Ethical Principles of Journalism: Content Analysis of the Covers of Most Read Daily Newspaper in Croatia

Abstract

The subject of this research is the ethical dimension of the print media. In an effort to attract as many readers, editors of daily newspapers often use any means available. We are witnessing the phenomenon of sensationalism, distortion, manipulation. Such deviations in journalism distort perception and leave no space for critical and independent judgment of the surrounding society. The main aim of the research is to determine the ethical controversies on the front pages of the most read daily newspapers – Ve?ernji list, Jutarnji list and 24sata. 1053 headlines from the mentioned newspapers were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The survey included the following categories: false reporting, unbalanced reporting, unbiased reporting, absence of social responsibility of the media, manipulation of the readers, news selection, violation of rights to privacy, violation of the criteria of decency, obscenity and bad taste. The research results confirmed that the analyzed newspaper covers violate ethical and professional principles of journalism. Slightly more than 5% of the headlines published on the front pages of all these newspapers contained information whose truthfulness was questionable. Most biased headlines were published by 24sata. The same newspaper published most irrelevant and useless information. Bad news prevailed in more than 50% headlines of the analyzed newspapers. Most headlines which violate the right to privacy, as well as the headlines that do not comply with the criteria of good taste and decency were published by 24sata. The survey shows that there are significant differences in the quantity, type and severity of ethical controversy between Jutarnji list, Ve?ernji list and 24 sata.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p141