Ethics and Technology

Technology. Without it, our lives would be completely different. Technology impacts me, a lazy college student, starting at the very beginning of my day. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is go to weather.com to see how cold it is outside. Then I check my e-mail before logging into Facebook (of course) to see how many people poked me the night before.

So, how does technology impact our ability to be ethical journalists?

Technology can be very helpful. Trying to find a source? Where do I go? The Internet. Fact-checking? The first place I go is the Internet. For journalists, technology makes things faster.

Technology has also enhanced how people get their news. When I want to know more about breaking news, I turn on the television and head straight to my news Web site of choice. News Web sites have changed drastically in the last few years. Newspaper Web sites are no longer only regurgitating what their print editions say. Now we see up-to-the-minute news and more in-depth coverage that might not have had space in print. In addition, more and more news sites are including other forms of journalism just as video and audio clips as well as interactive graphics.

Technology can also have a negative impact. While Internet is great from getting information on the spot, sometimes this information isn't so trust-worthy. When I first heard about Anna Nicole Smith dying, I went straight to Google News to see what had happened. One site said she died at the hospital after overdosing on sleeping pills. Another site said she was found died in her hotel and insinuated that she had died because of her use of TrimSpa.

This example is just one way technology has failed us, as journalists. People are so eager to be the first to break a story that lines are blurred and fact-checking is compromised.

Technology can have a positive impact on our ability to be ethical journalists if we are smart about how we use it. If we get lazy or too eager, technology can hurt our ethics, too.