When it comes to the Media, there’s no doubt that there’s a percentage of control over what we see and how that may affect us, but as years go on it’s shown that ethics are slowly becoming less and less of a priority in said media. With more and more news outlets showing us simply what they believe will get them clicks and what would save face, where does that leave ethics? Should the government crack down on such antics? That’s what we learned during class this week.

When reading the chapter for this week, looking specifically at 14.3 when talking about News and the Media, we see the chapter goes on to speak about the push for distribution rather than getting the information first. “Newsrooms are asking their staffs to focus on producing first accounts more quickly to feed multiple platforms. This often means that more resources go into distributing information than gathering it”

This goes onto be another point within the chapter, explaining that there is much more intrusive behavior within Newsrooms, publications, and editorial rooms. With outlets being so focused within the realm of being the first to report a story, there’s little to no room for those being reported on. Not only this but this also leads into the topic of human error. With the speeds of which reporters and editors are pushing News stories to get the first interactions of their, and other, viewers there’s no telling what information they could get incorrect in that window of time.

For example. One of the more recent celebrity tragedies, that being the passing of Kobe Bryant and his daughter in a helicopter crash, was miss-informed on ABC News. Not only affecting the intake of information of the viewer, but ultimately impacting the lives of the Bryant family.

Today I inaccurately reported it was believed that four of Kobe Bryant’s children were on board that flight. That is incorrect. I apologize to Kobe’s family, friends and our viewers. pic.twitter.com/yYwuB9vpZl

— Matt Gutman (@mattgutmanABC) January 27, 2020

Letting such a large issue of a family, no matter how famous, get so skewed simply because a news outlet wanted to be the first to report on it is simply irresponsible and negligent to the victims involved. Another example of this being of the same story but of another news station. Becoming somewhat of a domino effect all because of “time restraints”.

Can you imagine just how the mother of Kobe’s daughter’s must have felt if her daughters weren’t immediately by her side to disprove that news story? What of all the local news stations covering the same story? Should they be held responsible for their actions on this family even IF they’re news stations? Personally, i believe so.