Listen Here
By Amy Rogan, Rogan@Findlay.edu
Every year, I spend some time going through the past year’s work of our student journalists to make submissions to the Ohio News Media Association for award consideration.
Every year, I look at the list of stories we’ve covered and find myself impressed and proud. Some years we have a lot of content to submit for consideration, sometimes we have less content but maybe more powerful work to submit.
As I looked over the stories we did in 2024, I see stories about the presidential election in the fall, the U.S. Ohio Senate GOP forum we hosted in February, and other special events like the Solar Eclipse in April. We wrote about the ups and downs of our athletic seasons, stories about physical and mental health care on campus, dining options, feature stories on some of our awesome students, highlights on specialty classes offered at UF, and of course the announcement of UF’s proposed merger with Bluffton University. And there has been so much more in our digital pages this year.
This week you’ll find a column from the Pulse student managing editor, Kendall Westgate, about Student Press Freedom Day. It’s a topic so important that I wanted to lend my voice as well.
In the current climate of our country, the need to recognize press freedom has never been more important. This is not a political statement. The new administration is adjusting the White House press pool to include new media. That is a good consideration as our industry evolves and grows. There is a lot of new media out there and new ways to reach a larger audience. But we must maintain the original code of ethics that journalists operate by. And I mean real, professionally trained journalists. Those operating on the outer edges of “journalism” may not completely understand or be committed to thorough, unbiased reporting. Let’s face it, it is rare to find ethically-based journalism these days. (I strongly urge you to watch the 6:30 p.m. national newscasts by the big three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. This will show you what true unbiased journalism looks like.)
The Society of Professional Journalists’ preamble to its code of ethics states: “Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity. The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.”
Those four principles are: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, be accountable and transparent.
All of this is a simplification of much bigger and broader issues involving infotainment, misinformation, disinformation, and media literacy. These are topics that are hot topics in the world of news media today and require way more discussion than I can offer here.
But I will say this: journalism is crucial to a functioning democracy. And the audience must be there for it to truly work. History shows us if an authoritarian government wanted to dismantle the pillars of democracy, then journalists become their first targets.
There’s a reason the First Amendment is the first amendment; free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to peaceful protest, and the right to petition the government are the ways the people are guaranteed to have a say in government.
It’s important we teach all of our students the importance of all of those freedoms, their priceless value, and the cost to protect them.
Real journalists may not always report the news you like, but it’s our goal to report the news you need. I’m proud of our student journalists and their efforts to deliver the news you need and the news that educates, informs, and draws us closer as a community.
