Media Ethics 2007 Abstracts
Media Ethics Division
The Trouble With Transparency: The Challenge of Doing Journalism Ethics in a Surveillance Society • David Allen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • This paper argues for a more complex understanding of how the ethic of transparency is used within American journalism. Following the ethical theories of Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault, it suggests that transparency has become central to debates about identity formation, disputes over professional jurisdiction, and how journalists have come to cover political events. It calls for the articulation of an ethical framework to justify when transparency is needed.
When is the Truth Not the Truth? Truth Telling and Libel by Implication • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, Washington State University • Implied libel cases involve defamatory news stories composed entirely of factual, truthful material, which challenges ordinary libel law and ethical norms. This research applies philosophical theories of truth to determine how judges articulate expectations of truth from news media.
Revising journalism ethics through cultural humanism: Lessons from the press coverage in Iraq • Peggy Bowers, Clemson • Previous philosophical viewpoints guiding journalism ethics have become an impediment. Journalism ethics cannot respond to the exigencies of contemporary media practices or the demands of a global community. This paper argues that a framework that more closely reflects the lived human experience can move journalism ethics forward. It offers a preliminary sketch of cultural humanism and then illustrates these features through two case studies from coverage of the Muslim world.
Ethical Guidelines for the Media’s Coverage of Crime Victims • Jack Breslin, Iona College • This study suggests ethical guidelines for the media’s coverage of crime victims utilizing practical and theoretical approaches drawn from several ethical major philosophies. These guidelines should aid journalists in reaching an ethical balance between the needs of the crime victim and the demands of the news media
Universal Principles in Autonomous Systems • Michael Bugeja; Iowa State University • This analysis investigates the existence of universal principles in technological systems. Principles are grounded in space, culture and time, which Internet may obliterate and/or obfuscate. What is the effect of that in a multimedia environment without physical and linear dimensions? Do principles metamorphose in tact in cyberspace (which is no space at all) or do they falter? Discussion focuses on unexplored nuances of theory in virtual environments with recommendations for applications and future study.
The Suffocating Ethicist: A Model of Journalistic Ethical Constraints • Jenn Burleson Mackay, University of Alabama • Journalists are encapsulated by constraining forces that shape their ethical decisions. Individual traits play a significant role in journalistic ethical choices, but additional influences come from the type of media that employ the journalist in addition to organizational, professional, and cultural factors. This paper builds on previous models of structural constraints and proposes a new model of journalistic ethics, which suggests that media that employ journalists act as filters that exert control over ethical decisions.
Forgive Me Now, Fire Me Later: Journalism Students’ Perceptions on Academic and Journalistic Ethics • Mike Conway and Jacob Groshek, Indiana University • Survey data on journalism students’ perceptions of plagiarism and fabulism indicate that students are more concerned about ethical breaches in journalism than in academics. Further analyses found that students near graduation had higher levels of concern and suggested harsher penalties for unethical journalistic behavior, as did students with experience in student media or internships, specifically journalistic ones. Results here demonstrate that applied media experiences and coursework are crucial in developing future journalists’ perceptions of ethical behavior.
Communitarian Theory and Health Journalism: The Feeling is Mutuality • Megan Cox, University of Oklahoma • Health information has become increasingly popular has a news topic. Journalists must decipher complicated information for audiences who may have difficulty understanding the complex news. In this paper, a normative theory such as Communitarianism shows that it may offer some direction in formulating a health story; however, freedom of expression under the First Amendment must be protected over any obligation placed on a journalist.
The Third Person Effect and Reporting Sexual Assault Victims’ Private Information: Applying Mass Communication Theory to an Ethical Dilemma • Erin Coyle, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill • In the wake of high profile sexual assaults, some journalists claim it is time to reconsider policies that perpetuate the stigma of sexual assault. For decades, most American newspapers have withheld victims’ names, recognizing that naming victims could deepen their devastation and prevent others from reporting the crime. Little empirical research uses mass communication theory to inform the debate. This paper provides a roadmap for research to apply mass communication theory to the ethical dilemma.
The Ethics of Outing in the 21st Century: Two Case Studies • Gary Hicks, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas • The past few years have brought media and scholarly attention to a topic once thought passé – the outing of homosexual public figures in the United States. Using framing analysis, this study analyzes the nature of news coverage of both cases. A theory of media ethics is then used to examine the similarities and differences in how the two politicians were outed.
Global Journalism Ethics at the Turn of the 20th Century? Walter Williams in the ‘World Chaotic’ • Hans Ibold, University of Missouri • This paper identifies principles for global journalism ethics in speeches and essays by the early 20th century journalist and founder of the first journalism school, Walter Williams. Williams is not known as a media ethicist, nor is he a major figure in ongoing scholarly work on global journalism ethics. However, his nascent ethical principles offer an important foreshadowing of current discussions on how journalism ethics might work in a global context.
Salience of Stakeholders and Their Attributes in PR and Business News • Soo Jung Moon and Kideuk Hyun, University of Texas at Austin • This study examined which stakeholder groups are salient and whether there has been a change of salience after the Enron collapse. It also investigated which attributes — legitimacy, power and urgency — render certain stakeholders salient based on stakeholder and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory. Content analyses of press releases from fifty Fortune 500 companies and news stories of The New York Times and The Washington Post found the most frequently mentioned stakeholder was stockholders.
The ethics of the gory details • Kimberly Lauffer, Towson University • Using the framework of care-based social responsibility, this paper examines two news stories that had the potential for the inclusion of graphic details. The two journalists who wrote these stories gathered graphic details in the course of their reporting but differed in their choices to include those details. This paper argues that although multiple factors may have affected these journalists’ decisions, a care-based social responsibility framework evaluates one story as more ethical than the other.
Postconventional Reasoning in Public Relations: A Defining Issues Test of Australian and New Zealand Practitioners • Paul Lieber, University of South Carolina and Colin Higgins, Massey University • This study employed an online version of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) (Rest, 1979) to gather data on the ethical decision-making process patterns of 78, Australian and New Zealand public relations practitioners. Results displayed no statistically significant differences in levels of moral development based on country of origin. Political persuasion, however, proved salient to ethical prediction. Practitioners who self-identified as more liberal reasoned differently about their ethics than right-wing peers.
Serving Two Masters: Reconciling Journalistic Exceptionalism and a Codified Ethical Imperative • Gwyneth Mellinger; Baker University • The founders of the American Society of Newspaper Editors saw themselves as pioneers of newspaper ethics, but during the organization’s early decades, some members struggled to abide by the code the ASNE board had adopted in 1922. This paper examines three case studies in which journalistic exceptionalism, a manifestation of self-interest and blindness to double standards, prevented the ASNE from fulfilling its self-appointed role as standard bearer for journalism ethics.
Stalking the Paparazzi: A View from a Different View • Ray Murray, Oklahoma State University • Because of their pursuit of celebrities, paparazzi have a reputation for doing almost anything to get a photograph. This study examines what ethical standards Los Angeles paparazzi use while searching for a lucrative photograph and what boundaries they draw. The study found longtime paparazzi routinely establish ethical guidelines and are upset with newer paparazzi who do not and have much lower standards; as a result, the newer paparazzi are changing the business.
Dimensions of Journalistic Message Transparency • Chris Roberts, University of South Carolina • The past few years have seen new calls for news organizations to be “more transparent” with the public, but there has been little effort to explicate the construct of transparency. This paper uses the “source-message-channel-receiver” communication model to suggest 11 dimensions of messenger transparency, along an opaque-translucent-transparent continuum for each dimension. The ethical considerations of transparency are discussed.
An Ethical Exploration of Free Expression and the Problem of Hate Speech • Mark Slagle, University of North Carolina • The traditional Western notion of freedom of expression has been criticized in recent years by critical race theorists who argue that this ethos ignores the gross power imbalance between the users of hate speech and their victims. This paper examines the arguments put forth by both the proponents of the classical libertarian model and the critical race theorists and the competing ethical models behind these arguments in an effort to mediate between the two.
Karen Ryan is on the air – the VNR and hegemonic expediency in the newsroom • Burton St. John, Old Dominion University • In 2004, the New York Times broke the story that the Bush Administration had developed and disseminated a video news release (VNR) about the 2003 White House-backed Medicare law. This VNR appeared on more than 40 stations. Subsequent press stories and editorials framed the airing of the Ryan VNR as an unethical communication that violated journalism’s professional standards. This piece explores, from a deontological perspective, how journalists and scholars have articulated those standards.
Recovery in New Orleans and the Times-Picayune: Reviewing the Limits of Objectivity, the Possibilities of Advocacy and the Reform of Public Journalism • N.B. Usher, University of Southern California • Along with the challenges of daily life in post-Katrina New Orleans, journalists at the Times-Picayune face a philosophical dilemma: how can they construct fair and balanced news content in the aftermath of Katrina when virtually everyone has had their lives dramatically changed by the storm? This paper relies on interviews with journalists at the Times-Picayune to explore the ethical dilemmas facing this newsroom—including the limits of objectivity and the need for advocacy journalism.
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