Part 2

• Journalism ethics is a type of applied ethics, which is the analysis and application of ethical principles of relevance to the practice of news media
• Journalism ethics is concerned both with advancing free and independent media while stressing responsible use of that freedom
• Journalism ethics


  Is a natural human activity, the construction and evaluation of norms to guide conduct in journalism
• Journalism ethics

  • Has three areas of concern: appropriate ethical beliefs, correct application, and the disposition to act ethically
• The origin of journalism ethics is the same as for all ethics, it is the lived experience of journalists and anyone who publicly communicates
• Historical revolution of journalism ethics

  1. First stage: 16th and 17th centuries - emergence of ethical discourse in Western Europe

  2. Second stage: 18th century - press controls weakened, journalists espoused a "public ethic"

  3. Third stage: 19th century - evolution of the public ethic into an explicit liberal theory of the press

  4. Fourth stage: 20th century - development and criticism of the liberal model

  5. Fifth stage: Mixed media - increasing numbers of non-professional citizen journalists and bloggers engaging in journalism
• Main approaches to journalism ethics

  • Authoritarian-utopian
  • Classical liberalism
  • Professional objective approach (objectivism)
  • Social responsibility
  • Interpretative
  • Advocational
  • Care-communitarian
• Historically, objectivism and social responsibility theory were twentieth-century responses to a wide-spread disillusionment with the liberal hope of the nineteenth century that an unregulated press would be a responsible educator of citizens on matters of public interest
• Both interpretative and advocational traditions believe that journalists have a duty to be more than stenographers of fact and official comment
• Care-communitarian approach


  Stresses the impact of journalism on communal values and caring relationships, attempts to restrain a news media that is often insensitive to story subjects and sources
• Incentives of ethical behavior

  • Moral incentive - journalists want to see themselves as decent and honest
  • Practical incentive - ethical journalism promotes the news organization's credibility and commercial success
• The credibility gap and the ethics scandals that plague our media system now often are the result of precisely that failure of media professionals to fully consider or acknowledge their obligations as moral agents
• A solid foundation for ethical thinking in media is needed now more than ever. Most journalists see theirs as a noble profession serving the public interest. They need to behave ethically
• Media

  A broader term that encompasses all forms of communication that transmit information from one person or group to another. Includes not only printed materials like the press, but also electronic media such as television, radio, and the internet.
• Press

  Refers to printed materials, such as newspapers, magazines, and books. A specific type of media that focuses on printed materials.