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Emotion and Broadcasting Journalism

Introduction

Ethics of Journalism

Journalism cannot be separated from emotions. One way or the other, emotions will find a way into reporting and create controversy. It is not entirely unacceptable to say emotions should never be a part of journalism. Journalists and reports are humans too. As long as there are humans, emotions and feeling will also exist. There can be situations where emotions can get the best of a journalist. In a war torn region, let say, reporters can sometimes feel the rush of feelings and present a biased report ignoring the aspect of neutrality. There are some guidelines that have been drawn for journalists that can help in minimizing the influence of emotions (Ward, p.1).

Journalists should use emotions in a balanced manner and not be biased. This requires the reporter to keep the analysis as far away from sentiments as possible. This would help the reporter is gaining and presenting an accurate idea of the event being reported (Clifford et. al, p. 41). Feelings can also take the light away from the truth. It is necessary to understand how the audience would interpret the incident if there is too much emotion attached to it. The audience should be given hardcore facts of how the incident occurred and how it would affect their lives. We have frequently witnessed some anchors use emotions to be in the spotlight. Journalists should refrain from such publicity-seeking events. The focus of attention should be on the event rather than the person reporting. Engaging in stunts such as to gain publicity and hyping events and incidents can only result in imprecise news reaching the audience (Ward, p.1).

Emotions in Journalism

With the advent of 24-hour news channels, journalism and reporting has taken an entirely different form. Reporting was considered a one-dimensional job. A person only had to convey news through radio or television. The internet's dawn as a source of information has given journalism an outlet from which it can reach a larger audience (Cooper & Thomas, p. 75). Realizing the audiences' need of more information, T.V and radio channels started to provide up to date news every hour. Hourly news meant people would be kept abreast of the latest development. Breaking news is a must-have for every news channel. Channels such as Fox and NBC have also introduced the 'ticker' to provide more information to viewers (Robertson, p.1).

The overload of information meant viewers would ignore routine news and block out the ones they didn't find interesting or intriguing. News channels have been sharp enough to detect public behavior. The blockage of news had to be tackled in some way. One way would be to filter news depending on what a certain segment of viewers would want to know. The other was emotion. Emotion is something that every individual possesses. This could enable the viewers to feel what the situation is. It could also make that feel the joy, agony and pain of the people that are affected by an incident. The idea of ...