Unethical Consequences of Pack Journalism

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain why pack journalism, a widespread media practice where large groups of reporters collaborate to cover the same story, should be abolished, or at least lessened in frequency. Particularly analyzed are seven unethical consequences of pack journalism. As such, pack journalism is responsible for issues of journalistic laziness, short-term and long-term harm to readers and viewers, an amplified endangerment of privacy and lives, a loss of independence in news reporting, the threat of lost credibility in the content of news reported by packs, defamatory, slanderous, and libelous news, and economic inefficiencies.