Journalism ethics: a philosophical approach

(ed.)
New York: Oxford University Press (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Since the introduction of radio and television news, journalism has gone through multiple transformations, but each time it has been sustained by a commitment to basic values and best practices. Journalism Ethics is a reminder, a defense and an elucidation of core journalistic values, with particular emphasis on the interplay of theory, conceptual analysis and practice. The book begins with a sophisticated model for ethical decision-making, one that connects classical theories with the central purposes of journalism. Top scholars from philosophy, journalism and communications offer essays on such topics as objectivity, privacy, confidentiality, conflict of interest, the history of journalism, online journalism, and the definition of a journalist. The result is a guide to ethically sound and socially justified journalism-in whatever form that practice emerges. Journalism Ethics will appeal to students and teachers of journalism ethics, as well as journalists and practical ethicists in general.

Categories

Keywords

Call number

PN4756.J665 2010

ISBN(s)

9780195370805   9780195370799   0195370791   0195370805
View all bargains

Buy this book

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 86,441

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Chapters

Conflicting loyalties and personal choices.Jacqui Banaszynski
Who is a journalist?Jay Black
As Lee Wilkins argues in her article in this collection, journalism seems to come into its own during natural disasters. The sheer drama of such events makes for great storytelling and provides a national showcase for the talents of local reporters. This was illustrated again in 2005 when the great flood caused by Hurricane Katrina overcame New Orleans and chased out the staff of the Times-Picayune. At first, the paper was unable to issue a print edi-tion and instead published on its affiliated Nola ... [REVIEW]Sandra L. Borden
The moral justification for journalism.Sandra Borden
In nearly every survey of public opinion and the media, privacy is a premiere issue if the press wishes to main its credibility. The laws safeguarding privacy are impressive, but legal prescriptions are an inadequate foundation for the news business. Privacy is not a legal right only but a moral good. For all of the sophistication of case law and tort law in protecting privacy, legal definitions do not match today's challenges. Merely following the letter of the law presumes the law can be determined ... [REVIEW]Clifford G. Christians
The ethics of privacy.Clifford G. Christians
Moral development and journalism.Renita Coleman
Journalistic independence as first amendment guarantee and moral obligation.Stephanie Craft
Why journalism is a profession.Michael Davis
At the December 2001 media week conference for investors, sponsored by Credit Suisse and staged in the grand ballroom of the Plaza Hotel, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. led the New York Times presentation team. Business was only fair after eight months of recession, but Chairman Sulzberger bantered ligh-tly with then CEO Russ Lewis. Putting on his publisher's hat, an exuberant Sulzberger turned to editorial matters. He bobbed on the balls of his feet at the podium as he talked about his flagship paper's coverage ... [REVIEW]Rick Edmonds
The decline of the news business".Rick Edmonds
An explanation and a method for the ethics of journalism.Deni Elliott & David Ozar
The aim of this chapter is to help readers understand their responsibilities as persons and as journalists, and to provide them with a framework for addressing the ethical issues that routinely arise in the practice of journalism. Our approach, which is informed by the basic tenets of Western ethical tradi-tions and which borrows from Ozar's and Elliott's previous works, develops from the abstract to the concrete. 1 That is, we move from a discussion of the purpose of journalism, and the specific values ... [REVIEW]Deni Elliott
Is objective news possible?Carrie Figdor
Freedom House, an organization that promotes democratic values around theworld, annually ranks nations by the amount of freedom they accord to the press. Perhaps surprisingly, the United States does not appear in the top ten of recent rankings. Despite the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits laws that would abridge free press rights, and widespread agreement that the United States is among the most democratic nations in the world, the United States shares the number-sixteen ranking ... [REVIEW]Press Freedom
Understanding and respecting privacy.Candace Gauthier
Ethics and images : five major concerns.Paul Martin Lester
Introduction.Christopher Meyers
Image ethics in personal and public domains.Julianne H. Newton & Rick Williams
Twenty-first-century journalism juxtaposes words with still photographs, graphics, cartoons, video, sound, and animation in seamless presentations intended to be understood as real. As images work with words and music in short-and long-form journalistic presentations alongside advertising and entertainment media, fact and fantasy merge, dancing together in human memory as if all are real. These increasingly sophisticated messages, conveyed by media of every function and form, deserve careful attention ... [REVIEW]Julianne H. Newton & Rick Williams
The ethos of "getting the story".Patrick Lee Plaisance
Understanding and Respecting Privacy.Candace Cummings Gauthier
Respecting sources; confidentiality : critical but not absolute.Aaron Quinn
Journalism's tangled web : business, ethics and professional practice.Ian Richards
Journalists, embracing the Internet with varying degrees of enthusiasm, have gradually adapted to characteristics of the medium. Many of those adapta-tions have involved work practices, in particular those to accommodate delivery of multimedia content—text, audio, video, and so on. Although this “conver-gence” involves some ethical issues, it requires adjustments mostly in skills and techniques. [REVIEW]Jane B. Singer
The practice of journalism : digital journalism.Jane Singer
Covering a world that's falling apart, when yours is too".Marty Steffens
B etween falling media revenues and the global financial crisis, the world in autumn 2008 had become topsy-turvy for journalists. The Dow Jones Index had lost $1 trillion in just one week, and the newspaper industry was in such disarray that fifty media CEOs huddled in a closed-door “crisis summit” to attempt to resuscitate the industry and stem the tide of declining ad revenues and resulting journalist layoffs. [REVIEW]When Yours Is Too
Inventing objectivity : new philosophical foundations.Stephen J. A. Ward
A robust future for conflict of interest".Edward Wasserman
C onflict of interest has become a signature element in the claim by Internet-based commentators to moral superiority over their legacy news media counterparts. The insistence of so-called mainstream journalists that they are free not just of private material entanglements but of personal sympathies that might tilt their reporting and commentary is brandished as a prime exhibit in the indictment of the media establishment as hypocritical, secretly biased, and unworthy of public trust.Edward Wasserman
Global news media have contributed to a world where we are confronted with the faces of Others we will never meet. Although the interconnec-tions between people in a globalized world are often overstated, it is hard not to agree with Zygmunt Bauman when he speaks of “being aware of the pain, mis-ery and suffering of countless people whom we will never meet in person.” 1 In today's globalized world, news media have brought distant people closer, and the media confront us with a moral responsibility for ... [REVIEW]Herman Wasserman
The search for global media ethics.Herman Wasserman
Mitigation watchdogs : the ethical foundation for a journalist's role.Lee Wilkins
Consumers and the news : the ethical responsibilities of news consumers.Wendy Wyatt
M uch of the literature on journalism ethics considers journalists' duties in light of their responsibilities to multiple stakeholders, including, impor-tantly, citizens. James W. Carey took seriously this connection between the press and the public. In one of his more eloquent and memorable passages, Carey described the bond this way. [REVIEW]Wendy N. Wyatt
The Ethical Obligations of News Consumers.Wendy Wyatt

Similar books and articles

Journalistic independence as first amendment guarantee and moral obligation.Stephanie Craft - 2010 - In Christopher Meyers (ed.), Journalism Ethics: A Philosophical Approach. Oxford University Press.
Public journalism and public life: why telling the news is not enough.Davis Merritt - 1995 - Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Making hard choices in journalism ethics: cases and practice.David E. Boeyink - 2010 - New York, NY: Routledge. Edited by Sandra L. Borden.
Ethical issues in journalism and the media.Andrew Belsey & Ruth F. Chadwick (eds.) - 1992 - New York: Routledge.
Journalism ethics: arguments and cases.Martin Hirst - 2005 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Roger Patching.
Journalism, Ethics and Society.David Berry - 2008 - Ashgate.
The practice of journalism : digital journalism.Jane Singer - 2010 - In Christopher Meyers (ed.), Journalism Ethics: A Philosophical Approach. Oxford University Press.
Ethics & journalism.Karen Sanders - 2003 - Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-07-29

Downloads
325 (#49,150)

6 months
21 (#91,219)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Christopher Meyers
California State University, Bakersfield

Citations of this work

Journalism Ethics' Eightfold Truths.Edward H. Spence - 2010 - Journal of Mass Media Ethics 25 (3):246-250.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Why privacy is important.James Rachels - 1975 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 4 (4):323-333.
Privacy, intimacy, and personhood.Jeffrey Reiman - 1976 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 6 (1):26-44.
Three Essays on Journalism and Virtue.G. Stuart Adam, Stephanie Craft & Elliot D. Cohen - 2004 - Journal of Mass Media Ethics 19 (3-4):247-275.
Enforcing media codes.Clifford Christians - 1985 - Journal of Mass Media Ethics 1 (1):14 – 21.

View all 17 references / Add more references