This study investigates the ethical orientations journalism students bring to the profession they seek to enter. Using Q methodology to explore the participants' subjective conceptions of journalism, ...we map their attitudes and beliefs about journalistic norms and ethics. Participants (n = 54) sorted 28 statements about journalism from 'most like' their journalistic mindset to 'most unlike.' Factor analysis identified two distinct mindsets among the participants, one expressing a traditional journalistic mindset, the other embracing a more involved, vocal journalism. Yet both factors expressed strong support for many facets of traditional journalism and embraced an orientation towards the search for truth and the need for truthful reporting.
Media ethics in the Pacific Islands varies considerably among nations in practice, as shown in scholarship. This case study of 16 Marshall Islands journalists aims to provide evidence of ethical ...decision-making in practice in one Pacific Island nation, and demonstrate the intersection of imported journalism values and local culture. It builds on survey work of Pacific Island journalists’ roles by Singh and Hanusch (2021), the Worlds of Journalism study by Hanitzsch et al. (2019) and works by Robie (2004, 2014 and 2019). Responses from 16 journalists in the Republic of the Marshall Islands who made ethical decisions during a journalism workshop facilitated by the newly established Pacific Media Institute at the College of Marshall Islands in June 2022 were analysed. First, the participants identified ethical conflicts in carrying out their professional duties. Next, they applied standard ethics codes from democracies (absolutism), to local scenarios. Discussion centered on how to address the core value of independence because of dominance of the church and the strongly influential chiefly system in RMI. Personal relationships were also factored in their ethical decision-making because the journalists considered the perspectives of all stakeholders in reporting on Marshallese culture and society. They were keenly aware of the consequences of their reporting on their community. They offered unique, locally derived solutions from different perspectives. They often exhibited an ‘ethics of care', prioritising humanity and sometimes societal harmony.
Professional journalists rate investigating, fact checking, and standards of accuracy high among the qualities that set them apart from amateur journalists and bloggers. This paper addresses the ...spread and the implications of news "cannibalisation" (taking material from other news organisations, without attribution). It asks how the loss of exclusivity is impacting on practices of reporting and on standards of "accuracy" and "sincerity" and suggests that establishing new standards of transparency could help protect professional reporting in the new, networked era, as well as improving ethical standards in journalism.
The controversy about policy on HIV/AIDS in South Africa during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki provides an opportunity to study how journalists manage normative difficulties in practice and sheds ...light on normative change. The politically supported entry of AIDS dissidents into debate and policy-making posed a significant difficulty to journalists in the light of the established norm of balance, which requires journalists to deal even-handedly with the full range of views in a controversy. However, orthodox science and the medical establishment saw the AIDS dissidents’ views as both wrong and dangerous, and progressively delegitimised the dissident view and pushed it out of the public debate. The article traces this process, focusing on the ways in which journalists managed the normative challenge. Some insights about the nature of norms that emerged were that part of journalists’ difficulty is shown to be due to a fundamental vagueness and ambiguity in understandings of balance, which is shown to include two quite different areas of application, identified here as ‘balance of opinion’ and ‘balance of evidence’. Read in the light of the proceduralism of Habermasian discourse ethics, the episode also provides new insight into ways in which broad norms come to be applied in concrete historical circumstances, and how they are adjusted through strongly contested discourses.
With the institutionalization of algorithms as content creators, professional journalism is facing transformation and novel ethical challenges. This article focuses on the concept of Algorithmic ...Journalism on the basis of natural language generation and provides a framework to identify and discuss ethical issues. The analysis builds on the moral theories of deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and contractualism, and remaps the ethical discussion for Algorithmic Journalism at the intersection of digital media ethics and cyber ethics. In order to capture the whole range of potential shifts and challenges in journalism ethics, the article combines the ethical multi-layer system of responsibility by Pürer with the classification of journalism by Weischenberg, Malik, and Scholl on an organizational, professional/individual, and social/audience sphere. This analytical framework is then complemented with attributes derived from the technical potential of Algorithmic Journalism. As a result, the analysis uncovers new ethical challenges and shifts of responsibility in news production for journalism practice and journalism research at the levels of objectivity, authority, transparency, and at the level of implicit or explicit values.
Much of the research about disasters has focused on the poor and unethical practices of journalists reporting on disasters, but relatively little has been written about best practice approaches to ...news media coverage of such events. This article uses two sources of data, interviews with senior emergency managers in eight countries and the body of research on news media coverage of disasters, to develop a best practice schema for journalists reporting disasters in two phases – before they occur and as they unfold. There is relatively little research on best practice approaches to reporting disasters; therefore, we also include the literature about news media coverage of disasters as this enabled identification of key problems with reportage of disasters. We conclude this article with suggestions about how this schema might be further refined and note some additional areas for research that might be pursued as a result of the best practice approach.
In an effort to put more eyeballs on television sets, and in an attempt to reinvigorate a sport long beleaguered by doping scandals, recent questions surrounding female sponsorships, and a vanishing ...audience, the International Association of Athletic Federations unveiled a new camera designed by Seiko during the September 2019 World Championships held in Doha, Quatar. The idea was to add to an immersive experience, offering unparalleled views of sprinters at the moment they exploded from the starting blocks. Like many things during the Doha meet, the effort became an ending to a bad joke. Rather than getting to the heart of the event, the camera’s focus was a bit lower; the Seiko angle became known derisively as the crotch shot. After objections by two female German sprinters the positioning of the camera angle (specifically what would be shown when) was reconsidered, reframed, and essentially retired. Control of the body, including how it is observed, and the closely related idea of the control of one’s image are bound by certain ethical dimensions, particularly when that control is violated or profited from by outside parties. This paper interrogates how those concerns may be ameliorated by embracing an ethics of care.
This historical case study explored the existence of a hero mythology that might relate to journalists. The study also sought to determine if such a mythology supports a macho culture that encourages ...journalists to take risks on the job and shrug off the psychological impact of their work.
This study used qualitative methods to analyze news stories about 381 U.S. journalists who died from 1854 to 2019 and whose names appear on the virtual Journalists Memorial, now the focus of a Congressionally-authorized project to build a corresponding monument on federal land in Washington, DC. The stories invoked themes found in classic hero myths with the fallen journalists seen as giving their lives in service to greater journalistic values, including bearing witness and pursuing the truth. These stories espoused qualities absent from journalistic codes, such as courage and a type of stoicism that involved ignoring the consequences of dangerous assignments.
Ghostwriting became a popular practice in sports journalism during the 1920s, as championed by sports press agent Christy Walsh. The practice has re-emerged in the 21st century, in social media and ...particularly as demonstrated by the new website The Players’ Tribune. Its popularity encourages ethical discussion about ghostwriting’s conflation of journalism and public relations, and the ethical debate it incites. Particular attention centers on the core journalism value of transparency, as it relates to both professions. The article posits that the blurring of professional boundaries between public relations and journalism can have detrimental effects to the credibility of both fields. The authors call for greater transparency in the use of ghostwriting, particularly when used in a sports journalism setting.
Using two recent controversies involving campus social justice protests and student news organizations, this study uses an interdisciplinary lens to examine free expression and normative journalism ...ethics discourse. It explores themes related to First Amendment rights and values, journalism ethics, and racial justice, asking which are evident and absent in opinion journalism focused on the cases. It examines universities' dual missions of supporting free expression and advancing the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
