Be good, do right – Mother

Stories:

St. Paul Pioneer Press – University of Minnesota basketball

Arthur Ashe

Richard Jewell

Billy Sipple

Ethical considerations

Ethical behavior must be considered at three levels:

--Personal – to what ethical standard do we aspire

honesty

civic responsibility

integrity

civil behavior

--Professional – what is the job we must do for society; how must we do it

what are out ethical duties as members of the academic community?

-- Societal – what are the demands of society

When the demands of all three of these levels coincide, all is well.

When they conflict, all is not well.

Mass media ethics

What is the mass media (or news media) supposed to do? How is it supposed to go about its job? Is the process more important than the outcome?

The jobs of the mass media

-- gather information

-- distribute information in a way that informs society

-- do this with a maximum of good and minimum of harm

-- act independently

-- act openly

-- respect the audience; remember that they are individuals as well as groups

-- stay financially healthy

-- offer employment; protect employees

Necessarily, these jobs must be prioritized; some are more important than others.

Expectations about how this will happen

The process of operation of the news media becomes important – some might say all important.

-- honesty in all things

-- openness in operation (to some extent); no hidden agendas

-- identification

-- fairness

-- respect for what they are doing – knowledge that what media do can affect people's lives

-- respect for individuals  -- sources; individual's emotions

-- integrity (keeping confidences)

-- respect for the law and legal processes

Common ethical dilemmas

-- falsifying information (Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, Janet Cooke)

-- plagiarism – using the words and information of others without giving credit

-- privacy – intruding on the lives of individuals; a constant problem that happens as part of the natural process of gathering and disseminating news

-- independence – acting for the news organizations

Problem: when news organizations are owned by larger corporations and cross promote, do they make decisions that are in their self-interest rather than the interest of those they are supposed to serve?

-- balance and fairness – do (can) news media be fair, tell the whole story, present all points of view?

-- photos – continue to be a real problem

One approach to ethical problems: Loyalities

-- self – what are personal standards of integrity and ethics

-- organization and peers – what is expected? rewarded? what is the organization about and what does it value?

-- profession – what does the profession demand; what does it value?

-- society – what are the standards society expects.

Questions?