BUILDING TRUST IN MEDIA ORGANISATIONS

Media organisations today are under increasing scrutiny and preserving trust has become a major feature of the business model. The importance of transparent ethical decision-making, adherence to codes of conduct, accuracy in stories and good sources is well to the fore. This course is designed to help organisations build codes of practice and help people cope with ethical problems. After it, writers and broadcasters will be expected to raise the level of accuracy and sourcing and deepen their confidence in being able to spot ethical issues in stories - and know when and how to open discussions with editors and lawyers.

Journalism skills addressed during the course

1. •Accuracy
   

2. •Sourcing
   

3. •News judgment
   

4. •Legal dangers
   

5. •Codes of conduct
   

6. •Privacy
   

7. •Ethics
   

8. •Transparency
   

9. •Blogging.
   

Course Objectives 

After completing the course, participants can expect to be able to:

1. •List common errors in stories
   

2. •Outline reporting skills and editing ideas to improve accuracy
   

3. •Define appropriate sourcing rules
   

4. •Handle rumours and hoaxes with confidence
   

5. •Identify stories that carry an ethical question
   

6. •Make quick, balanced ethical decisions
   

7. •List the provisions of relevant codes of conduct
   

8. •Decide when to refer stories to senior editors and lawyers
   

9. •Publish stories with confidence
   

10. •Reply to criticism in an appropriate manner.
    

Terms explained during the course

Accuracy and checklists, sourcing rules, codes of conduct, media ethics decision making concepts.

Course Outline

In facilitated sessions, course participants review numerous stories and begin to assemble an accuracy checklist to use after the course, and also define required sourcing rules to be applied in their organisation. They will learn how to recognise common errors, avoid them, hunt them down, and cull the number of corrections. They are introduced to relevant codes of conduct and typical ethical problems in media organisations. Learning reviews require participants in facilitated discussions to extract learning points from the output of all writers, to build checklists to avoid legal dangers to use after the course.

Pre-course work

The course requires pre-course reading.