There is nothing like a fresh cup of ethics and dancing to get your morning started the right way.
In an age where ethical dilemmas arise in any business or sport from the Enron Corporation to several instances in collegiate athletics, the teaching of certain codes of ethics has become an integral part of the professional world. It becomes important to define what ethics actually is for people to grasp all that encompasses the term.
My research found many different definitions of what ethics are. The definition that fit what I was looking for was at Dictionary.com and is below.
“That branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions” (“Ethics,” 2011).
With so many potential ethical pitfalls involved with journalism, there has been a code that journalists have had to honor throughout the careers. Dr. Stephen Ward, chair of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, identified the development of the six stages of journalistic ethics over time.
The first stage took place primarily in London during the 17th century. News reporting solely on facts and opinion-style writing originated during this time (Ward, 2009).
The second stage involved the roles of the editors and journalists beginning to take shape as the first daily newspapers began to emerge in the 18th century. According to Ward, journalists took “on the persona of reporter, reformer, “polite” commentator, and revolutionary” (Ward, 2009).
The liberal theory of the press dominated the third stage of the history of journalism ethics during parts of the 18th and 19th century. The liberal theory’s motives were to promote social progress through liberal ideas, education and social reform. This movement established more political ideologies than ever before (Ward, 2009).
Stage four developed near the dawn of the 20th century, establishing the strict objectivity of newspapers. No longer were newspapers going to be able to instill opinion in articles, just the facts. Reporters were educated to be nothing more than objective observers of what they were reporting on (Ward, 2009).
Stage five spans the bulk of the 20th century. The strict objectivity that began to consume newspapers was challenged by interpretive journalists and tabloid papers that began to become more popular. Broadcast news and online journalism took on more of a subjective role later in the 20th century, negatively affecting the expected objectivity journalists were normally identified with (Ward, 2009).
Stage six is where journalism ethics is at today, and remains in the process of being defined. Many questions remain as to where journalism goes from here. Early inquiries into the profession suggest that interpretive journalism has become more prevalent than objective journalism. There remains a place for both, but the technological advances have made it easier for opinionated writing to be spread throughout the world (Ward, 2009).
For more information on Ward's six stages and more on ethics in journalism, please visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison's journalism ethics page at http://www.journalismethics.ca/index.htm
References
Ethics. Dictionary.com. Retrieved March 17, 2011, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethics
Ward, S J A. (2009). History of journalism ethics. Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin. Retrieved from http://www.journalismethics.ca/research_ethics/history.htm
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