BREACH OF MEDIA ETHICS AND THE 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

BREACH OF MEDIA ETHICS AND THE 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Introduction

Ethics of journalism compel journalists and media houses to be objective, accurate and fairness in their reportage. Also, during electioneering processes all political parties need to be given equal attention and publicity without any tone of fear or favour. This is a cardinal principle that guides the operation of journalism world over.

Tuchman (1978:2) cited in Kate, A. O. and Majority, O. (2013) describes objectivity as `facility’ (a mechanism which allows the journalists to hide even from themselves the `constructed’ and `partial’ nature of their stories). This view seems to have garnered force as increasingly, scholars suggest that news even when professionally `selected’ is guided more by organizational needs than by professionalism.

In 2015 Presidential Election, the core ethical standards of journalism were eroded and traded in exchange for political benefits from concern political parties by some media organizations. Although, some serious minded media organization adhered strictly to the ethical principles of their profession in the face of growing abuse of journalistic etiquette.

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It is against this backdrop, that the research examines media ethics as it was demonstrated among the media organisations in the 2015 Presidential Election with a particular focus on AIT and NBC code of conducts with a view to finding out the degree of ethical application by the broadcast media houses in terms of their reportage and the extent at which AIT and some broadcast media have violated the code.

BREACH OF MEDIA ETHICS AND THE 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION