By Gowher Bhat

Journalism is about truth. Or it should be. Get the facts. Report them. That’s the job. Always has been.

But now? Anyone with a phone can be a journalist. They film. They write. They post. No training. No rules. No one to check if they got it right. They call it news. But is it?

The Role of Ethics in Journalism

Journalism runs on ethics. Accuracy. Fairness. Accountability. A real journalist checks sources. Cross-checks facts. If they get something wrong, they fix it. That’s the system. It keeps things straight.

Without ethics, news is just noise. It becomes opinion disguised as fact. It bends to emotion. A professional journalist knows better. They don’t take sides. They don’t shape stories to fit their beliefs. They report facts. But social media doesn’t work like that. It rewards what gets attention. What gets shared. And what gets shared isn’t always the truth.

On social media, a claim is enough. No fact-checking. No second opinion. Just a post, a video, a rumor. It spreads fast. Once it’s out there, it’s truth to some people. Even if it’s not.

A journalist is supposed to be impartial. They aren’t supposed to let bias creep in. But social media reporting is different. People post what they want to believe. They report through their own lens. They highlight what they want. They shape the story. And that’s how things go wrong.

The Danger of Misinformation

Misinformation isn’t just noise. It changes minds. It shifts moods. A half-truth, a rumor, a headline taken the wrong way—it all adds up. People act on it. They believe it. They react. Sometimes, they panic. Sometimes, they get........

© Kashmir Observer