Loyalty and Journalism

“Journalism is a business, and managers have business responsibilities for keeping budgets and attracting customers” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 51).

Journalism is a business because their paycheck is determined by shareholders.  Shareholders pay CEOs and managers who hire journalists/reporters.  Journalists ultimately have to satisfy their shareholders in order to secure their job from an economic standpoint. Hard to believe but journalists get paid just like any other professional in the world.   Putting the words business and journalism together seems unpleasant and contradictory to most people because journalists constantly stress how their core principles are finding the truth and serving an audience. 

This brings up the question: where do journalists’ loyalties lie?  Does it lie with the business because they’re the ones giving out the Benjamins?  Or does it lie with the citizens who rely on their messages in order to make daily choices? 

From my research, I believe that successful journalists’ first loyalty is to its citizens.  In order for journalism to thrive, it must keep the citizens in mind.  Journalism is a business but it can only survive if their first loyalty is to their citizens and they practice core journalistic principles.  In an article titled “Whom Do Journalists Work For?” Ken Auletta said, “If everyone in journalism, including the folks who sign our checks, truly embraced this assumption [that journalists – or the best public officials – that they are public servants], journalists would build in more checks and balances to our own abuse of power, welcoming more independent ombudsmen.  We would encourage the kind of transparency we demand from government and corporations, and would prominently admit our mistakes.”

 A study was done by the State of the American Newspaper Project in 1998.  The study revealed that 71% of editors employed Management By Objective (MBOs) in their companies.  MBOs are techniques that create newsroom accountability by: setting goals and attaching rewards for achieving them, a company can create a coherent system for both coordinating and monitoring what its executives are doing.  Half of those who practiced MBOs got 20-50% of their income from the programs. 

“The problem is that tying a journalist’s income to his organization’s financial performance in effect changes the journalist’s allegiance.” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 62).  News companies thrive best when they hire managers and journalists who put their audiences first.  When journalists’ first loyalty is to the citizens, it maintains that trust the public needs when they get their daily news.  The Elements of Journalism outlined points that news companies should embrace in order to satisfy shareholders and maintain a trust with its citizens:

1. The owner/corporation must be committed to citizens first.
2. Hire business managers who also put citizens first.
3. Set and communicate clear standards.
4. Journalists have final say over news.
5. Communicate clear standards to the public.

I would like to end this post with this quote.  I found it to be very fitting with the loyalty in journalism discussion.  “Journalism must reestablish the allegiance to citizens that the news industry has mistakenly helped to subvert.  Yet even this, ultimately, will not be enough.  Truth and loyalty to citizens are only the first two steps in making journalism work.  The next step is just as important: the method that journalists use to approach the truth and convey that method to citizens.” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 75).