Media Ethics 2012 Abstracts
Open Papers
How Social Cognition Can Be Used in Journalism Training to Reinforce Ethical Standards of Practice • Sue Ellen Christian, Western Michigan University • Errors and biases in human cognition in part explain the need for professional standards and ethical codes in journalism. Reciprocally, these standards and codes can help deter some common cognitive distortions. This article argues that incorporating an interdisciplinary approach to teaching standards of practice can enrich journalism training and education by exploring the origins of thinking habits that require corrective action on the part of journalists.
Anthropological Realism for Global Ethics • Clifford Christians, University of Illinois • Anthropological realism is an important tool in constructing a global media ethics. Realism and anti-realism are debated philosophically without resolution. Believing that a global ethics requires realism, none of the mainstream theories of realism provide a proper foundation for universals. Anthropological realism acknowledges the role of human interpretation in ethics more explicitly than do epistemological or metaphyhsical theories.”
Consumers’ Ethical Evaluation of Greenwashing Ads • Harsha Gangadharbatla; Kim Sheehan • The current exploratory study examines consumers’ evaluation of the ethicality of greenwashing practices in advertising. Subjects were shown an ad with “green” messages and asked to rate it on a greenwashing index scale. Findings suggest that the higher the level of perceived greenwashing in an ad, the lower the ethical evaluation of the ad. Consumers’ ethical evaluation in turn determined their attitude toward the ad and brand, which in turn influenced their purchase intentions.
Idea Plagiarism: Journalism’s Ultimate Heist • Norman Lewis, University of Florida • A national survey (n = 953) and interviews with eight journalists reveal widespread acceptance of idea plagiarism. About three-fourths of survey respondents said ideas did not require attribution, a belief more likely to be held by those in competitive markets and by broadcasters. Concealing the sources of ideas misleads the public about the origins of news and sometimes results in withholding information, violations of journalism’s public-service norms and truth-telling mission.
Ethics in the digital age: A comparison of moving images and photographs on moral reasoning • Aimee Meader, University of Texas at Austin; Lewis Knight, University of Texas at Austin; Renita Coleman, University of Texas – Austin; Lee Wilkins, School of Journalism/University of Missouri • The purpose of this study is to see if visual information such as the moving images found on television and the Internet have the same ability to improve moral judgment as still photographs. Results indicate that moving images degrade moral reasoning because viewers experience cognitive overload. We suggest that altering the journalistic product in ways that minimize overload may encourage reasoning at higher ethical levels.
The Moral Psychology of Journalism Exemplars • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Colorado State University; Elizabeth Skewes, University of Colorado; Joanna Larez, Colorado State University • Drawing on moral psychology research and moral exemplar literature, this pilot study of selected journalism exemplars examines life-story narratives, moral reasoning skills, personality traits and ethical ideologies, point to an emergent profile of exemplary journalists in which personality traits and idealism are linked with concerns of justice, harm and professional autonomy. Thematic patterns in exemplar narratives also appear to emphasize notions of moral courage, humility and the ideological and professional implications of pivotal life experiences.
“Spike the football”: Truth-telling, the press and the Bin Laden photos • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This paper looks at press interpretations of the role of images – specifically, images of national enemies in death – in constructing various duties of media truth-telling. Discourse about the need, or duty, to publish photos of the Nazi leaders hanged at Nuremberg in 1946 provides a context for examining discourse surrounding a similar decision that the White House faced after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
Covering White ‘Just-Us’: What did journalists ‘really’ say about Ipperwash? • Romayne Fullerton, Western Ontario University; Maggie Patterson, Duquesne Unviersity; Ginny Whitehouse, Eastern Kentucky University • The Canadian courts appeared to fail the Chippewa Stoney Band following the Ipperwash Provincial Park land dispute that left one member dead, but journalists also failed in ethical responsibilities and effectively killed the tribe’s identity through coverage that alternated between being one-sided and comparatively non-existent. Covering two sides in a trial is insufficient to fulfill the journalistic obligation to fairness when the reporting ignores cultural assumptions built on a White worldview.
Will write for food. The ethics of collaboration: Justice as reciprocity and capabilities • Lee Wilkins, School of Journalism/University of Missouri • Journalism’s search for a new business model has raised a number of issues among them the impact of specific choices on the ability to “do” journalism. This paper examines the ethics of financial collaboration, based on the concepts of reciprocity, capabilities and promise keeping. These concepts, in turn, inform a particular conceptualization of justice and connect justice to the goals of professional work.
‘Mind the CSR Communication Gap’: The Role of Authenticity in the Communication of CSR • Christopher Wilson, University of Florida; Weiting Tao, University of Florida; Sarabdeep Kochhar; Mary Ann Ferguson, University of Flordia • Scholars have noted a lack of research about public relations communication strategies for CSR initiatives even though communication is an integral part of the public relations function. This was the first study to explore the relationship between CSR communication, authenticity, and public relations communication strategy, offering a new approach for future studies about effective CSR communication.
Comparing Chinese and U.S. Journalism Students on their Perceptions of the Roles and Ethics of Journalism • Jin Yang, University of Memphis; David Arant, University of Memphis • This study compares how American and Chinese journalism students perceive the difficulties of ethical dilemmas faced by journalists and the importance of various journalistic roles. Chinese students perceive greater difficulty in resolving conflicts of interests while American students find greater difficulty in upholding community standards. They are more in agreement on the importance of journalists’ adversarial and populist mobilizer roles but less in agreement on journalists’ interpretive and disseminator roles.
Journalistic Ethics at the Border: How El Paso Times Journalists Balance Reporting the News and Protecting their Sources • El Paso Times journalists routinely face ethical dilemmas as they cover difficult stories amid all of the violence in neighboring Ciudad Juarez. This ethnographic study, which utilizes participant-observation and in-depth interviews, examines how journalists deal with tough ethical choices. It reveals how reporters and editors at the El Paso Times consider the needs of the public and the ramifications of their stories. The journalists strive to be accurate and fair while protecting their sources and themselves. They weigh the importance of each story with its potential for risk.
Journalists’ Engagement with Facebook: A Theoretical Analysis • Journalists are among the many audiences using social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, to actively connect with networked communities. With social media interactions come a host of ethical concerns for the journalist, ranging from separating personal and professional online networks to understanding the informationally porous nature of online spaces.
Carol Burnett Award Papers
Journalism enhanced by argumentation, informal logic, and critical thinking • David Herrera, University of Missouri • This paper introduces some ideas from the fields of argumentation, informal logic, and critical thinking, and argues that those ideas can stimulate the practice and study of journalism. It first offers a general case for why the four fields can agreeable mingle. It then shows how argumentation, informal logic, and critical thinking are relevant to discussions about journalistic objectivity, about how journalists can build trust with their audiences online by building relationships, and other topics.
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