The document discusses the guidelines and rules established by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for ethical reporting. The NUJ created guidelines to address misrepresentations of certain groups and ensure factual, unbiased reporting. The guidelines cover sensitive topics like terrorism, race, and disability and establish 12 rules for journalists regarding issues like privacy, accuracy, discrimination, and conflicts of interest. Journalists must consider how their writing may be interpreted by different audiences and avoid offensive language or generalizations.

1. Task 10
Emily Monsey

2. Social & Cultural Awareness
It is common for journalists to write about large groups of people and categorize these people to their readers to give them
information, regardless of whether they have first hand experience or not or know anything about these people. To the
readers that haven’t had any prior experience or knowledge of the people the journalist is referring to can end up with an
opinion that is purely from the article they have read due to the influence some writers have on their readers. Due to this,
journalists have to ensure that their writing is appropriate and follows the guidelines in which they have to follow to avoid
offence or controversy. Their writing must not include any biased opinions that could potentially cause upset and they also
have to present the people they are talking about in an honest and helpful way rather than only including their own opinions
and most likely offending people. The national union of journalists created their own guidelines as a result of a lot of
misrepresentation of certain groups, and in order to stop this from happening they have made a set of rules and ways of
writing about these people or topics. If a journalist was to write an entire article using their own opinions with no factual
evidence to back it up, it would result in many complaints and also risk of upset from the readers. Due to the massive
amount of following some of the newspapers and magazines have, it is even more essential for the journalists to ensure they
aren’t creating an article that could easily sway someones opinion on something that could be easily offensive or untrue in
any way. In news reporting this is even more crucial due to the large and viewership that news programmes can have, this
means that all of the news has to be factual and in some cases not all information can be revealed, such as with crime
investigations many of the suspects or victims cannot be named due to law reasons and this is essential that journalists
respect this and stick to the guidelines that they have been given.

3. NUJ- The National Union of
Journalists
The National Union of Journalists are a group that support journalists and their writing by use of guidelines and rules set by
them which can help journalists when writing and other areas of their job if they are uncomfortable writing about a
particular topic for example. The NUJ are also the reason that journalists stick to writing factually as they created a set of
rules that journalists must abide by if they are a part of this union. The guidelines were created as a result of many disputes
of news not being factual and honest, and these guidelines now mean that all news is appropriate and suitable with the
correct language and way of explaining things without creating offence for their readers or listeners. Without use of the
NUJ journalists can struggle with their writing which can lead to writing about something in an inappropriate way and can
then result to damaging the publication the writer works for. The NUJ created guidelines for the reporting of; Terrorism,
Race, Asylum or Immigration, HIV, Age, Disability and Suicide.
As all of these topics or subject areas could quite easily cause offence or controversy the union set up rules and guidelines
that journalists should follow when discussing them. They basically help to explain a story or situation in a way that can be
seen as useful and informative to whoever is reading/watching or listening which can also help to avoid potential lawsuits
as many cases have resorted to this regarding improper language or biased opinions being used in articles.
Do to the journalists being responsible for what they are writing and also the newspaper or magazines being in jeopardy if
anything was to be released that caused offence/controversy the NUJ also supply a hotline for the journalists part of the
union so if they are reporting on anything that could be seen as difficult to talk about in a respectful and unbiased way they
are then able to ask people working for the union to ensure their writing is appropriate and suitable for the subject avoiding
them being the cause of any upset. The NUJ code also includes a ‘conscience clause’ which basically means that if a
journalist has been given something to report on and they personally feel they can’t for any number of reasons or maybe
just don’t feel it’s something they believe in or support they can refuse to write about it to the editor or whoever has asked
them. So anything that is in breach of the code means the journalist can be free to not write the article if they are a member
of the union and feel it is inappropriate. If the journalist then does decide to not write it, they will then have the support of
the union, as long as it is in breach of the code set by the NUJ. The union also has a code of practice, in which journalists
follow and governs the way that they should work. The members of the union are expected to follow these 12 rules when
writing which are;

4. 1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the
public to be informed.
2. Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.
3. Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies.
4. Differentiates between fact and opinion.
5. Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both
overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means.
6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the
public interest.
7. Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work.
8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal
advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge.
9. Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed,
legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.
10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for
the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed.
11. A journalist shall normally seek the consent of an appropriate adult when interviewing or photographing a child for a story
about her/his welfare.
12. Avoids plagiarism.

5. Connotation
Connotations are something that are created by use of a word, they are things that people can think or feel when hearing or
reading a specific word. Due to this journalists have to be very careful about what kind of words they use when describing
or talking about something, as the connotations created by the words can instantly categorize or stereotype without the
journalist even directly doing so or meaning to.
For example; If someone used the word ‘bird’ or ‘chick’ or ‘babe’ when referring to a woman this has many negative
connotations that could be seen as offensive to a woman if this was used in an informal chatty magazine as this would be
the most common place to see these kind of words. These words have connotations of ‘unclassy’ or a woman thought of as
an object or animal rather than a person. However this kind of language would be very unlikely used in a magazine now a
days. On the other hand words such as ‘old’ or ‘crippled’ can still be used and definitely carry many negative connotations.
The word ‘old’ can connote being ill or unfit or even frail which can obviously easily offend many people. Also using
words such as crippled instead of disabled or any other more appropriate choices will definitely cause controversy if used in
a news report or article due to the negative connotations the word has.
As a journalist it can be very hard when trying to phrase something or explain something in a non-offensive way whilst still
informing their readers of truthful information that is going to be helpful and informative to them, so thinking of possible
connotations when writing can avoid upset or complaints from their readers. This basically just means that the writer can
then come up with more appropriate words or phrases to use in their writing and means that they are still informing their
audience in an appropriate way.

6. Alternative Readings
Journalists have to write their articles with an audience in mind due to the target audience of the magazine they are writing
for as the majority of the people reading the article will be regular readers and will fit the target the magazine aims for.
However the journalist also has to consider other potential readers that possibly wouldn’t usually read it and has to write it
in a way that is going to generally be fit for anyone that could read it, meaning no offensive terms or words can be used
along with no biased opinions and generalisations that could offend the people that don’t usually read it as even though
their usual target audience may not find any offence and actually really enjoy the article, other people could have a
completely different perspective of the journalists work and find it offensive and inappropriate which then causes
controversy which typically isn’t something a publication wants, especially if it is portraying them negatively.
Minority groups, victims of crime and subcultures for example could read an article and find it extremely offensive and see
it in a completely different way to what the target audience does. This can cause many problems for both the writer and the
publication in which the article is shown, as it all depends on each individual persons interpretations, opinions and
experiences. This could happen for example if a journalist tries to write a story about something they aren’t experience with
themselves, but writes it anyway with their audience in mind but then offending someone who has actually experienced it
and knows what it’s actually like. This kind of situation can happen very easily due to the large amount of people that read
some of the magazines and newspapers out there as the journalist has no real idea of what type of people could pick up the
magazine/newspaper and read their article excluding the general target audience they usually write their stories for.
For example, a journalist could write about a specific crime, with no personal experience on what it feels like to have it
happen to them and then offend a victim of a crime. Even if the article doesn’t purposefully show offence and hasn’t been
written with the aim to cause upset. This basically just means that if a journalist is writing about something they constantly
have to consider other people as well as their main target audience as anyone could read it. Journalists can then write an
article that is both suited to what their audience likes to read and also be done in a way that could be entertaining for other
people also.