JOUR 344 — Journalism Ethics
Winter 2009
Prof. Brian Richardson
Reid 201
richardsonb@wlu.edu
Office: 540 458-8430
Course description:
This course is intended to help students meet the ethical challenges that arise in the practice of journalism. It also offers a grounding in moral reasoning and an understanding of journalism ethics as an evolving response to changing social and industrial conditions. Finally, it introduces some of the same perplexing problems journalists face at work, and helps students apply the principles they study in the first phase of the course to real-world issues.
Time and place:
Reid 216, Tuesdays and Thursdays CD, 10:10 – 11:45 a.m.
Objectives:
The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications recommends a set of competencies that courses such as this one are expected to cultivate. Please review them on our departmental web site, http://journalism.wlu.edu/. They are among our course objectives, along with the goals set forth here:
1.) Learn how Western moral philosophy — from the classics to contemporary feminist thought — has interpreted ethical obligation.
2.) Examine the changing substance of ethics codes as a way to understand how the practice of journalism has evolved.
3.) Analyze the wider challenges facing journalism to identify their ethical implications and understand institutional pressures on moral choice.
4.) Develop an understanding of journalism ethics as a response to the needs of a self-governing polity.
5.) Improve writing skills so you can produce cogent, well-focused analyses of complex matters of professional behavior.
6.) By examining cases, define the principles that run through different areas of newsroom practice to gain fluency in making ethics-related decisions.
7.) Understand how professional obligations may be refracted through the ethnic and racial realities of a multicultural society.
8.) Develop facility in wrangling with ethical issues in conditions similar to those of a workplace.
Readings
All readings will be on reserve in the Green Room (Reid 307) in folders marked J344. Remember that you will need to share the material with your seminar colleagues. If you borrow a reading to make your own photocopy, return it. If you intend to read the folder copy, do not remove it from the Green Room while you are reading it.
Ground rules:
Attendance
Come to class without fail, and come prepared. Do the reading before the session for which it is assigned, and attend all classes. Class participation, and participation in the Journalism Ethics Institute (see below) is a substantial chunk of your grade. If you cannot make it to a class because of illness or emergency, phone or email me before class to let me know the problem. Then, if you are ill and you haven’t already, report to the Student Health Service. If you are too sick to come to class, you need to be seen by a health care professional.
I will take attendance at the beginning of class. If you are not here when I take attendance, you’re not here. You should develop the self-discipline to get to class on time.
You’ll also get quizzes. They won’t be designed to trick, but you’ll have a tough time if you haven’t kept up with the readings and attended class faithfully.
We cover a lot of ground in 12 weeks. Attendance is vital.
This is a seminar. Its value depends on the contributions each of you makes. Please come to class having spent time reflecting on the readings and formulating arguments and questions. Do the reading before class. One of our goals is to develop facility in talking about these issues. In the real world they are handled through discussion, and for that you have to speak up. If you don’t, your grade will reflect your reticence. On the other hand, operating your mouth before engaging your mind, or laying down a verbal smoke screen to obscure the fact that you haven’t done the reading, is no way to succeed, either. Informed, thoughtful class participation is vital.
Writing
On those days marked with an asterisk on the class schedule each student will prepare a written analysis of the case listed. The papers should not exceed 4 pages. They should be smart and tightly focused, and should reflect your knowledge of the reading as manifested in your careful analysis of the case. Successful papers will have a clear statement of topic, be well organized, and will have no errors of grammar, taste, diction or spelling. Read your work aloud, listen to it, go back and fix it, read it aloud again, keep fixing. Until it sounds right, it isn’t. Errors of grammar, spelling or punctuation will each receive a 5-point deduction.
The topics pose questions without clear answers. I expect you to use this course to train your mind and to improve the quality, rigor and care of your thinking.
I’ll use your papers to continue conversations that begin in class and will try to offer useful comments. So although you may want to scroll down to find out the grade, please backtrack and read my markup carefully. I’ll make suggestions about your writing as well ¾ organization, word choice, syntax and the like. At the very least, if I point out a misspelling or a grammatical lapse, don’t repeat it in your next paper. (And remember that in this class, “media” is a plural noun.)
In addition, each of you will present a case that exemplifies an ethical problem and will lead a class discussion. That will require you both to analyze your case and to prepare questions intended to provoke discussion. Each of you must read all the cases so that you can participate in all discussions, even the ones you’re not leading.
I welcome preliminary versions of your writing and will provide comments to those who want feedback before they hand in finished work. I’ll need to see them two working days before the class period at which they are due.
Two points: First, I don’t want rough drafts; please submit a version you would hand in as final if I weren’t willing to do an initial read. Second, I’ll offer suggestions, but I don’t promise an A if you follow my advice. When I get the finished work I’ll evaluate it and make whatever judgment seems appropriate.
Your deadline for your papers is the beginning of the class period at which they are due. Papers that are submitted after deadline will receive a zero – not an F, a zero. Do not cut class or come to class late because you are finishing a paper. Again, late papers will receive a zero. And be sure to leave enough time to print your paper before class. “The printer was slow” or “there were a million people in the J-lab” are not appropriate excuses for turning in a paper late or for coming to class late.
Student Cases
I have indicated several days on the schedule reserved for student presentations. On each of those days one third of the class will present cases. Each of you will select a case from whatever source you wish, write a 3-4-page analysis, and lead the class in an examination of the case and the issues it raises. You should prepare, for either hard-copy or electronic distribution, a summary of the facts of your case. You should make it available to your fellow seminar members at least two days before you present your case.
Final exam
The final exam will be a case analysis incorporating the same kind of conflicting moral values that you will have assessed separately in case analyses throughout the term. It is due at the beginning of class on Thursday, April 2. Again, don’t blow deadline. You already know the penalty. Our final class meeting will consist of a discussion of the case.
Ethics Institute:
On Friday and Saturday, March 6 and 7, we will host W&L’s 47th Journalism Ethics Institute. In many ways the Ethics Institute is the centerpiece of this course. Your attendance is mandatory. This is a twice-yearly conference involving outside journalists and W&L students. It consists of two half-day seminars discussing ethical cases. The institute begins at 2:30 p.m. Friday, and breaks at 5 p.m. so we can hear our keynote speaker at a public lecture. We then have a reception and dinner. The seminar resumes Saturday at 8:30 a.m., and the institute concludes with lunch. Attendance at both days’ seminars, the keynote address, the reception and dinner are all required. (We scheduled the Institute after I emailed all of you before the end of Fall Term asking if you knew of a conflict on March 6 and 7. No one responded, so there shouldn’t be a problem.)
Other obligations:
During the term a certain number of speakers will come to campus at the invitation of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. These are top-notch journalists and academics, and we bring them here so that you may get insight on contemporary practices. I will keep you informed about these and other events as the term proceeds, and you will be required to attend.
How you’ll be graded:
Written assignments, including case presentations and quizzes: 35 percent
Class participation, including the Ethics Institute: 35 percent
Final exam: 30 percent
SCHEDULE AND READINGS, WINTER 2009
All readings are in the course folders on the reserve shelf in the Green Room, Reid 307
INTRODUCTION
Jan 6 What, How, and Why this course
PART I: THEORETICAL BASES
Jan 8 Ethics as an Intellectual Discipline: The Science of Moral Life
Ethics and Morals
Law and Morality
Reading: Hodges, "Ethical Highways and Byways"
Jan 13 What Makes an Action Good/Right? Five Classical Theories
Consequence-based (John Stuart Mill)
Duty-based (Immanuel Kant)
Rights-based (John Locke)
Virtue-based (Aristotle)
Love-based (Jesus)
Analysis due: Resolving a Moral Dilemma
Jan 15 The Individual as Moral Agent
Relativism<>Absolutism
Freedom<>Determinism
Procedures for rational decisions
Reading: Taylor, Principles of Ethics, Chaps. 1-2
Jan 20 The Development of Moral Agency: Egocentrism > Heteronomy > Autonomy (The work of Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, H. D. Aiken)
Reading: Elliott, "Moral Development Theories and the Teaching of Ethics"
PART II: JOURNALISM IN SOCIETY
Jan 22 The Ethics of Journalism
Reading: SPJ, Doing Ethics, Chap. 3
Jan 27 The Responsibility of the Press: Our Role in Society
Reading: (1) Hodges, "Defining Press Responsibility: A Functional Approach"
(2) Hutchins Report, A Free and Responsible Press, pp. 1‑29
(3) SPJ, Doing Ethics, Chap. 2
Jan 29 The Press as "Public Forum"
Reading: (1) Mill, On Liberty, Chaps. I and II
(2) John Milton, Areopagitica
Feb 3 Accountability and the Journalist
>Codes and Standards
Reading: Hodges, "Why Have Codes?"
>Journalists' Moral Justifications
Reading: Hodges: "Some JUSTIFICATIONS Journalists Use"
PART III: MORAL CHOICE IN THE NEWSROOM
*Feb 5 Privacy and Invasions of Privacy
Case: "Arthur Ashe"
Reading: (1) Hodges, "The Journalist and Privacy"
Feb 10 Public Journalism
Reading: (1) Merritt, “Disconnecting from Detachment”
Feb 12 Citizen Journalism and the Blogosphere
Readings TBA
Feb 16-20 No Class; Washington Break
Feb 24 Ethical Issues in Photojournalism
Reading: (1) Hodges, "The Distorting Mirror: Ethics and the Camera."
(2) NPPA Special Report, "A History of Photojournalism Ethics," and "Ethics in Photojournalism: Past, Present and Future”
*Feb 26 Student Cases (Each student finds/writes, analyzes and presents a case)
*Mar 3 Student Cases
*Mar 5 Student Cases
Mar 6 and 7 Journalism Ethics Institute
You will receive a full schedule for the institute, along with a roster of participants, by Feb. 27
Mar 10 No class; payback day for Ethics Institute
*Mar 12 Confidentiality
Case: "Dan Cohen Revealed in Minnesota"
Reading: (1) Hodges, "The Ethics of Confidentiality."
(2) "Cohen v. Cowles" 501U.S. 663 (1991)
Mar 17 Objectivity and Accuracy in Reporting
Reading: (1) Lichtenberg, chap 11 in Curran & Gurevitch pp. 216-231
Mar 19 Conflicts of Interest
Reading: Hodges, “Conflict of Interest”
Wasserman on conflicts of interest
*Mar 24 Undercover, Masquerading, Secret Taping, Deception
Case: “Food Lion”
Reading: (1) Glasser, "On the Morality of Secretly Taped Interviews"
(2) Hodges, "Deceit: Undercover Reporting, Secret Taping"
Mar 26 Free Press/Fair Trial
Case: "Repeated Offenses"
Reading: (1) Hodges, "Journalists and Criminal Justice: Free Press and Fair Trial."
Mar 31 Journalists and Law Enforcement
Case: "Investigating Insurance Fraud"
Reading: National News Council, Covering Crime: How Much Press‑Police Cooperation? How Little?
Apr 2 Discussion of Final Examination
Examination paper due at the beginning of class. Don’t blow deadline.