News Reporting

The best journalists are masters at their craft. With a comma and a colon, a vivid verb and a colorful adjective, they not only convey important information but also create a sense of place and evoke powerful emotions. A compelling story can shape--for good or ill--the way a reader understands people, events, and issues. The Ethics of the Story examines the ethical implications of narrative techniques commonly used in journalism, not just literary journalism but also news and feature writing. The book draws on interviews with 60 talented journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winners, to offer practical advice about ethical choices in writing and editing. Much has been written about journalism ethics, but the discussion has often focused on spectacularly bad decisions--such as Jayson Blair's and Jack Kelley's use of fraudulent narrative--rather than the ethical dimension of day-to-day choices about the building blocks of journalistic storytelling. The Ethics of the Story fills a gap in current work on ethics, writing, and editing. It will enlighten any serious wordsmith with a story to tell.

Journalism is being transformed by the digital revolution. Journalists working for media organizations are having to file and update stories across multiple platforms under increasing time pressures. Meanwhile, anyone with sufficient literacy skills and access to the internet can aspire to practice journalism. And yet journalism in any form still depends for its legitimacy on the observance of ethical principles and practices. For example, it has to maintain a commitment to telling the truth, and to minimize deception and betrayal; deal with conflicts of interest; protect sources and their confidences; know how to report on traumatized and vulnerable people; and know when to respect privacy. Journalism Ethics for the Digital Age traces the ethics of journalism from their origins in philosophy to the new challenges brought about by digital technology, with practical examples to show how ethical values and principles can play out in the real world. An invaluable tool for ethical decision-making, this is a book for professional journalists and citizen journalists, for students in the disciplines of journalism, media, communications, and applied ethics, and for the engaged reader everywhere.

All over the world codes of conduct have been proposed for journalists. In fact ethics is inseparable from journalism, because the practice of journalism is centred on a set of essentially ethical concepts: freedom, democracy, truth, objectivity, honesty, privacy. If the proper role of journalism is seen as providing information, then the ethical questions focus on one issue: maintaining the quality of the information. This issue has become a matter of political controversy and public concern. The media is often perceived as being inaccurate and biased. The Robert Maxwell case has re-opened the issue of media ownership. Questions of censorship and freedom of information have arisen in connection with Spycatcher', the numerous recent incidents involving members of the royal family, politicians and the general public, the fight against terrorism in Northern Ireland and the wars in the Falklands and the Gulf. Parliament has threatened statutory controls if the voluntary partnership of the Press Complaints Commission and the newspaper industry cannot curb gross invasions of privacy and other malpractices by the tabloid press.; There is much concern about the trivialising and exploitative representation of women in the media. This book addresses issues such as these in ways that are both philosophical and practical, critical and constructive, perennial and topical.