Ethical responsibilities

So it’s pretty cool that AP English is tying in with the Mass Media class. Just the other day in Mrs. Young’s class we looked at a copy of the “Code Of Ethics” and how journalists are suppose to follow it when writing a story. The Code of Ethics simply put means to be honest and find out everything you can before publishing a story. You should seek out the truth, be respectful, and avoid inconsistency with a minimal amount of personal judgment and bias arguments. Now if this ever really happens is questionable. Reporting the whole truth without distortion is a big problem. Either due to bias, making the story more interesting, politics, or any other reason almost all stories are fabricated in some way

I think that an author has ethical responsibilities in using ‘ethos’ and ‘pathos’, but again wither or not they follow this is questionable. As we said in class, to appeal to ‘ethos’ is to have credibility and evidence. But if you look at any story these days, the author will use two sources as evidence from people with very simplistic standpoints. We are getting a false feeling of being informed about what is presented to us, that when we hear things on the news, whether it be relevant or not, we feel informed afterwards. The author tries to get the good side and the bad to appear as though he has credibility. We also said in class that to appeal to ‘pathos’ is to have that emotional appeal. How a story is presented is going to work our emotions. I said this in a response to Allie that, “Whether you are watching on a station such as Fox, which caters to conservative views, or NBC how the stories are presented are going to make you feel different. (Hence the pathos)” I think this is held true with any station.