Media Ethics 2013 Abstracts
Open Competition
The Pursuit of Privacy and Common Good: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Big Data Mining for Socio-Economic Development • Debashis ‘Deb’ Aikat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper delineates the theory and practice of ethical big data mining for socio-economic development in four parts. This paper also features a list of additional reading and big data terms with concise definitions explicating their relevance to big data mining for socio-economic development.
The Ethical Roots of the Public Forum: Pragmatism, Expressive Freedom, and Grenville Clark • David S. Allen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • The public forum has been connected to the functioning of democracy, expressive freedom, and the media’s role in society. While the public forum’s legal contours have been examined, the ethical foundation of the public forum has not. Relying on archival research, this paper argues that ideas about the public forum can be traced to the pragmatism of Grenville Clark, who influenced judicial opinions through his work on the American Bar Association’s Bill of Rights Committee.
Comparing the Ethics of citizen photojournalists and professional photojournalists: A coorientational study • Tara Buehner, University of South Carolina; Ana Keshelashvili • In the digital news environment, amateur images — citizen photojournalism — appear next to professional photojournalists’ photos, contributing to a probable tension and sense of professional threat among professional photojournalists. Using the coorientation approach, this study explores the ethical values of citizen photojournalists and professional photojournalists, the extent to which they agree about these values, how accurate they are in assessing each others’ values, and how congruent they perceive they are with each other.
Journalists’ Social Capital and Moral Development • Hyunjeong Choi, University of Texas at Austin • Although there are some studies on whether the media influence social capital such as political participation and civic engagement, and interest has grown in the benefits of social capital to the individual and community, few theoretical models have been advanced to explain the effect of social capital on journalists and morality in journalism. This essay suggests theoretical grounds for the argument that journalists’ social capital influences their morality in their jobs. Drawing on the three-dimensional model of social capital (structural dimension, relational dimension and cognitive dimension), this essay contends that journalists seem to have a high level of social capital; especially, they have a much greater cognitive dimension of social capital (shared vision shared codes, or shared paradigms) because of their professional codes and organizational values, and journalists’ social capital performs a function of an important predictor of their moral development.
Hack, Flacks, and Whacks: A Pilot Study of the Utility of Individualistic Ethical Orientation as a Variable of Interest in the Study of Joye Gordon, Kansas State University; Bonnie Bressers, Kansas State University • This pilot study questioned the utility of examining journalists’ individualistic ethical orientation (based on dimensions of idealism and relativism). It found that journalists’ individual ethical orientations was associated with their allegiance the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. However, individual ethical orientation did not predict journalists’ perceptions of those in public relations professions. Findings indicate that ethical orientation does have predictive value and contributes to the study of ethics in the modern media environment.
Examining the Critics’ Criticism: A Bibliographic Essay on Journalism Review Research • Susan Keith, Rutgers University • This bibliographic essay provides an introduction to sources related to an under-researched topic in media ethics history: the local journalism review movement. From 1958 to about 1986, it produced at least 40 local reviews, including Thorn, Buncombe, Overset, Countermedia, and The Pretentious Idea. Yet scholars have usually focused on just a handful of surviving reviews. This paper, part of a book project, argues that journalism reviews deserve more attention and different approaches.
Keeping HIV/AIDS Newsworthy: Ethical Dilemmas • Ammina Kothari, Rochester Institute of Technology • This study focuses on how two prominent newspapers—the Daily News, which is government owned, and the Guardian, which is private—negotiate the ethical challenges of reporting on HIV/AIDS in Tanzania using limited resources. Interviews with journalists from the two newspapers reveal how the two newspapers’ economic concerns and reluctance to invest money in a disease, which is now perceived as “old news,” has opened up space for official news sources, especially organizations, to gain privileged access to disseminate their messages and shape the discourse on HIV/AIDS. News sources use many strategies, including giving “transport allowance” and offering all-expense paid trips to the field in order to gain journalists’ attention. I also found that the news production processes in Tanzania are further complicated by financial incentives offered by news sources, raising ethical dilemmas for the journalists and concerns about the quality of the news that gets published.
From Thinking to Doing: Effects of Social Norms on Ethical Behavior in Journalism • Angela Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Renita Coleman; Logan Molyneux, University of Texas • Journalists have been shown to be highly capable of making good moral decisions (Wilkins & Coleman, 2005), but they do not always act as ethically as they are capable of. In other words, there is a gap between thinking ethically and acting ethically. Using the Reasoned Action Model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2009), this study explores the reason for this gap and tests the proposition that social norms can help predict whether journalists will behave ethically or not. That is, social pressure to do what others think we should do, or what we think others actually are doing, can help explain why journalists act ethically or not. It found that descriptive norms were highly predictive of ethical behavior – journalists who thought that others were acting ethically on certain journalistic dilemmas were indeed more likely to act ethically themselves. It also found that injunctive norms were highly predictive of unethical behavior – that is, journalists who thought others approved of certain unethical behaviors were more likely to act unethically themselves. In addition, descriptive norms accounted for more of the variance in journalists’ ethical behavior than did injunctive norms.
The dialogic potential of social media: Assessing the ethical reasoning of companies’ public relations on Facebook and Twitter • Angela Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga; Tom Johnson; Renita Coleman • Drawing from Excellence Theory and using the TARES test, this study explores Fortune 500 companies’ ethical communication practices with the general public via social media. Results from a ‘constructed week’ content analyses data set indicate that overall, companies use social media to achieve symmetrical communication. Twitter elicits the most efficient interaction to achieve these goals. Finally, while Facebook spurs more authentic and equitable content, Twitter facilitates more truthful and socially responsible content.
Leaving It There? The Hutchins Commission & Modern American Journalism • Emily Metzgar; Bill Hornaday, Indiana University • Using the recommendations of the Commission on Freedom of the Press (Hutchins Commission), we ask today’s media consumers how they rate the performance of modern American journalism. Employing original survey data, we frame findings in the context of the commission’s 1947 ideals. This article makes a contribution by presenting contemporary opinions about the performance of American journalism in the context of journalism ideals articulated by the Hutchins Commission more than 60 years ago.
Manifestations of Moral Courage among U.S. Media Exemplars • Patrick Plaisance • This project provides a phenomenological analysis of the theme of moral courage found in extensive personal interviews with 24 selected “exemplars” in American journalism and public relations. Using an established “life story” interview protocol, the analysis clarifies the link between psychological theories of moral courage and the personal and professional challenges of industry figures known for their ethical leadership. The exemplars’ incorporation of a range of ethical values has cultivated an expectation of themselves that has enabled them to claim ownership of their actions, and thus exhibit moral courage, in ways not possible if their self-identities were less integrated with their moral concerns.
Fit to post but not fit to print: Channel consistency and virtue ethics for legacy print journalism organizations • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • Many legacy print media organizations with Web operations often have differing ethical standards between what is printed and what is posted online. This paper discusses some of the differing standards, suggests some justifications of the differences but the potentially overwhelming deleterious effects of the double standards, and offers the virtue ethics approach of Aristotle, MacIntyre, and others as a guide for decision makers at single news organizations serving multiple communication channels.
In the Shadow of Giants: The Ethics of Crime Reporting Rituals in Ireland & Canada • Romayne Smith Fullerton, University Of Western Ontario; Margaret Patterson, Duquesne University • From a study done in Canada and Ireland, the authors assert that the press council/ombudsman self-governing structure recently implemented in Ireland and employed for decades in the Netherlands and Sweden might help the Canadian press to independence from court controls and regain a deeper sense of its own stated mission: giving the public the information it needs to be self governing in a democracy. The study involved in-depth interviews with journalists and scholars, a reading of sample crime coverage, and an examination of prevailing ethics codes and accountability practices. The Irish are discovering that by foregrounding ethics, they can relax the battle against legal restraints and—to some measure—dig out from under the competitive pressures that sometimes bury their primary mission.
Juan Williams, NPR, and Role-related Responsibilities • Ryan Thomas, University of Missouri-Columbia; Elizabeth B. Hindman, Washington State University • In October 2010, NPR dismissed news analyst Juan Williams for comments he made about Muslims on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor.” This study draws on the notion of role-related responsibilities and prior scholarship on opinion-driven journalism to examine mainstream media responses to Williams’ dismissal. Through qualitative textual analysis of 96 unsigned editorials and signed opinion columns, we find media commentators articulated three role-related responsibilities for opinion-driven journalism: Purveyor of truth, facilitator of dialogue, and reflector of national mood. However, we also found significant comment on the definitional uncertainty regarding journalistic roles and responsibilities in a changing media landscape. We argue these findings speak to the confusing nature of contemporary journalism and the evermore-porous boundaries between fact and opinion.
Probing Race: Racial Discourse Analysis in Journalism Practices, an Ethical Approach • Venise Wagner, San Francisco State University • The author explores ethical reasons why journalists should employ racial lenses when reporting stories that are not obviously about race. Because the racial component in many stories is often hidden, journalists must be willing to directly explore racial implications of an issue. Racial discourse analysis is a tool that can help reporters explore racial subtexts. The author provides examples of how to use the racial discourse analysis approach and how to apply the results of such an analysis in the reporting process.
Humanity as an end: Analyzing Trayvon Martin shooting coverage using Kant’s second categorical imperative • Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico University; Erin Willis, University of Memphis • This textual analysis examined the use of frames in the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman shooting. Journalists at three national newspapers framed the incident using four themes: questioning “Stand Your Ground” laws, rallying for gun legislation, commenting on race, and using “hoodies” for political protest. Applying the theoretical foundation of Kant’s formula of humanity as an end, the researchers concluded that both Martin and Zimmerman were used as a mere means to help journalists attain their goals.
Assessing the Impact of Chinese Journalism Education on Undergraduate Student Professionalization • Jin Yang; David Arant • This study investigated the role of Chinese journalism education in the professionalization of Chinese students and concluded that Chinese journalism education did play some role in the process. A survey of Chinese journalism students found that journalism school upperclassmen embraced a wider understanding of journalistic roles including interpretive, mobilizer and adversarial roles than did lowerclassmen. The study, however, found no difference in how upperclassmen and underclassmen journalism students ranked top six values and in how they perceived the difficulty in dealing with typical ethical dilemmas.
In Search of an Ethics Code for the 21st Century Audience • Mohammad Yousuf, University of Oklahoma; David Craig, University of Oklahoma • Little media ethics literature has directly addressed the responsibilities of audience members in engagement with mediated messages. This paper, taking into account the transformed nature of the audience and its ability to communicate, proposes a code of audience ethics that draws on previous literature and on the prima facie duties of W.D. Ross. This framework is relevant to responsibilities involving messages from both traditional and nontraditional sources of news and information.
Special Call For Entertainment Ethics
‘One Night of Prime Time’: An explorative study of morality in one night of Dutch prime time television • Serena Daalmans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Ellen Hijmans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Fred Wester, Radboud University Nijmegen • Research into television’s ethical value has mostly focused on scandal genres, like Big Brother, Jersey Shore and Jerry Springer, only recently have researcher started to explore television’s moral content with a broader focus. In this study we explore and describe the types of morality and moral content of a night of Dutch prime time television, with an open and inductive approach through a qualitative content analysis. We started with a sensitizing concept that differentiated in three general types of morality (formal, informal and intuitive), and through systematic comparison of the material we worked towards a specification of the types of morality that are represented in news, reality and fiction programs. We found that three moral themes (health, safety and family) formed the moral core of the night of television, and that television content shows a plurality of moralities connected to public and private life.
Ethical Issues and Responsibilities in the Production of Reality Shows: Reorienting the Moral Compass • Jelle Mast, Erasmus University College Brussels • Striking a middle ground between an all-encompassing and incident-centered critique, this paper develops a critical, comprehensive yet differentiating account of pertinent moral issues related to the (harmful) treatment of participants in the production of hybrid ‘reality’-shows. Our focus is thus on mapping and schematizing the (potentially) harmful implications of and the responsibilities that emerge from the process of making ‘reality shows’. The analysis proceeds along three broad (not mutually exclusive) notions of ‘intrusion’, ‘humiliation’, and ‘misrepresentation’, and integrates conceptualizations with empirical findings emerging from semi-structured interviews with 12 television professionals (mostly ‘creative’) and 25 participants. We point out the role of structural factors and the relevance of (situational) differentiation, in kind and degree, and argue for the need to bring ethical considerations more squarely into the day-to-day calculations of ‘reality TV’-program-makers.
Carol Burnett Award
Hit by the Silver Bullet: When Journalists Consider Withholding Information on National Security Grounds • John Lumpkin, John Lumpkin • This study employs Kohlberg’s hierarchy of moral reasoning to analyze journalistic decision-making over whether to withhold information from the public on national security grounds. It considers cases since Sept. 11, 2001, in which a major American news outlet reported that the government requested it withhold information on such grounds. The study finds that journalists usually reported their decision at Kohlberg’s social-contract stage of reasoning, regardless of whether the information in question was published or withheld. Implications for the role of journalistic ethics in international affairs are discussed.
Manifestation of Stakeholder Model of Communitarian Ethics in the U.S. Newspapers: An Examination of Ethical Concerns in the Promotion of Public Health • Lok Pokhrel, Washington State University • This study examined some of the major communitarian ethical concerns in lifestyle health campaigns as reported in the newspapers by assessing the extent to which the news-reporting manifested the communitarian ethical qualities in such health campaigns. This study also examined the relationship between media’s attributing responsibility (individual and systemic responsibility message attributes) with the communitarian ethical qualities of such lifestyle campaigns as reported in the news media. For this purpose, the study drew on a quantitative content analysis of the U.S. newspapers (2007-2012) that had “lifestyle” “health”, “campaign”, “prevention”, and “promotion” as the key terms. Drawing on an original data set of news reports (N= 59), the study found that the individual responsibility message attribute had a negative correlation with the four qualities of communitarian ethical approach, meaning –the lifestyle campaigns that held only the individuals as responsible for the cause of the health and lifestyle related problems –scored low. However, the message with systemic frame/attributes had a positive correlation with the four qualities of communitarian ethical qualities, meaning –the lifestyle campaigns that held the external factors, such as –environment, social system, government and the role of other stakeholders as responsible for the cause of the health and lifestyle related problems –scored high in terms of communitarian ethical qualities. The study found that the newspaper samples typically discussed how the multitudes of complex factors beyond individual responsibility/control contributed to the lifestyle related health concerns.
One journalist, two roles: What happens when journalists also work as media coordinators? • Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Jonathan Peters, U of Missouri Columbia • Individuals interacting with society possess multiple roles, and yet the study of journalistic role conceptions, based on the assumption that role conceptions influence journalistic outputs, has not addressed the idea that journalists possess multiple roles inside and outside the journalistic field. A peculiar arrangement in Missouri is the appointment of journalists to serve as media coordinators for the courts. Using a symbolic interactionism framework, we explore how media coordinators experience this duality of roles.
Study: Values, Ethics of Sports Reporters Vary by Beat
[May 19, 2010]
Sports reporters on the high school beat, often the youngest and most inexperienced in the newsroom, are also the most likely to believe they can operate by more relaxed ethical codes than their counterparts, according to a new survey.
The telephone survey, conducted by researchers in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, asked 263 reporters who cover sports at the high school, college or professional level about their attitudes toward ethical codes and professional norms for reporters.
More than one-third of the reporters surveyed covered prep sports, and almost as many said they covered professional teams. Far fewer – 14 percent – said they covered college sports. Eighteen percent reported on several beats.
Researchers analyzed responses by beat and found that reporters covering high school sports were more likely than those on professional beats to advocate a more “relaxed” code of ethics for sports reporters than for other parts of the newsroom. Preps (high school) reporters also more often reported friendships with sources and endorsed home-team boosterism in stories than did those who covered pro teams.
At the same time, preps reporters were more likely to agree with the idea that sports journalism should work in a public-service, “watchdog” role.
Marie Hardin, associate director of research in the Curley Center, said the findings may reflect both the idealism and inexperience of reporters at the preps level. Reporters covering high school sports had less journalism experience than those on other beats, and 65 percent of reporters on this beat were under 40.
“These reporters – often the least experienced in a sports department – are also the closest to their communities and face different types of ethical issues than do other sportswriters,” Hardin said. “Their jobs are often just as much about public education as they are about sports.”
Results of the survey, “Sports Reporters’ Attitudes About Ethics Vary Based on Beat,” by Hardin and Bu Zhong, who both teach in Penn State’s College of Communications, is published in the Spring 2010 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.
Other questions on the survey—administered by students in COMM 412 Sports, Media and Society, one of the core class offerings of the Curley Center—asked reporters about job satisfaction. Reporters covering prep sports less often said they had considered quitting their jobs. They also more often said they saw their career futures as bright.
“This could be a reflection of their age,” Hardin said. “They’re younger and more likely in a career-building stage.”
Their optimism may also reflect the perception that their beats are more secure than those at the professional or even college level, added Hardin, where travel costs and competition from a variety of sources – including sports leagues – is cutting into sports-department budgets.
“Meanwhile, the high school beat is a staple in sports sections, and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” Hardin said. “These journalists may understand the key role they play for their papers and in their communities.”
New study shows how journalism ethics developed
[September 11, 2009]
Three commissions that investigated violence in the 1960s had a significant impact on the development of widely accepted views about journalism ethics, according to a study published in the summer 2009 issue of Journalism & Communication Monographs.
In a monograph titled “Two Visions of Responsibility: How National Commissions Contributed to Journalism Ethics, 1963-1975,” Glen Feighery says it was not just the work of the Hutchins Commission or the Watergate investigation that prompted media organizations to focus more on social responsibility, but that the work of three commissions, The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, offered significant advice on how journalists should ethically approach their work. The media responded with revisions of codes of ethics, the creation of news councils and journalism reviews, and increased employment of minorities.
Feighery argues that through this challenge and response, a heightened sense of media responsibility arose. Part of the evolution within journalism ethics at the time forced journalists to consider the relationship between their independence and their responsibility, Journalists valued their freedom from entities of authority, such as government, special interest groups, etc., but they also recognized a duty to adequately inform the public about existing problems. This strong sense of responsibility required journalists to go a step beyond minimizing harm and provide people with information that would allow them to make an informed decision.
Feighery argues that journalists struck the balance between freedom and responsibility by developing the approach of “autonomy,” which meant that journalists would follow self-imposed restraints. As a result, journalists could maintain their independence and work for the greater good of the public, creating an ethical approach that continued to influence the media in the decades following the 1970s .
Feighery is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah.
CONTACT: Glen Feighery, University of Utah, Office Phone: (801) 585-7521, Email: .
Media Ethics 2005 Abstracts
Media Ethics Division
Can Professionalism Protect the Integrity of Journalism Against the Market? • Sandra L. Borden, Western Michigan University • The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the potential of professionalism to support good work and give journalists some leverage against the power of their employing organizations in the current media market. This essay critically examines the two key functions of professional organization for journalists ethical motivation and occupational power-in terms of both their potential usefulness and their potential problems.
Ideal Journalism. An Analysis of the Idaho Falls Post Register’s Ideologies in Covering the 2002 Gubernatorial Campaign • Kris Boyle, Brigham Young University • Based on the concept of journalism ideology, this study identifies ideologies established by the Idaho Falls Post Register and examines whether these ideologies were reflected in its coverage of the 2002 Idaho gubernatorial race, where one of the candidates was the paper’s publisher/ owner. The author found the paper adapted its guidelines from ideologies generally accepted by many journalists, including objectivity, balance, and facticity, and concludes the paper stuck close to these guidelines in its coverage.
A Failure of Imagination: The 9/11 Commission, Terrorism Coverage, and Media Responsibility • Glen Feighery, University of Utah • Coverage of terrorism provides a compelling context in which to consider whether journalists have ethical duties to be proactive, not just reactive. This paper examines the July 2004 report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission). The report criticized the news media, concluding that journalists shared some of the blame for failing to adequately warn the public of the risk of terrorism before September 11, 2001.
This Little Piggy Went to Press: The Ethics of the American News Media’s Construction of Animals in Agriculture, from 2000-2003 • Carrie Packwood Freeman, University of Oregon • Big corporate operators have taken over the bulk of Iowa’s pork production, with dire results not only for the small farmer but also for those of us who were raised on succulent pork chops and pork roasts. Fat gives pork some of its flavor, but modern hogs are bred to minimize fat; …Raised in close quarters inside enormous metal buildings, the hogs foul the air for miles around, and their meat is bland, dry and tough when cooked.
Murder in our Midst: Expanding Coverage to Include Care and Responsibility • Romayne Smith Fullerton, University of Western Ontario and Maggie Jones Patterson, Duquesne University • Using a U.S. and a Canadian example, this paper argues news reports of murder often employ predetermined formulae that probe intrusively into the lives of those involved in the murder but ultimately come away with only a cheaply sketched, stick-figure portrait.
Black Eye: The Ethics of CBS News and the National Guard Documents • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, Washington State University • This case study applies ethics theories and codes to the mainstream news media’s response to the CBS News- National Guard forged documents fiasco of 2004. It finds that 177 newspaper editorials applied truth telling, accountability, independence, and stewardship principles in their criticism of CBS, but only in a limited way. While the editorials dealt well with the specific issues of the case, they missed an opportunity to discuss the broader ethical principles involved.
Blood On the Lens ‘Private’ Moments, Public Platforms: Images and Ethics Codes Across Media in an Era of Violence and Tragedy • Susan Keith, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Carol B. Schwalbe, Arizona State University and B. William Silcock, Arizona State University • An analysis of forty-seven journalism ethics codes found that although most consider photography, only ten address a gripping issue: how to treat images of tragedy and violence, such as those produced on the battlefields of Iraq and in the 2004 Madrid bombings. Among codes that consider violent and tragic images, there is agreement on what images are problematic and a move toward “green light” reflection on ethical responsibilities (especially in guidelines produced by RTNDA/RTNDF).
Codes and Codism: SPJ, RTNDA And NPPA Rewrite their Codes of Ethics — Why, How, and to what Effect? • Dan Kozlowski, University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill •Within the past decade, three national journalism organizations – the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), and the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) – have revised their codes of ethics, involving considerable debate and organizational fanfare. This paper examines the code revisions at those three organizations.
Interactivity and Prioritizing the Human: A Code of Blogging Ethics • Martin Kuhn, North Carolina – Chapel Hill• Blogs and blogging continue to gain in popularity. They are being integrated into the mainstream media mix and are attracting advertising dollars. As a new balance between freedom and responsibility is being struck in the blogosphere, the author uses new communication technology ethics scholarship and an exploratory survey of bloggers to propose a new code of blogging ethics to inform blogging decisions.
Succulent Sins, Personalized Politics, and Mainstream Media’s Tabloidization Temptation • Jenn Burleson Mackay, University of Alabama • This paper examines how mainstream journalism’s credibility is threatened by the use of tabloid news techniques. Experiment participants read either four standard news stories or similar stories written in a tabloidized style. Reporter credibility was measured using the Source Credibility Scale. The writers of the tabloid stories were found less competent, trustworthy, and caring than the other reporters. The credibility of tabloidized hard news verses soft news was also studied. Market-orientation and tabloidization are discussed.
Minding The Gap: An Ethical Perspective on the Use of Weblogs in Journalistic Practice • Andrew Morozov, Washington State University • This exploratory study examines the role of online journalism with respect to traditional journalistic practice. The focus of the study is the weblog form of online journalism, and its role in the contemporary media environment, evaluated from the perspective of responsibilities, functions, and practices of the journalistic profession. The analysis surveys the repercussions of the “blogging” phenomenon, and suggests how traditional professional journalistic responsibilities may be reinterpreted in the context of online journalism.
Bloggers Strike a Nerve: Examining the Intersection of Blogging and Journalism • Bryan Murley and Kim Smith • University of South Carolina • Researchers conducted a census after the 2004 presidential election of the authors of the top 100 most-visited, current-events blogs to discover what they thought about politics, their role as bloggers in society, and as citizen journalists. More than 90 % considered blogs an important contributor to democracy; 93 % said fact-checking the traditional news media was an important; and nearly 90 % opposed using an editor to check postings for accuracy.
A “Fool Satisfied?” Journalists and Mill’s Principle of Utility • Lee Anne Peck, University of Northern Colorado • Although J.S. Mill is most often identified in the same breath with utilitarianism in journalism textbooks, a thorough examination of his beliefs about morality is often lacking. Professional journalists and journalism students alike oftentimes read these brief explanations and believe, therefore, that using lies, coercion and manipulation is appropriate behavior in the gathering of information if the consequences will lead to more benefits that harms; they might also believe that breaking the law is allowed.
An Appeal to Newspaper Authority in Television Political Ads: A Case Study • Chris Roberts, University of South Carolina • A textual analysis of two television advertisements, created by a U.S. Senate candidate during the 2004 general election in South Carolina, shows how newspapers are used (and misused) to introduce perceptions of independent authority in partisan political advertising. The functional theory of political discourse is used to examine how the ads use newspapers as a third-party authority to defend against opposing ads, to attack opponents, and to acclaim the candidate’s achievements.
Civic Responsibility: A Casualty of Ethical Principle • John C. Watson, American University • Moral philosophers since Socrates have insisted that citizens have a moral obligation to obey the law. But American journalists since John Peter Zenger have been flouting this civic responsibility even before there was a First Amendment to defend and justify their actions. Like Socrates, journalists often claim an ethical obligation to elucidate the truth that overrides their civic responsibility to comply with the government’s interpretation of the First Amendment.
Communitarian Ethics and the Electronic Village • Alisa White, University of Texas at Arlington • This paper proposes that the broadcast media are eclipsing the local community as the place James Carey’s “looking glass self’ develops. The arguments for the broadcast media arid audience as community are located in Alasdair Maclntyre’s theory of the virtues (1984). Janet Jackson’s breast exposure to a worldwide audience watching the halftime show of the 2004 National Football League Super Bowl and the subsequent outpouring of negativity are discussed.
Media Ethics Division
From ethical issues facing journalists to questions in entertainment, public relations and advertising, the Media Ethics Division seeks a diverse range of faculty and graduate student paper submissions related to ethics. The Division encourages submissions of all media-ethics research, regardless of methodological approach. We encourage submissions that use surveys, experiments, interviews, or other data-collection methods as well as submissions that use a rhetorical or theory-building essay style. Submissions may use a variety of theoretical approaches, relying on normative or descriptive theory, using communication, philosophy, sociological, psychological or other theoretical approaches. The division is sponsoring a special call in addition to our regular call and our graduate student award.
All papers must be no more than 25-pages long (excluding bibliography and appendices) and must otherwise conform to the rules outlined in the AEJMC Uniform Call for Papers. Submitting a paper to the MED implies that the author (or one of the authors) intends to present the paper in person or will make arrangements for the paper to be presented by a colleague familiar with the work.
The Division offers recognition in a number of areas. Except for the Burnett award, all competitions are open to both faculty and students. All submissions will be evaluated in the general paper competition. Authors wishing to be considered for the special competitions described below should only submit their paper once.
In addition to supporting the Carol Burnett award winners, MED will offer small travel stipends for the top student submissions.
Special Call For Entertainment Ethics: In addition to our regular call, the Media Ethics Division is sponsoring a special call for papers related to entertainment ethics. Papers may consider entertainment ethics related to film, social networking, music, television, video games, books, comics, or other areas of entertainment media. Papers may use a variety of methodological approaches such as quantitative, qualitative, rhetorical, etc.
Special call papers must be marked “Special Call” on the title page (and ONLY on the title page).
Carol Burnett Award for Graduate Students: All graduate students who submit papers to the Media Ethics Division are encouraged to enter their paper in the Carol Burnett Award competition. The Media Ethics Division teams with the University of Hawaii and the Carol Burnett Fund for Responsible Journalism to sponsor this special paper competition for graduate students. Students are invited to submit papers on any topic related to media ethics: public relations, entertainment, journalism, advertising, etc.
The winning paper will receive the Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii/AEJMC Prize, which includes a $350 cash award. The runner-up will receive a $150 cash award. Authors for the top two submissions will receive a small travel assistance stipend and will be invited to present their papers at the 2013 conference in Washington D.C. The winner will be invited to accept his or her prize at the KTA Awards Luncheon at the conference.
Burnett competition papers must be marked “Burnett Competition” on the title page (and ONLY the title page).
Professional Relevance Award: Special recognition will be given to the paper that is judged to be the most relevant to working professionals. The recipient will be selected from the general paper competition.
Top Faculty Paper: Special recognition will be given to the faculty paper judged to be the best paper submitted among faculty authors. The recipient will be selected from the general paper competition.
All questions should be directed to the research chair Jenn Burleson Mackay, Virginia Tech, email: , phone 540-231-1663.
Media Ethics 2012 Abstracts
Open Papers
How Social Cognition Can Be Used in Journalism Training to Reinforce Ethical Standards of Practice • Sue Ellen Christian, Western Michigan University • Errors and biases in human cognition in part explain the need for professional standards and ethical codes in journalism. Reciprocally, these standards and codes can help deter some common cognitive distortions. This article argues that incorporating an interdisciplinary approach to teaching standards of practice can enrich journalism training and education by exploring the origins of thinking habits that require corrective action on the part of journalists.
Anthropological Realism for Global Ethics • Clifford Christians, University of Illinois • Anthropological realism is an important tool in constructing a global media ethics. Realism and anti-realism are debated philosophically without resolution. Believing that a global ethics requires realism, none of the mainstream theories of realism provide a proper foundation for universals. Anthropological realism acknowledges the role of human interpretation in ethics more explicitly than do epistemological or metaphyhsical theories.”
Consumers’ Ethical Evaluation of Greenwashing Ads • Harsha Gangadharbatla; Kim Sheehan • The current exploratory study examines consumers’ evaluation of the ethicality of greenwashing practices in advertising. Subjects were shown an ad with “green” messages and asked to rate it on a greenwashing index scale. Findings suggest that the higher the level of perceived greenwashing in an ad, the lower the ethical evaluation of the ad. Consumers’ ethical evaluation in turn determined their attitude toward the ad and brand, which in turn influenced their purchase intentions.
Idea Plagiarism: Journalism’s Ultimate Heist • Norman Lewis, University of Florida • A national survey (n = 953) and interviews with eight journalists reveal widespread acceptance of idea plagiarism. About three-fourths of survey respondents said ideas did not require attribution, a belief more likely to be held by those in competitive markets and by broadcasters. Concealing the sources of ideas misleads the public about the origins of news and sometimes results in withholding information, violations of journalism’s public-service norms and truth-telling mission.
Ethics in the digital age: A comparison of moving images and photographs on moral reasoning • Aimee Meader, University of Texas at Austin; Lewis Knight, University of Texas at Austin; Renita Coleman, University of Texas – Austin; Lee Wilkins, School of Journalism/University of Missouri • The purpose of this study is to see if visual information such as the moving images found on television and the Internet have the same ability to improve moral judgment as still photographs. Results indicate that moving images degrade moral reasoning because viewers experience cognitive overload. We suggest that altering the journalistic product in ways that minimize overload may encourage reasoning at higher ethical levels.
The Moral Psychology of Journalism Exemplars • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Colorado State University; Elizabeth Skewes, University of Colorado; Joanna Larez, Colorado State University • Drawing on moral psychology research and moral exemplar literature, this pilot study of selected journalism exemplars examines life-story narratives, moral reasoning skills, personality traits and ethical ideologies, point to an emergent profile of exemplary journalists in which personality traits and idealism are linked with concerns of justice, harm and professional autonomy. Thematic patterns in exemplar narratives also appear to emphasize notions of moral courage, humility and the ideological and professional implications of pivotal life experiences.
“Spike the football”: Truth-telling, the press and the Bin Laden photos • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This paper looks at press interpretations of the role of images – specifically, images of national enemies in death – in constructing various duties of media truth-telling. Discourse about the need, or duty, to publish photos of the Nazi leaders hanged at Nuremberg in 1946 provides a context for examining discourse surrounding a similar decision that the White House faced after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
Covering White ‘Just-Us’: What did journalists ‘really’ say about Ipperwash? • Romayne Fullerton, Western Ontario University; Maggie Patterson, Duquesne Unviersity; Ginny Whitehouse, Eastern Kentucky University • The Canadian courts appeared to fail the Chippewa Stoney Band following the Ipperwash Provincial Park land dispute that left one member dead, but journalists also failed in ethical responsibilities and effectively killed the tribe’s identity through coverage that alternated between being one-sided and comparatively non-existent. Covering two sides in a trial is insufficient to fulfill the journalistic obligation to fairness when the reporting ignores cultural assumptions built on a White worldview.
Will write for food. The ethics of collaboration: Justice as reciprocity and capabilities • Lee Wilkins, School of Journalism/University of Missouri • Journalism’s search for a new business model has raised a number of issues among them the impact of specific choices on the ability to “do” journalism. This paper examines the ethics of financial collaboration, based on the concepts of reciprocity, capabilities and promise keeping. These concepts, in turn, inform a particular conceptualization of justice and connect justice to the goals of professional work.
‘Mind the CSR Communication Gap’: The Role of Authenticity in the Communication of CSR • Christopher Wilson, University of Florida; Weiting Tao, University of Florida; Sarabdeep Kochhar; Mary Ann Ferguson, University of Flordia • Scholars have noted a lack of research about public relations communication strategies for CSR initiatives even though communication is an integral part of the public relations function. This was the first study to explore the relationship between CSR communication, authenticity, and public relations communication strategy, offering a new approach for future studies about effective CSR communication.
Comparing Chinese and U.S. Journalism Students on their Perceptions of the Roles and Ethics of Journalism • Jin Yang, University of Memphis; David Arant, University of Memphis • This study compares how American and Chinese journalism students perceive the difficulties of ethical dilemmas faced by journalists and the importance of various journalistic roles. Chinese students perceive greater difficulty in resolving conflicts of interests while American students find greater difficulty in upholding community standards. They are more in agreement on the importance of journalists’ adversarial and populist mobilizer roles but less in agreement on journalists’ interpretive and disseminator roles.
Journalistic Ethics at the Border: How El Paso Times Journalists Balance Reporting the News and Protecting their Sources • El Paso Times journalists routinely face ethical dilemmas as they cover difficult stories amid all of the violence in neighboring Ciudad Juarez. This ethnographic study, which utilizes participant-observation and in-depth interviews, examines how journalists deal with tough ethical choices. It reveals how reporters and editors at the El Paso Times consider the needs of the public and the ramifications of their stories. The journalists strive to be accurate and fair while protecting their sources and themselves. They weigh the importance of each story with its potential for risk.
Journalists’ Engagement with Facebook: A Theoretical Analysis • Journalists are among the many audiences using social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, to actively connect with networked communities. With social media interactions come a host of ethical concerns for the journalist, ranging from separating personal and professional online networks to understanding the informationally porous nature of online spaces.
Carol Burnett Award Papers
Journalism enhanced by argumentation, informal logic, and critical thinking • David Herrera, University of Missouri • This paper introduces some ideas from the fields of argumentation, informal logic, and critical thinking, and argues that those ideas can stimulate the practice and study of journalism. It first offers a general case for why the four fields can agreeable mingle. It then shows how argumentation, informal logic, and critical thinking are relevant to discussions about journalistic objectivity, about how journalists can build trust with their audiences online by building relationships, and other topics.
J&MC Quarterly Index – Law, Policy, Criticism, and Ethics
Volumes 71 to 80
1994 to 2003
Subject Index: Law, Policy, Criticism, and Ethics
Access to Governors’ Records: State Statutes and the Use of Executive Privilege (Ellen M. Bush) 71:1, 135-144.
Alistair Cooke: America’s Unconventional Press Critic (Michael D. Murray) 72:1, 158-167.
Australian Journalists’ Professional and Ethical Values (John Henningham) 73:1, 206-218.
Bridging Latin America’s Digital Divide: Government Policies and Internet Access (Eliza Tanner Hawkins with Kirk A. Hawkins) 80:3, 646-665.
The Corporate Plaintiff as Public Figure (Matthew D. Bunker) 72:3, 597-609.
A Decade of Indecency Enforcement: A Study of How the Federal Communications Commission Assesses Indecency Fines (1987-1997) (Milagros Rivera-Sanchez and Michelle Ballard) 75:1, 143-153.
The Fight for Access to Government Records Round Two: Enter the Computer (Sigman L. Splichal and Bill F. Chamberlin) 71:3, 550-560.
From Class D to LPFM: The High-Powered Politics of Low-Power Radio (Alan G. Stavitsky, Robert K. Avery, and Helena Vanhala) 78:2, 340-354.
Have It Your Way? Public Records Law and Computerized Government Information (Matthew D. Bunker) 73:1, 90-101.
High School Newspapers Still Censored Thirty Years after Tinker (Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver and J. William Click) 78:2, 321-339.
Holding the News Media Accountable: A Study of Media Reporters and Media Critics in the United States (Susanne Fengler) 80:4, 818-832.
How Effective Are Codes of Ethics? A Look at Three Newsrooms (David E. Boeyink) 71:4, 893-904.
Impartial Spectator in the Marketplace of Ideas: The Principles of Adam Smith as an Ethical Basis for Regulation of Corporate Speech (Robert L. Kerr) 79:2, 394-415.
Intellectuals‘ Property: Universities, Professors, and the Problem of Copyright in the Internet Age (Matthew D. Bunker) 78:4, 675-687.
Journalists and the Overtime Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (Robert Jensen) 73:2, 417-426.
The News Media’s Right of Access to Pretrial Discovery Materials in Civil Lawsuits (Hosoon Chang) 71:1, 145-158.
Newspaper as Repeater: An Experiment on Defamation and Third-Person Effect (Laurie Mason) 72:3, 610-620.
Online News: User Agreements and Implications for Readers (Victoria Smith Ekstrand) 79:3, 602-618.
Open Government in the Digital Age: The Legislative History of How Congress Established a Right of Public Access to Electronic Information Held by Federal Agencies (Martin E. Halstuk and Bill F. Chamberlin) 78:1, 45-64.
Personal and Professional Dimensions of News Work: Exploring the Link between Journalists’ Values and Roles (Patrick Lee Plaisance and Elizabeth A. Skewes) 80:4, 833-848.
Pervasive Public Figure Status and Local or Topical Fame in Light of Evolving Media Audiences (Matthew D. Bunker and Charles D. Tobin) 75:1, 112-126.
The Princess and the Paparazzi: Blame, Responsibility, and the Media’s Role in the Death of Diana (Elizabeth Blanks Hindman) 80:3, 666-688.
Privatized Government Functions and Freedom of Information: Public Accountability in an Age of Private Governance (Matthew D. Bunker and Charles N. Davis) 75:3, 464-477.
Professional Confidence and Situational Ethics: Assessing the Social-Professional Dialectic in Journalistic Ethics Decisions (Dan Berkowitz and Yehiel Limor) 80:4, 783-801.
The Promise and Peril of Anecdotes in News Coverage: An Ethical Analysis (David A. Craig) 80:4, 802-817.
Pronouncements and Denunciations: An Analysis of State Press Association Ethics Codes from the 1920s (Mary M. Cronin and James B. McPherson) 72:4, 890-901.
Protecting a Delicate Balance: Facts, Ideas, and Expression in Compilation Copyright Cases (Matthew D. Bunker and Bethany Bolger) 80:1, 183-197.
Race and Ethical Reasoning: The Importance of Race to Journalistic Decision Making (Renita Coleman) 80:2, 295-310.
Regulation of Sexually Explicit Videotex Services in France (Michel Dupagne) 71:1, 121-134.
Reputational Assault: A Critical and Historical Analysis of Gender and the Law of Defamation (Diane L. Borden) 75:1, 98-111.
The Salience and Pertinence of Ethics: When Journalists Do and Don’t Think for Themselves (H. Allen White) 73:1, 17-28.
Sexual Harassment of Women Journalists (Kim Walsh-Childers, Jean Chance, and Kristin Herzog) 73:3, 559-581.
Silenced Students: The Uncertain but Extensive Power of School Officials to Control Student Expression (Susan Dente Ross) 79:1, 172-187.
The Supreme Court Defines the Marketplace of Ideas (W. Wat Hopkins) 73:1, 40-52.
Targets, Effects, and Perpetrators of Sexual Harassment in Newsrooms (Cindy M. Brown and Gail M. Flatow) 74:1, 160-183.
Trespassing Speakers and Commodified Speech: First Amendment Freedoms Meet Private Property Claims (Matthew D. Bunker) 77:4, 713-726.
The Variable Nature of Defamation: Social Mores and Accusations of Homosexuality (Elizabeth M. Koehler) 76:2, 217-228.
What Were You Thinking? A Survey of Journalists Who Were Sued for Invasion of Privacy (Paul S. Voakes) 75:2, 378-393.
Journalism Quarterly Index-Ethics
Volumes 61 to 70
1984 to 1993
Subject Index: Ethics
Anonymous Attribution in Network News (K. Tim Wulfemeyer and Lori L. McFadden), 63:468-73.
Blacks in the News: Television, Modern Racism and Cultural Change (Robert M. Entman), 69:341-61.
Channel One in High School Classrooms: Advertising Content Aimed at Students (K. Tim Wulfemeyer and Barbara Mueller), 69:724-42.
A Clash Over Race: Tennessee Governor Ellington versus CBS, 1960 (David E. Sumner), 68:541-47.
Colorization and Moral Rights: Should the United States Adopt Unified Protection for Artists? (Roger Cooper) 68:465-73.
Corrections Policies in Local Television News: A Survey (Michael E. Cremedas), 69:166-72.
Deciding the Limits of Taste in Editorial Cartooning (Daniel Riffe, Donald Sneed and Roger L. Van Ommeren), 64:607-10.
Defining Ethics in Electronic Journalism: Perceptions of News Directors (K. Tim Wulfemeyer), 67:984-91.
Ethical Values, the Flow of Journalistic Information and Public Relations Persons (Michael Ryan and David L. Martinson), 61:27-34.
Ethics, Journalism and Television: Bibliographic Constellations, Black Holes (Thomas W. Cooper), 65:450-59.
Farm Journalists and Advertiser Influence: Pressures on Ethical Standards (Robert G. Hays and Ann E. Reisner), 68:172-78.
Feeling the Heat from Advertisers: Farm Magazine Writers and Ethical Pressures (Robert G. Hays and Ann E. Reisner), 67:936-42.
How Managing Editors View and Deal with Newspaper Ethical Issues (Douglas Anderson), 64:341-45.
Impact of Ethics Codes on Judgments by Journalists: A Natural Experiment (David Pritchard and Madelyn Peroni Morgan), 66:934-41.
Individual Differences in Ethical Values of Public Relations Practitioners (Jacob Shamir, Barbara Strauss Reed and Steven Connell), 67:956-63.
Is Ethical Journalism Simply Objective Reporting? (John C. Merrill), 62:391-93.
Is the Medium the Message?: An Experimental Test with Morbid News (Ellen M. Bennett, Jill Dianne Swenson and Jeff S. Wilkinson), 69:921-28.
Issue Importance and Trust in Mass Media (Albert Gunther and Dominic L. Lasorsa), 63:844-48.
Measuring the Concept of Credibility (Cecilie Gaziano and Kristin McGrath), 63:451-62.
Motives for Ethical Decision-Making (Michael W. Singletary, Susan Caudill, Edward Caudill and Allen White), 67:964-72.
Newspaper Editors’ Attitudes Reflect Ethical Doubt on Surreptitious Recording (S. Elizabeth Bird), 62:284-88.
Non-Monetary Conflicts in Interest for Newspaper Journalists (Katherine C. McAdams), 63:700-05, 727.
Numbers versus Pictures: Did Network Television Sensationalize Chernobyl Coverage? (Carole Gorney), 69:455-65.
Objectivity in Journalism: A Search and a Reassessment (Richard Streckfuss), 67:973-83.
Public Expectations of Media Versus Standards in Codes of Ethics (Sandra Braman), 65:71-77.
Responsibility of Newspaper for Errors in Supplement (James G. Schneider), 61:905-07.
The Right to Know vs. the Right of Privacy: Newspaper Identification of Crime Victims (Rita Wolf, Tommy Thomason and Paul LaRocque), 64:503-507.
Self-Regulation Broadcasting Revisited (Bruce A. Linton), 64:483-90.
The Smoking and Health Issue in Newspapers: Influence of Regional Economies, the Tobacco Institute and News Objectivity (C. Kevin Swisher and Stephen D. Reese), 69:987-1000.
A Survey of Correction Policies of Arkansas Newspapers (Gilbert L. Fowler and Tommy L. Mumert), 65:853-58.
Validating an Ethical Motivations Scale: Convergence and Predictive Ability (H. Allen White and R. Charles Pearce), 68:455-64.
Media Ethics 1999 Abstracts
Media Ethics Interest Group
An Intellectual History Of Mass Media Ethics • Clifford Christians and John Nerone, Illinois • Examining the case of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s reporting on Chiquita, we argue that media ethics is challenged to support media critique and political actions. We trace this impasse in media ethics historically, identifying a continuing reliance on utilitarianism and modernist rationalism. We conclude by looking to a dialog among Habermasism discourse ethics, communitarianism and feminism for scholars.
Ethics On Trial: Courts Scrutinize Plaintiff Journalists’ Roles in Defamation Cases • Constance K. Davis, Iowa • Two plaintiff journalists lost defamation cases in 1998. In both cases courts scrutinized the journalists’ ethics and found their actions had helped turn them into limited-purpose public figures. In one case, a photojournalist had taken his concerns about staged photographs in Time magazine to a computer discussion group. In another, a broadcast journalist got into the middle of the failed ATF raid at the Branch Davidian compound, helped move wounded agents and shared his information with other media.
To Council or Not To Council: Debunking Common Myths and Fears About The National News Council • L. Paul Husselbee, Lamar University • Three common assumptions seem to have emerged from speculation about the demise of the National News Council. These assumptions, coupled with journalists’ concerns about news councils in general, are frequently cited as reasons not to consider news councils as a viable mechanism of media accountability. This analysis of the complaints filed with the National News Council finds no evidence to support these assumptions. It suggests that journalists’ traditional “news council phobia” is just that-an irrational fear.
Press, Privacy and Presidential Proceedings: Moral Judgments and the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair • Jennifer L. Lambe, Christina L. Fiebich and Darcia Narvaez, Minnesota • This exploratory study examines the relationship between levels of moral judgment and various attitudes towards the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and subsequent impeachment proceedings. Trends suggest that individuals with higher levels of moral reasoning take a more systemic view of political controversies. Expectations about Presidential competence and character are found to be highly correlated with attitudes concerning the private lives of public officials. Both demographic characteristics and attitudinal variables are shown to be associated with the level of blame assigned to the news media in shaping the Clinton-Lewinsky situation.
Value System Changes Resulting from a Media Ethics Course: A Postmodern Perspective • Larry Z. Leslie, South Florida • This pre- and post-test study examined value system changes resulting from a media ethics course. Over three semesters, seventy-four students participated in the study. They were given Rokeach’s lists of terminal and instrumental values on the first day and again on the last day of class and asked to rank each value on the lists in terms of its importance to them. The study was designed to answer several questions about the degree to which formal instruction in ethics could be influential in students changing the relative importance of several values, particularly those deemed important and less important to contemporary, postmodern culture.
Conservation vs. Dynamism: Five Versions of a Code of Ethics-A Case Study of the Israel Broadcasting Authority • Yehiel Limor, Tel-Aviv University and Ines Gabel, The Open University • The Nakdi Document is the code of ethics and practice of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (‘BA). Since it was drawn up in 1972, the document was updated four times (in 1979, 1985, 1995 and 1998) and expanded fourfold. The significant changes during the years reflect the unique position of the ‘BA as a public broadcasting organization. The research analyses the changes and the political, religious, cultural and professional reasons and circumstances for these changes.
A Research Agenda for Establishing a Grounding for Journalistic Ethics • Dan Shaver, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The author suggests a model derived from modified professional theory and a set of characteristics for a system of media ethics that may avoid some of the difficulties of traditional approaches. The model proposes the cultivation of a relationship of trust based on bargains between individual news organizations and the immediate public they serve. A six-phase research agenda for testing the basic assumptions and for developing and implementing the model is proposed.
Telling It Like It Is: Letters To The Editor Discuss Journalism Ethics in 10 American Magazines, 1962-1972-1982-1992 • Brian Thornton, Northern Illinois University • This research found that: Negative letters increased from 47% negative in 1962 to 93% negative in 1992; Letters about journalism declined 95 percent during the study period; Themes in the letters changed from ethical concerns about truth to the view that objectivity has been abandoned. These findings add a largely unexplored dimension to the topic of public opinion and press ethics while building on Hazel Dicken-Garcia’s research into letters in the 1800s.
Autonomy and Accountability: Reassessing the National News Council • Erik Ugland, Minnesota • This study examines complaints brought before the National News Council, which operated from 1973 to 1984. It seeks to answer the arguments and assumptions posed by opponents of the Council that the Council was biased against the news media and therefore intruded on their autonomy. It seeks evidence of bias by examining disparities in the success of media respondents versus public complainants and disparities in the voting patterns of individual members of the Council.
Rights, Wrongs and Responsibilities: The Nexus of Law and Ethics in the Newsroom • Paul S. Voakes, Indiana University • How do journalists sort out the tangle of legal rights and ethical responsibilities in their everyday news work? In a survey of 1,037 journalists and in-depth interviews with 22 others, this project found substantial evidence for three models of the relationship of law and ethics: A Separate Realms model, a Correspondence model and a new “Responsibility Model,” in which the law is considered in problematic situations but only as one of several considerations in what is essentially an ethical decision.
Media Ethics 2000 Abstracts
Media Ethics Division
Searching for the Journalist Phrenemos: An Exploratory Study of the Ethical Development of News Workers • Renita Coleman and Lee Wilkins, Missouri • More than 2,500 years ago Aristotle defined the ethical person as a phrenemos. More contemporary research has focused on moral development. Almost every type of profession that must grapple with ethical issues has been studied in the context of moral reasoning, except journalists. This research proposes to measure journalists’ moral development in order to compare them with other professionals, and to discover which variables are the most significant predictors of higher moral reasoning in journalists — that is, to model the journalist phrenemos.
Covering the Ethics of Death: An Exploration of Three Model Approaches • David A. Craig, Oklahoma • Through an in-depth textual analysis, this paper examines portrayal of the ethics of assisted suicide and euthanasia in three 1998 newspaper pieces that are exemplary in the depth of their of their treatment of ethics — and therefore, it is argued, ethically responsible in their coverage. Presentation of deontological and consequentialist issues and of ethical questions and themes is examined in these pieces, and implications for ethics coverage are discussed.
Of Joint Ventures, Sock Puppets and New Media Synergy: Ethical Codes and the Emergence of Institutional Conflicts of Interest • Charles N. Davis & Stephanie Craft, Missouri • The trend toward cross-ownership raises ethical concerns about entanglements created in the name of synergy. Ethics scholarship routinely defines conflict of interest as an individual act, which ignores the rise of the media conglomerate. This paper introduces the institutional conflict of interest. The paper outlines how media consolidation creates new conflicts of interest by outlining the term’s definitions in various professions and providing a revised definition that encompasses institutional conflicts of interest.
Ethics for Editors: What 11 Editing Textbooks Teach • Susan Keith, North Carolina • Newspaper copy editors have a vital, though often unheralded, role to play in the production of ethical journalism. As the last people to see newspaper stories before publication, they have the opportunity to raise questions that can save newspapers from unnecessarily harming readers or sources or hurting their own credibility. Copy editors can do this, however, only if they develop a good sense of how ethical principles apply to their jobs. One source for such information is the editing textbook.
Contractualist Morality in News Reporting: What Journalists Owe to Story Subjects, News Sources and The Public • Kathleen L. Mason, Syracuse • Tim Scanlon’s “What we owe to each other” is the most recent substantive addition to ethical theory, and his contractualist theory is the topic of heated philosophical debate. His central notion, that right and wrong “are judgments about what would be permitted by principles that could not reasonably be rejected,” is presented in application to situations faced in daily life. This paper examines how Scanlon’s theory might be used by journalists as they seek to balance their duty to the public against their duties to the subjects and sources.
Beyond Kant Lite: Journalists and the Categorical Imperative • Lee Anne Peck, Ohio • The misunderstanding of Kant’s ethical theory by journalists comes in many forms. According to John Merrill, journalists may thing that if they apply the Categorical Imperative (CI), they are nothing more than “moral robots.” The CI, however, does not tell a person what to do; thus, this paper explores what the CI really entails and what journalists can take from it.
Philosophy in the Trenches: How Newspaper Editors Approach Ethical Questions • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Syracuse • This study sought to identify the various strains of philosophical principles brought to bear on ethical dilemmas by working journalists. A nationwide survey of newspaper managing editors and news editors solicited actual ethical dilemmas and examined how respondents assessed statements that corresponded to various philosophical principles. The study suggested that journalists tend to favor specific philosophical approaches when they are confronted with certain types of ethical questions, affirming calls by some media ethicists for a “pluralistic” approach in newsrooms.
The Concept of Media Accountability Reconsidered • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Syracuse • The concept of media accountability is widely used but remains inadequately defined in the literature and often is restricted to a one-dimensional interpretation. This study explores perceptions of accountability as manifestations of claims to responsibility, based on philosophical conceptions of the two terms, and suggests media accountability to be more broadly understood as a dynamic of interaction between a given medium and the value sets of individuals or groups receiving messages. The shape-shifting nature of the concept contributes to the volatility of debate surrounding conflicting notions of press freedom and responsibility.
Electronic Discussion Groups: An Effective Journalistic Ethical Forum? • Thomas E. Ruggiero, Texas-El Paso • Mass communication literature suggests a perceived ineffectuality of past and current journalistic ethical forums, such as news councils, ombudsmen, ethical codes, academic analysis and journalism reviews, by American journalists. This study investigates the ramifications of the recent introduction of electronic discussion groups, such as “LISTSERVs” and “electronic mailing lists,” as a mode of journalistic ethical discussion. Results of an e-mail questionnaire to 139 working journalists at 69 daily general-interest U.S. newspapers suggest that, while American journalists are overwhelmingly using e-mail to conduct both professional and personal business, it is unlikely, at least at this time, that very many are logging on to electronic discussion groups to discuss ethical issues.
Reporting on Private Affairs Of Public People: A Longitudinal Study of Newspaper Ethical Practices and Concerns, 1993-1999 • Sigman Splichal and Bruce Garrison, Miami • In 1987, after the Miami Herald reported that Democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart had spent a night in a Washington D.C. townhouse with a young model, a national debate ensued over the proper bounds of reporting about the private lives of public officials. As that debate matured, the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee summed it up: “ . . . the rules have certainly changed.” The New Republic also weighed in on the issue: The Herald had “opened a sluice gate that will not be easily closed.”
The Moral Authority of the Minnesota News Council: Statements of Principle and Uses of Precedent • Erik Forde Ugland and Jack Breslin, Minnesota • This study addresses the Minnesota News Council’s moral authority — that is, its ability to serve as a referent for the moral choices of others — and how its authority is affected by perceptions of its legitimacy. After analyzing all of the Council’s 125 written determinations, the authors argue that the Council’s legitimacy and authority could be enlarged by clearer statements of ethical principles, explicit expressions of standards of conduct, and more consistent references to precedent.
Testing A Theoretical Model of Journalistic Invasion of Privacy Using Structural Equation Modeling • Samuel P. Winch and L. Kim Tan, Nanyang Tech • Data on invasion of privacy — such as stories identifying crime victims, photographs of grieving people and stories about people’s financial status — obtained through a content analysis of newspapers over 30 years were analyzed with social/structural data such as literacy rate, crime rate and urbanization to validate a theoretical model of privacy using structural equation modeling. Tentatively, urbanization and industrialization seem to predict a decreased incidence in certain types of journalistic invasion of privacy.
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