Volume 19.3/19.4 (2004)
Special Issue: Ethics Across the Professions
Three Essays on Journalism and Virtue
by Stuart Adam, Carleton University--Poynter Institute; Stephanie Craft, University of Missouri; Elliot Cohen, Indian River Community College
The authors are concerned in these essays with virtue in journalism and the media, but are mindful of the tension between the commercial foundations of publishing and broadcasting, on the one hand, and journalism’s democratic obligations on the other. Adam outlines, first, a moral vision of journalism focusing on individualistic concepts of authorship and craft. The next essay by Craft attempts to bridge individual and organizational concerns by examining the obligations of organizations to the individuals working within them. Finally, Cohen discusses the importance of resisting the powerful corporate logic that pervades the news media in the U.S. and calls on journalists to be courageous.
The One-Sided Obligations of Journalism
by Michael Davis, Illinois Institute of Technology
Barger and Barney have offered a number of reasons for the public, the news media, and journalism to develop special mutually-supportive standards of conduct. But they imbedded these reasonable suggestions in an argument that claims far more than can be delivered. In explaining what’s wrong with their argument, I place journalistic ethics within a general theory of professional ethics.
Professional-Client Relationships: Rethinking Confidentiality, Harm, and Journalists’ Public Health Duties
by Renita Coleman, Louisiana State University; Thomas May, Medical College of Wisconsin
Journalists seldom consider the layers of those affected by their actions; third parties such as families, children, and even people unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This paper argues for consideration of the broader group, considering a range of options available for doing their duty to inform the public while also minimizing harm others. Journalists might compare themselves with other professions that have similar roles; anthropologists, for one on such issues as confidentiality and disclosure. A broader lesson is the value of applying different views, theoretical frameworks, and starting points to the ethical issues in any profession.
Power, Ethics, and Journalism: Toward an Integrative Approach
by Peggy Bowers, Clemson University; Christopher Meyers, University of California-Bakersfield; Anantha Babbili, Middle Tennessee State University
While we think one of the basic purposes of journalism is to provide information vital to enhancing citizen autonomy, we also see this goal as being in direct tension with the power that news media hold and wield, power that often serves to undercut, rather than enhance, citizen autonomy. We argue that the news media are ethically constrained by proceduralism, resulting in journalists asserting power inappropriately at the individual level while unwittingly surrendering moral authority institutionally and globally. Anonymity, institutionalization, and routinization cloak power relationships among citizens, journalists and the institutions of which they are a part, ultimately inculcating these distinctly Western values in the global community.
Media-Citizen Reciprocity as a Moral Mandate
by Wendy Barger, University of St. Thomas; Ralph D. Barney, Brigham Young University
A participatory democracy necessarily minimizes legal restraints on its citizens, substituting, for the common good, moral obligations on citizens to contribute with their activities. This paper argues a democratic society is endangered unless both media and citizens accept reciprocal moral obligations related to the distribution and use of information. Journalists are expected to facilitate the distribution of information and engage citizens usefully in the knowledge process, fueling the participatory engine that drives a democracy. Citizens, in return have a reciprocal obligation to expose themselves to useful information, respond publicly, tolerate (and even encourage) diversity, and protect media autonomy.
Accountability in the Professions; Accountability in Journalism
by Lisa H. Newton, Fairfield University; Louis W. Hodges, Washington and Lee University; Susan Keith, Arizona State University
Accountability is viewed as a civilizing element in society, with professional accountability formalized in most cases as duties dating to the Greeks and Socrates, while journalists must find their own way, without formal professional or government regulation/licensing. Three scholars look at the process in a line from the formal professional discipline to suggesting problems the journalism fraternity faces without regulation to suggesting serious internal ethics conferences as one solution to the problem.
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