Each of us is individual. We have our views, opinions and interests.
Statement -Act Independently and following this statement in life shows the abilities we have, emphasizes our values and responsibility to ourselves and to the society we serve or belong to. It is the best way of dealing with each field: education, business, or media.
One should be free of any private interest while serving society.

In majority cases professional independence is the guarantee of success.
Main reason I am going to comment on this issue, “Act Independently,” is the article “ABC Says It Was Outbid for Paris Hilton Interview”. The article covers issue on bidding for the interview, published at NYTimes.
I have no right and competence to discuss and evaluate this case, but the media response to this event is worth of paying attention.

New technology development and globalization made its effects nearly in each field. One of them is media. Competition is high; news values are different for different media sources. But for those who will read the article, it is clear that the main issue is that media should serve publics interest and should not pay for news. We have wide choice. There are events that need to be highlighted and one never needs to pay fot an interview.

But in this highly competitive world media sources compete and struggle for the exclusive interviews to enlarge the audience and have guaranteed advertisers that are the main sources of media profitability.

Regardless of the fact, not each way of dealing with problem is acceptable. Society of professional Journalists introduces code of ethics that you can find and read at SPJ.

Code of ethics says unambiguously that journalist should be free of any interest other than the publics right to know. The list provided in these codes of ethics emphasizes that journalist should be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; and should avoid bidding for news. That says what is the decision that should be made.

Nowadays when media became one of the important businesses in the world that serves society and not only, it is hard to say whether the news provided by the media channel comes out of the public interest or private. It is difficult to control. As far as each of us is individual by nature one needs to be highly professional to serve the society. Media is special field and needs special attitude to the work, it should be treat as seriously as possible.

Still the myth of media objectivity is under doubt. There is no person without subjective attitude towards an issue. There is no difference whether the issue is highlighted for media or not, individuals are subjective. Media should provide us with the information and with comments of professional experts on the event. That is the best way of covering issue.

Media should not only provide with the news but also educate society that is the main destination of it.

Today, media is in crisis especially in developing countries, there is no production of new programs, space is mostly filled with news that cover the same news several times during a day. It is called recycling. One can ask “What about CNN?” The answer is simple. CNN’s format is news oriented. It does not have borders and covers the world news not only local.

As for the developing and small countries there is no possibility to do that, no qualified staff, no such number of news as CNN has, and no so much money to provide this service to the society.

There is no ideal thing in the world but the best way to improve the quality of any product is using the system of benchmarking.
Best practices need special treatment. Even the best practice in one country might not be suitable for the other but researches and situation analysis will give professionals ability to make best choice.
The best phrase one can say at the end of the article is that: “Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.”

This post has been featured on www.mediapathblog.com