Friday, January 20, 2012

Principle of Journalism: It Must Provide a Forum for Public Criticism and Compromise.

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel wrote a book called The Elements of Journalism in which they outlined the principles of journalism. One of the principles they offered was "the news media are the common carriers of public discussion."

Not sure the above video is what they had in mind.

A reporter doing a live shot warned people to be careful as the icy conditions on a hill where people were sledding had become worse. Apparently, the police evacuated the hill, stopping people from sledding there. So one of the sledders shared her thoughts during the live shot.

Did the reporter over-step her role? Or is the sledder over-reacting?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The reporter was doing her job. She was reporting the news. The reporter had said in her initial reporting statement that she was not trying to be a killjoy. She was reporting how dangerous the conditions were becoming. She was concerned for the people’s safety. No matter how long they have been sledding down that hill, it is dangerous to be doing it, because it is not a designated spot to sled down on. For sledders to be sledding down that hill for ten years, there has to be reports of sledders getting seriously hurt doing the ten years span. Also, it appears to be a very dangerous thing to do. From the looks of things, the hill was on a decline, which took the sledders right into on coming traffic. I only wished the reporter had some information on how many casualties had happened while sledding down that hill. People get sever injuries from skiing and sledding at those ski lodges every year and those ski lodges are designated for skiing and sledding. When you go on a hill that is not designed or designated for skiing or sledding you take a big risk of getting seriously hurt. The reporter did not overstep her boundaries; the young women did when she interrupted the reporter from doing her job.

Sakina B.