Media Ethics and Public Journalism

As we know till 20^th century, traditional journalism was more passive than active. Publics were supposed to consume news through various outlets made available to them via media houses like newspapers, magazines, radio and so on. There was very little participation on part of us, the publics. But with the rise of digitally networked technologies in 21^st century such as the Internet and mobile phones is reshaping reporting across the continent. Public journalism, also called civic journalism, has been drawing the attention of media people in India since several articles reviewing the topic were published Public journalism is not only a way of reporting but also a way of thinking, a philosophy regarding democracy and the relationship between media and democracy. It says that journalism is an indispensable element in the process of democracy, and that journalism must help publics participate in the process to solve problems facing their communities. Public journalism movement is most interesting in the sense that it causes us to reflect on the meaning of freedom of expression, because the movement suggests that freedom of expression is not a negative freedom, which means that no regulations are imposed on expression, but a positive freedom in which people are free to participate in the decision-making process of their communities. Public journalism, or participatory journalism as it is alternately labeled, is the act of a public or group of publics involved in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and other forms of information. Instantly they are also criticized by careerjournalists due to lack of their training and orientation toward the standards, ethics, norms, and practices of professional journalism. This leads journalists to say that public journalists don't uphold the traditional journalistic value of objectivity when working on a specific subject and only professionallytrained journalists can understand the ethics required of news editors and reporters. This paper analyzes the ethical issues involved in public journalism as it overlaps with many ethical concepts of Journalism and mode of operations.