Our Ethical Responsibility to Anticipate Context and Identify Issues Continued

Identifying issues: Media scanning also helps identify inappropriate coverage. For example, is there a need to move the needle in terms of the tone? Are the terms being used to cover your organization accurate, or do they inappropriately position your organization? Are there false equivalencies in terms of spokespeople? In these cases, you also have an ethical responsibility to work with the media in order to more accurately convey your news. On one hand, your role is to make sure that the general public is informed. On the other hand, you have a responsibility to your internal and external stakeholders, who are primed to look for news coverage of your organization. Potential donors, investors, customers, employees, and business partners all are interested in reading about your organization’s news. So, it is important to ensure that the organization is being represented in a fair light.

Consequently, I have spoken with many directors of non-profits who consistently explain that one of their most important daily roles is to educate the media on their organization’s cause and services.  For many of these organizations, misinformation can have serious consequences. One social advocacy organization provided a good example. They were in the midst of campaigning for a statewide bill expanding non-discrimination employment protections that had a good chance to become law. The major media outlet covering the campaign, however, reported the wrong bill number. As a result, thousands of people wrote and called their representative to vote for a different bill. The bill for which this organization was campaigning failed; legislators argued that they did not see or hear any public support for it, so they therefore did not vote for it.