November 8, this Monday, was Journalists' Day or Reporters' Day in China. It is interesting that China honors journalists and the work they do whereas there is no comparable recognition in the US.

America and China report the news with many of the same tools and objectives but, like the proverbial story about blind fellows approaching the elephant from different ends of the beast, journalists in the two countries learn about and report the news differently.

US reporting is often confrontational. It takes as its model, Watergate. The idea is leave no stone unturned, even if turning the stones wreaks havoc. Often the target of America's investigative journalism is the government.

China's state-run media uses a less attack dog-style method to inform the public. Chinese officials might be criticized for badly implementing government policy, for example, but reporters would hesitate to criticize the policy itself, unless and until there was a groundswell of public opinion against the policy.

Earlier this week, a Chinese reporter in Europe writing about his role as a journalist there described his duty to tell the truth, certainly a precept to which American journalists would subscribe.

However, the Chinese reporter then wrote that journalists have a duty to foster greater understanding abroad about the Chinese government. Although an American reporter's work might indeed improve others understanding about her government, an American journalist would be unlikely to ever envision herself as having a duty to do that.

It is often assumed in the West that because Chinese media are part of the government's apparatus that the media cannot criticize the government in any meaningful way. However, as one Chinese editorial opined recently, journalists in China do promote government accountability. The editorial suggested that journalists should challenge the mainstream and publicize wrongs.

According to the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) Statement of Principles the "primary purpose of gathering and distributing news and opinion is to serve the general welfare by informing the people and enabling them to make judgments on the issues of the time."

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics proclaims that "the public's right to know of events of public importance and interest is the overriding mission of the mass media."

ASNE's and SPJ's ethical commands are in line with the Chinese editor who suggested that the question all journalists should ask is whether that journalist is serving the public well.

Neither the US nor China have the one true answer about how journalists can best serve the public. Both countries have reporters who are guilty of ethical lapses in the ways in which they document the news. The hope for both countries is that as they approach the news elephant from different perspectives, they can draw on each other's experiences to gain a fuller and more accurate picture with which to serve the public.

The author is a fellow at the American-based Institute for Analytic Journalism.