Are Journalism ethics dead?

I would say for the most part journalists adhere to the "Code of Ethics" in which their job entails. They set out to gather the news and portray their findings in an honest and sincere fashion. But as in every occupation, there are those radicals that misrepresent all of those in their field. The journalists who go for the "shock factor" of news rather than what is honest and fair and ethically correct. These here, are the exceptions. Yet on the other hand, every day thousands of journalists adhere to the code of ethics and portray news as how they traditionally set out to do so.

Newspapers and broadcast media have their standards. What they can and can't say on air, what they ethically or morally should or shouldn't say. But sources like twitter and blogging are in a league all of their own. The writers behind these sources are not held to any moral light; they can write and represent their information in any way they choose. Their bias can saturate every inch of what they write. This is their private writings that they can share with the world as they please. They are not employed to comment on events, so therefore private citizens can blog how they choose to. They are not obligated to "Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error." Many times this can be blatantly obvious. Just are we studied in class, many people obtain their information through the Two-step flow model. Peers are a major source of news information. When we depend so heavily on others for our current events, there is eventually going to lapses in truth. Every once in awhile I stumble upon someone's twitter, and they frankly have no idea what they're talking about. People like this spout off information that they've heard without bothering to check their sources. Who needs to? Blogs and twitters are like the opinion columns of a newspaper. But certainly much less refined and polished.

Newspaper journalist are held to this Code of Ethics, while those not employed to write are not. Twitters, blogs and the infinite other sources in which a private citizen can write, are wildly opinionated and informal sources of information. They do not follow under the lines of traditional journalism regulations.