down the number of adverts they make on media citing unsustainable business conditions. This rippling effect has equally dragged down media companies. About 60% to 80% of the revenue earned my news providers comes from running adverts. As businesses lay off their employees, so does the media to maintain a sustainable wage bill during the pandemic. Kelly explains that media companies have left with the option of cost-cutting to remain solvent. Other media houses have considered furloughs, cutbacks, and at times closure of the business. Kelly reports that about 28,000 media employees in the Us have lost their jobs, furloughed, or received a pay cut. About 1,800 newspaper companies in the US have quit operations since 2004 (Kelly). Most of these companies were affected by low returns due to inadequate adverts from various businesses. The same trend is expected to occur during the coronavirus pandemic.

Impact on Access to Sources and Interviews

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a large pool of news that needs to be reported but at the same time limits that access to such information by journalists. Today, many people are glued to various news outlets around the world to get information about the progress of diseases in different countries. One of the most anticipated information revolves around the possibility of discovering a suitable antivirus or cure that will help societies to resume normalcy. At the moment, most governments have taken charge of the entire process of determining the information that is to be delivered to the public. This is done through controlled press conferences with a limited number of participants.

The entire process of accessing information by journalized is characterized by a high risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. The need for physical distancing is a crucial concern at a time when scientists are still trying to study and understand the virus. Some reporters have been forced to work from home after being suspected to have come into contact with infected patients. According to Agence France-Presse, many journalists around the world have succumbed to the deadly virus. About 55 journalists in 23 countries are reported to have died from the virus. Agence France-Presse proceeds to warn that many journalists put their lives at risk as they attempt to access information or interview people.

Access to news sources and interviews is also an expensive process that media houses may find hard to fund during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kelly explains that media houses have found themselves in compromising situations that force them to reduce expenses. Some of the ways of reducing expenditure are through layoffs and salary cuts. Some new providing companies have been forced out of business because of financial challenges. Such an unfortunate turn of events also affects the ability to access news and conducting interviews.

Attribution and Quotes

The problem of attribution and quoting during reporting is one of the major problems likely to arise during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Kelly, news from different publishers can freely be found on google and other social media sites. The availability strategically satisfies the desire of the public to access information. However, one ethical issue is likely to arise from the free content that is available on the internet- attribution and quoting. Some of the information that is free to access on the internet might have been borrowed from other media sites and used without permission or due recognition of the content owners. Such trends are likely to be prevalent at a time when the operational cost of searching for relevant news is proving to be costly for many firms. Well established companies such as The Washington Post and The New York Times are likely to be victims of information piracy during this pandemic.

The UN has warned the public about the existence and implication of fake news during the era of coronavirus. According to, UN News, the lives of people are at risk due to the influence of technology in the dispensation of fake news (During this coronavirus pandemic, ‘fake news’ is putting lives at risk: UNESCO). Amplification of wrong information can significantly mislead the public thus leading to a catastrophe. Therefore, reputable media houses have a responsibility to accurately quote and attribute information to avoid misleading the public. On the other hand, the public still has the challenge of accessing authentic information from unverified sources of media channels on the internet.

Impact on Broadcast Reporting

Viewers in some countries watched the news in disbelief as news anchors and reporters broadcasted from their homes due to the prevalence of coronavirus. The approach by media outlets to allow some of its anchors to work from home is a reflection of a new normal that was necessitated by the upsurge of coronavirus cases across the world. Kamin’s publication in the New York Times reveals that dozens of American anchors working for different media stations had to be on air from their homes. For instance, producers opted to establish a temporary studio in the basement of a news anchor, Ms. Guthrie. The decision to air from Guthrie’s home was arrived at after the anchor exhibited some of the coronavirus signs that included cold. Since working from home was intended to reduce contact with other persons, only Guthrie’s husband could help her. Therefore, this anchor took the entire responsibility of printing her scripts, make up her appearance, and utilize her journalism experience to ensure that her content was of the expected standards.

News anchors around the world have been forced to adopt creative strategies to ensure that their content is on air. For instance, the presence of online streaming technology has been used to conduct interviews with who on normal occasions had to be physically present in studios. All these efforts are intended to reduce human contact and the possible spread of coronavirus.

Ethics and Code of Conduct

Journalists and media companies are expected to uphold high ethical standards during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Kojah, journalists around the world are urged to understand a variety of ways of confronting ethical consideration while on duty to guarantee a fair, balanced, and accurate reporting. One of the sensitive areas that demand ethical consideration is breaking the news of death. It is fundamental for journalists to conduct adequate background checks on the people who have succumbed to COVID-19 and the statuses of their families. For instance, it is unethical to break the news of the death of a public figure before informing the immediate family of the deceased.

Verifying data is another important ethical concern that journalists must adhere to. A reporter must have reliable information about the causes of death before revealing it to the public. It will be immoral to conclude and report that a person has succumbed to COVID-19 without taking the initiative to confirm such news. Kojah explains that sources of data may have been tampered with thus affecting authenticity and accuracy. Therefore, there is a need to thoroughly verify all information before it is published.

Koja insists on the need for journalists to respect the confidentiality of sources while reporting about the COVID-19 diseases. Journalists often rely on different sources to provide information that is eventually published as news. In the case of COVID-19, most of the valuable information is expected to originate from the front liners. Some of the information from such sources can be extremely sensitive. Therefore, any journalist report of similar matters must seek consent from the information provider before sharing their real identities. Unless this is done, whistleblowers can easily lose their lives or livelihoods in case their identities are exposed to insensitive news.

Impact on Health Journalism

Journalists have a vital role in the dissemination of health information to the public. Therefore, the position calls for the need to ensure that the information published about coronavirus is true and reliable. The issue of fake news has already been raised in an article published by UN News (During this coronavirus pandemic, ‘fake news’ is putting lives at risk: UNESCO). The UN is concerned that misleading health information is likely to affect public response hence exposing many people to the pandemic. One of the major threats to health journalism is the increased number of unverified news platforms on the internet that are not guided by media ethics. Such publications are capable of posting false information about the virus that can mislead the public.

The fundamental goal of health journalism during this pandemic is to provide correct information, educate the public, and sensitize medically approved approaches. To achieve this goal, health journalists have a mandate of ascertaining all their sources of information. Some of the reliable sources include certified healthcare professionals including epidemiologists, federal and state health departments, and non-governmental organizations that specialize in health such as the World Health Organization (WHO). The actions by some of the news anchors to work from home is an excellent example to the public on social behavior during the pandemic.

In conclusion, COVID-19 has impacted journalism and the media industry in various ways. News providers have been financially affected following a sharp drop in the number of adverts and resulting revenues. Most media companies have opted for cost-cutting measures to remain operational. Access to information and broadcast reporting have been hampered by the n...