Being an Ethical Journalist

Let's apply our critical thinking skills to the sources required for a different news scenario. Say you plan to report on the local homeless population. You interview the director of a local homeless shelter. Will that single source produce an informative story?

While the shelter director will know something about the area homeless, he or she will bring a limited perspective to our story. By choosing to interview only the shelter director we ignore a source with perhaps the most direct connection to the issue: the homeless themselves. Furthermore, our director might have an agenda for speaking with a reporter. Can you figure out a possible agenda the shelter director might be looking to advance?

Because the shelter depends on private donations and government allocations, the director might be tempted to inflate the scope of the local homeless problem to secure even more funding. Conversely, she might be tempted to downplay the problem and play up her shelter's effectiveness to look good in the press and ensure consistent funding based on past performance.

Interviewing just one person for our homelessness story will limit its value to the public when they try to make decisions about the issue. Who else should you interview? Why would they be credible sources?

• We'd certainly want to talk to people who are currently homeless.
• We'd also want to interview those who were homeless to discover how they were able to overcome the problem.We'd also want to interview workers or volunteers at the shelter, who might not have the same financial incentives as the director.
• Since members of the clergy, police officers, firefighters, EMTs and emergency room workers might also encounter the homeless, they would be good sources.
• We might interview officials of the town and people who live or work in neighborhoods where the homeless can be found.
• By no means is that an exhaustive list. You might have come up with some other great ideas for sources on this story.

Single-source stories do not serve the public interest because they fail to provide people with a complete picture. The public cannot hope to make an informed decision about an important issue when they don’t have all the facts.