What are the 9 Principles of Journalism?
Find out what are the 9 journalistic principles and how are they important for a career in journalism.
What are the 9 Principles of Journalism?
What are the 9 Principles of Journalism - Journalism is considered the fourth pillar of democracy. Time and again, it has played a pivotal role in ensuring that the truth is kept in front of the audience, and it has ensured that people talk facts and fake news is busted. To ensure credibility, responsibility and ethics in journalism, people in the profession are guided by broadly 9 principles. In this article, we will list these 9 principles of journalism that will help students who aspire to build a career in journalism to do their jobs in the best way possible. Let's get into it.
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- What are the 9 Principles of Journalism?
- Why Are These Principles Important?
- Bottomline
What are the 9 Principles of Journalism?
The 9 principles of journalism are like the 9 rules that journalists must follow to ensure that their news reporting is true to the core. These principles ensure that the audiences are provided with accurate, timely, and reliable information essential for informed decision-making. This decision-making ability will collectively make the nation aware and contribute towards efficient nation-building. These 9 principles of journalism are -
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Truth: The first and foremost principle of journalism is truth and maintaining accuracy. The mere objective of picking the newspaper in the morning or tuning in to the news channel at dinner is to know the truth. What if you are being served fact-less news which is false and baseless? The first job of Journalists is to report the truth by verifying the information from multiple sources and ensuring accuracy in their reporting.
It is a bit tough to crack the FTII JET exam because FTII is the premier film making school in India and aspirants from all over India apply for this coveted exam making the competition a bit tough. To pass through the competition candidates will have to make a proper exam strategy and allot equal time to covering the whole syllabus, solving the question papers and leave good time for revision. In the FTII JET exam students will be judged on their intellectual skills, general studies, English, general knowledge and the prescribed syllabus.
Aspirants should start preparing for the examination at least four months before the test date. XIC Entrance Test (XET) preparation requires long-term planning thus one must start early. While preparing for the entrance test, aspirants must focus on memorising current events and solving reasoning and problem solving questions.
Freedom: A paid journalist is just an actor who is reading a script given to him by his masters. Journalists must remain free from outside influence, whether from corporations, advertisers, governments, or their special interests while reporting the news. They must maintain their independence to report and hold power to account, safeguarding the public interest.
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Fairness: While reporting, journalists must present all sides of the story, they must provide a balanced approach and share an impartial view to the audience by ensuring fairness in their news reporting.
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Human Aspect: Journalists must respect the dignity, privacy, and sensitivity of individuals involved in their news stories. They must hide the faces of minors, and female victims, must not name them openly, and hide their true identities to ensure protection. They must exercise empathy and compassion and avoid sensationalism or exploitation of human suffering.
Accountability: There's room for human errors in every profession. In case of such errors, journalists must hold themselves accountable, acknowledge the errors and correct them promptly.
Transparency: Many journalists work on simple payroll but earn big amounts from corporates, politicians, or PR agencies to report fabricated news, and build propaganda. Hence true journalists must disclose their affiliations, conflicts of interest, and sources of funding to maintain transparency and avoid conflicts of interest. This transparency enhances credibility and allows audiences to assess the integrity of journalistic content.
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Full Control to Editors: The job of an editor in a news organization is of utmost importance. All news stories go through their lens and their decisions should be free from external interference, allowing them to prioritize news based on its significance and relevance to the public interest. They must safeguard journalistic integrity and ensure the prioritization of truth over commercial or political interests.
In Public Interest: An additional job of Journalists is to ensure that they take cognizant of public interest. Such as what are the government schemes that can benefit students, farmers, or different segments of the audience. They must create detailed reports on matters involving public interest and prioritize stories that have significant social, economic, or political implications, regardless of their popularity or commercial appeal.
Ethical Considerations: Journalists must adhere to the code of journalism ethics that governs their professional conduct. This code of ethics includes guidelines on accuracy, fairness, privacy, and conflicts of interest. They must uphold the ethical standards for preserving the credibility and integrity of journalism.
Why Are These Principles Important?
The importance of the above-mentioned principles is important in the following ways.
Upholding Democracy: The first and foremost importance of these principles is to preserve the essence of democracy. Journalism plays a vital role in holding power to account and ensuring transparency in governance, safeguarding the democratic process.
Building Trust: The 9 principles mentioned above of journalism are responsible for upholding principles such as truth, accuracy, and transparency which fosters trust between journalists and their audience, which is indeed essential for the credibility of media organizations.
Apart from the above the 9 principles of journalism are important as they inform Public Discourse by presenting diverse perspectives and accurate information, they protect vulnerable communities by prioritizing the dignity and privacy of individuals, preventing harm and exploitation, particularly of marginalized or vulnerable communities. It promoted accountability and fostered a culture of transparency in society.
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Bottomline
Adhering to ethical standards ensures that journalists uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity, fostering trust and credibility in the profession. These journalism principles encompass a set of professional standards and guidelines that journalists must adhere to while reporting. It will ensure that accuracy, fairness, integrity, independence, and accountability are a part of their news reporting which will indeed build the trust of the audience in journalism which seems to be lost these days.
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Before preparing for the Global Media Common Entrance Test (GMCET) candidates must know that the GMCET is easy to crack. The difficulty level of the question paper is easy to moderate level so they need to just clear the basics and not stress too much about the preparation and the resources as candidates can easily find various resources to prepare from, there are books, e-books, various educational portals, YouTube channels, and more through which they can prepare. Candidates can also rely on newspapers, current affairs magazines, and general awareness books to prepare for the GMCET examination.