Communication, Film & Theatre

Addressed to both philosophy and journalism students. Provides philosophical background and practical applications.

 

Provides strong framework of accessible philosophical theory and encourages discussion of the problems of journalistic ethics. Focuses on the basis of a unified theory of the moral responsibility of journalists and what that responsibility implies. The unified theory accounts for all aspects of journalistic rights and responsibilities in the principle that journalists have a professional moral obligation to provide relevant truth telling in the public interest. The freedom of the press is predicated on this assumption, as are all other topics regularly discussed in connection with media ethics, including protection of privileged sources, censorship, and problems of perspective and bias in news reporting. 

 

Lavishly illustrated with many real life and imaginary case studies to demonstrate the applications of philosophical principles to journalistic practice.  The combination of philosophical theory and 30 case studies makes this book unique. Most of the case studies are from actual journalistic practice and some of them were developed as philosophical thought experiments.  By combining a strong degree of accessible theory and many case studies and applications, the book seeks to offer both philosophical and practical insight into the challenges of morally responsible professional journalism.

 

Each topic is approached from a dual practical standpoint. The book considers moral choices facing working journalists at the production end of the news, and its impact on news consumers at the receiving end.

 

 

 

Are you interested in exploring other areas in ethics? 

 

Journalistic Ethics is part of the Basic Ethics in Action series.  See below for a complete listing of the wide-ranging anthologies and brief texts in that series. Each focuses on a particular theme or topic in applied ethics.  A discount is offered when two or more titles in the series are packaged together. Click on any of the titles below for more information:

 

Anchor volume

 

Business Ethics titles

 

Business, Ethics, and Sustainability:  Ethics for the Next Industrial Revolution

By Joseph DesJardins

© 2007 | ISBN: 013189174X

 

Journalistic Ethics

By Dale Jacquette
© 2007 | ISBN: 0131825399

 

 

Environmental Ethics titles

 

 

Medical Ethics titles

 

 

Social and Political Philosophy titles

 

Human Rights and Global Obligations

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: WHAT JOURNALISTS DO

News Information

Moral Rights and Responsibilities

Moral Problems for Journalistic Ethics

Criteria of Professional Ethics

 

Chapter One

TRUTH TELLING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

Truth and its Consequences

Deliberate and Inadvertent Falsehoods

Case Study 1: Newsweek and the Holy Koran at Guantánamo Bay

Case Study 2: Staged Incidents in Dateline NBC Investigative Reporting

Fundamental Principle of Journalistic Ethics

Truth Telling Journalistic Imperatives

Truth as Correspondence with Facts

Practical Truth Criteria and Cross-Checking News Contents

Plagiarism

Moral Integrity and Journalism’s Raison D’eˆtre

Case Study 3: Jayson Blair at the New York Times

Relevance and the Concept of Relevant Truth

 

Chapter Two

JOURNALISTIC RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Rights and Responsibilities

Legal and Moral Rights

Case Study 4: Right to Publish and Responsibility for News Content

Consequences for Abusing Rights

Case Study 5: Role of Reporters as Responsible Citizens in Criminal Investigations

Relation of Rights and Responsibilities

Origin of Journalistic Rights

Case Study 6: Journalistic Responsibility Versus Detachment

 

Chapter Three

MORAL IDEALS ANDWORKADAY JOURNALISTIC REALITIES

Moral Ideals

Conflicts of Moral Ideals and Marketplace Realities

Case Study 7: The Jessica Lynch Incident

Two Sides of Professional Journalism

The Midas Touch of Television News

Pros and Cons of the Mass Media Age

Case Study 8: Warehouse Fire and Homeless Shelter Closing

Case Study 9: Governmental Pressures on Journalism in Mexico

Commercialism in the News

Making a Profit in Journalism

Increasing Income from News Reporting

Conflicts with Advertisers over News Content

Moral Choices in Reactions to Advertiser Pressure

Moral Obligations for Journalists to Remain Profitable

Interest Group Influence on News Reporting

Call for Journalists to Stand Firm Against Financial Intimidation

Increasing Journalistic Profits by Reducing Costs

Weakness of Will and the Temptations of Financial Gain

Stealth Advertising

Case Study 10: Strangers Bearing Gifts

Moral Quandaries about “Hidden” Advertising

Product Placement in the News

 

Chapter Four

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Free Press Dilemmas

American Constitutional Protection of Journalistic Freedoms

Case Study 11: Thomas Jefferson on the Importance of a Free Press

Priority of a Free Press in the American Bill of Rights

Case Study 12: U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Concerning Freedom of the Press (Pentagon Papers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Miami Herald)

Freedom’s Debt to a Free Press and the Pursuit of Truth

Freedom of the Press as the Fourth Estate of a Liberal Democracy

Case Study 13: Freedom of the Press (or Abridgement Thereof) Worldwide (Second International World Press Freedom Ranking, October 2003)

Justification for a Free Press in a Free Society

Challenges to Sustaining a Free Press

 

Chapter Five

CENSORSHIP AND WITHHOLDING INFORMATION FOR THE GREATER GOOD

Censorship and Journalism’s Mandate

Historical and Philosophical Background

Censorship and Prioritized Journalistic Obligations

Moral Rationale for Journalistic Censorship

Case Study 14: Tomlinson’s Efforts to Control Public Broadcasting

Three Principles for Controlling Censorship

Interdependence of a Free Society and a Free Press–Principle 1

Obligation to Maximize Relevant Truth Telling–Principle 2

Case Study 15: Censorship of the Press in Iraq

Distinguishing Morally Justified Censorship–Principle 3

Voluntary and Involuntary Censorship

Case Study 16: “Censoring” Terrorists by Official Request in a Free Society

 

Chapter Six

PROTECTION OF CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES

Confidentiality

Privileged Sources of News Information

Moral and Prudential Reasoning

Legal Pressure Against Journalists to Reveal Sources

Standing Firm Against Coercion for a Free Press

Case Study 17: Journalistic Shield Law in American History

Shield Laws and Exceptions to Protection of Confidential Sources

Moral Complications in Observing Confidentiality

Case Study 18: Judith Miller and the CIA Leak

Guidelines for Appeals to Confidentiality

Internal Professional Oversight for Confidential Sources

Censorship and Disclosure of Privileged Sources

Case Study 19: Confidential Information about an Impending Medical Emergency

Balancing Protection of Sources and the Greater Public Good

 

Chapter Seven

JOURNALISTIC RESPECT FOR PRIVACY

Privacy in a Public World

Constitutional Basis for the Right to Privacy

Moral Value and the Right to Privacy

Case Study 20: Magazine Publication of Private Celebrity Wedding Photographs

Journalistic Obligations to Respect Privacy

Investigative Journalism and the Right to Privacy

Voluntary Disclosure Versus Involuntarily Obtained Information

Slippery Slope Problems in Privacy Determinations

Case Study 21: Investigating the Private Lives of the Families of Public Officials

Choice of Public Life as a Disavowal of Privacy

Celebrityhood and Journalistic Violations of Privacy

Relinquishing Privacy by Acting in a Public Place

Case Study 22: Reporting on Suicide as a Cause of Death

Case Study 23: Paparazzi in the Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed Tragedy

 

Chapter Eight

OBJECTIVITY, PERSPECTIVE, AND BIAS

An Ideal of Objectivity

Noninvolvement in News Reporting

Case Study 24: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on Terry Milewski

Embedding Journalists with the Military

Case Study 25: Pentagon Directive for “EMBEDS” in the Second Gulf (Iraq) War

Wartime Reportage

Control, Censorship, and Propaganda Potential for Embedding

Perspective and Orientation in News Reporting

Political and Other Forms of Personal Bias

Case Study 26: Allegations of Liberal Versus Conservative Bias in American Journalism

Interpretation by News Reporters and Consumers

Skepticism, Relativism, and Postmodern Disregard for Truth

Conjecture and Speculation in the News

Case Study 27: 2000 American Presidential Election Coverage

Unscientific Polls and Unsubstantiated Opinions

 

Chapter Nine

EDITORIAL LICENSE AND OBLIGATIONS

Editorial Opinion

Case Study 28: Ethics of Editorializing in a Free Press

Distinguishing News from Commentary

Fact-Value Gap and the Naturalistic Fallacy

Inferential Version of the Naturalistic Fallacy

Is-Ought Gap and the Distinction Between News and Opinion

Case Study 29: National Conference of Editorial Writers Foundation (NCEW)

Editorial Opinion as News Perspective

Editorial License and Ideological Spin

Professional Ethical Guidelines for Editorialists

Ways of Promoting Editorial Pluralism

Case Study 30: Journalistic Ethics and the Power of Editorial Opinion

 

Afterword

 

JOURNALISM AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL GOOD

News to Change the World

Lessons for Journalistic Ethics

Information High Technology

Historical Background: Twain’s Congo Pamphlet

Media Influencing Popular Opinion

Double Effect of Media Impact on Policy Making

Ideology Implicit in Mass Communications Technology

 

Appendices

1: SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS–CODE OF ETHICS 282

2: INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF JOURNALISTS–DECLARATION OFPRINCIPLES ON THE CONDUCT OF JOURNALISTS 285

3: ETHICS CODE: ASSOCIATED PRESS MANAGING EDITORS 287

4: CODE OF ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT OF THERADIO-TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION 290

 

Media Ethics  (Mass Communication / Public Relations / Film)
Journalistic Ethics  (Philosophy)
Journalism Ethics  (Mass Communication / Public Relations / Film)

We all depend in many ways on accurate, timely news reporting, but is the accuracy of news a given? And how much responsibility does a journalist have for its accuracy?

 

  Journalistic Ethics: Moral Responsibility in the Media examines the moral rights and responsibilities of journalists to provide what Dale Jacquette calls “truth telling in the public interest.” With 31 case studies from contemporary journalistic practice, the book demonstrates the immediate practical implications of ethics for working journalists as well as for those who read or watch the news. This case-study approach is paired with a theoretical grounding, and issues include freedom of the press, censorship and withholding sensitive information for the greater public good, protection of confidential sources, journalistic respect for privacy, objectivity, perspective and bias, and editorial license and its obligations.   This is a book for anyone who now works in journalism, or is considering a career as a journalist. It is also important groundwork for everyone who follows the day's events in newspapers, radio, television, or on the internet.

For the Mass Communication / Public Relations / Film Discipline

Allyn & Bacon Digital Media Archive for Communication, Version 3.0, 3/E
Allyn & Bacon
©2005 | Prentice Hall | CD-ROM Only; 32 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205437095 | ISBN-13: 9780205437092
Suggested retail price: $0.00Net price: $0.00  (What's this?)

iClicker Classroom Response System
iClicker & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2008 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205594506 | ISBN-13: 9780205594504
This online resource is available at no cost.

InterWrite PRS RF (Personal Response System)
InterWrite PRS & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205436951 | ISBN-13: 9780205436958
This online resource is available at no cost.

Pearson Allyn & Bacon Film Study Site Update (open Access)
Allyn & Bacon
©2011 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Estimated Availability : 04/01/2010
ISBN-10: 0205737595 | ISBN-13: 9780205737598
This online resource is available at no cost at http://www.abfilmstudies.com.

ResearchNavigator.com Guide: Mass Communication, Theatre, and Film (Valuepack item only)
Roat & Barr
©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 128 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205524141 | ISBN-13: 9780205524143
Suggested retail price: $0.00Net price: $0.00  (What's this?)

For the Philosophy Discipline

Common Philosophical Terms
Prentice Hall
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 72 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 013189661X | ISBN-13: 9780131896611
Suggested retail price: $15.50  Buy from myPearsonStore
Net price: $15.50  (What's this?)

iClicker Classroom Response System
iClicker & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2008 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205594506 | ISBN-13: 9780205594504
This online resource is available at no cost.

InterWrite PRS RF (Personal Response System)
InterWrite PRS & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205436951 | ISBN-13: 9780205436958
This online resource is available at no cost.

Philosophy Cafe Website (Open access)
Pearson Longman
©2005 | Prentice Hall | Website | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321275853 | ISBN-13: 9780321275851
This online resource is available at no cost at http://www.ablongman.com/philosophycafe.

ResearchNavigator.com Guide
Allyn & Bacon
©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 48 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205517196 | ISBN-13: 9780205517190
Suggested retail price: $0.00Net price: $0.00  (What's this?)

ResearchNavigator.com Guide
Allyn & Bacon & Barr
©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 48 pp | Out of Stock
ISBN-10: 020552396X | ISBN-13: 9780205523962
Suggested retail price: $25.80Net price: $19.35  (What's this?)

This title is a member of the The Basic Ethics in Action Series, which also contains the titles below . You can also visit the Basic Ethics in Action Series page.

• 
  Advertising Ethics
  Spence, Van Heekeren & Boylan
  ©2005 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 160 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0130941212 | ISBN-13: 9780130941213
  Suggested retail price: $36.80  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $27.60  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For graduate and undergraduate courses in Media Studies, Communication Ethics, Marketing Ethics, and Business Ethics.

  Text focuses on an applied philosophical analysis of the nature of advertising in general and of specific ethical issues that arise in advertising. Includes case studies and refers to current professional codes and practices in the Advertising Industry and contemporary ethical theory. One in the Basic Ethics in Action applied ethics series, edited by Michael Boylan.

• 
  American Indian Environmental Ethics: An Ojibwa Case Study
  Callicott & Nelson
  ©2004 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 176 pp | Out of Stock
  ISBN-10: 0130431214 | ISBN-13: 9780130431219
  Suggested retail price: $29.40  Net price: $22.05  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses in anthropology, cultural geography, environmental philosophy and ethics.

  Brief text focusing on environmental attitudes and practices of American Indians using the Ojibwa narrative, myths, legends, stories and rituals. Introductory essay offers theory of environmental ethics, an overview of the field of environmental ethics, and places the Ojibwa within this contemporary debate. “Part of the applied ethics series, Basic Ethics in Action, edited by Michael Boylan.”

• 
  Business Ethics
  Boylan
  ©2001 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 424 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0137738390 | ISBN-13: 9780137738397
  Suggested retail price: $62.20  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $46.65  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For undergraduate and graduate level courses in Business Ethics and integrated courses on Ethics.

  The third volume in the Basic Ethics in Action series, this text uses essays and case studies to build upon the “worldviews” methodology established in Basic Ethics, the anchor and primary text of the series, and demonstrates how ethical theory can be applied to the world of business.

• 
  Business, Ethics, and the Environment: Imagining a Sustainable Future
  DesJardins
  ©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 224 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 013189174X | ISBN-13: 9780131891746
  Suggested retail price: $34.20  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $25.65  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses in Business Ethics, Business and Society, Applied Ethics, and Environmental Ethics.

   

  This is the first text to bring the sustainability paradigm to the forefront of management and business ethics.

   

  The concept of sustainability and sustainable development has taken hold throughout the world as a new guiding principle of economic development.  Sustainability involves “meeting the real needs of the present without so harming the biosphere that future generations will be unable to meet their own needs.”  As used by such institutions as the United Nations and the World Bank, sustainable development usually applies to entire economies and societies, and less so to industries and individual businesses.  Yet already some corporations, especially in Europe, have adopted sustainable business practices.  The future is clear: given present global environmental, population, and poverty trends, economic institutions will be judged by how well they meet environmental and ethical, as well as economic, goals.  Joseph R. Desjardins wrote this book to make the case for this claim.

   

• 
  Environmental Ethics
  Boylan
  ©2001 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 430 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0137763867 | ISBN-13: 9780137763863
  Suggested retail price: $54.20  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $40.65  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses in Environmental Ethics, Business Ethics, Medical Ethics, Social and Political Policy, and Professional Ethics.

  This book introduces students to important ethical issues that arise in the realm of environmental ethics. It incorporates a worldview approach that integrates the major theoretical camps, as well as provides a practical link to action through the value-duty relation.

• 
  Ethical Marketing
  Murphy, Laczniak, Bowie & Klein
  ©2005 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 288 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0131848143 | ISBN-13: 9780131848146
  Suggested retail price: $53.20  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $39.90  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For Marketing and Business Ethics courses in business or philosophy departments.

  This text explores ethical issues facing marketing practitioners. It presents ethical theory in marketing context. Coverage includes advertising, product safety and targeting markets as well as marketing research, product counterfeiting, channels of distribution, selling practices and how to implement ethics into marketing organizations. Part of the applied ethics series, Basic Ethics in Action, edited by Michael Boylan.

• 
  Ethics and Sustainability: Sustainable Development and the Moral Life
  Newton
  ©2003 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 117 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0130617962 | ISBN-13: 9780130617965
  Suggested retail price: $45.60  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $34.20  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses in Environmental Ethics, Applied Ethics, Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Science, and Environmental Conservation.

  This straightforward text is the only one of its kind to join the literature of environmental ethics to the literature of applied ethics—to describe a life lived in harmony with itself, with society, and with the natural world. Part of the applied ethics series, Basic Ethics in Action, edited by Michael Boylan.

• 
  Genetic Engineering: Science and Ethics on the New Frontier
  Boylan & Brown
  ©2002 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 196 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0130910856 | ISBN-13: 9780130910851
  Suggested retail price: $44.00  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $33.00  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses in Medical and Applied Ethics.

  This text introduces students to important ethical issues that arise in the realm of genetic engineering. It provides the basic science and ethical analysis necessary to assess central issues confronting our society in this emerging area of research. At the end, students will be able to formulate their own positions on these crucial issues.

• 
  Human Rights and Global Diversity
  Churchill
  ©2006 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 176 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0130408859 | ISBN-13: 9780130408853
  Suggested retail price: $38.80  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $29.10  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  This accessible text defends human rights as truly universal for all persons globally, while respecting the importance of plurality and cultural diversity. It is unique, as well, in discussing cross-cultural negotiations regarding human rights. The book shows that there is no inherent contradiction between human rights norms and social and cultural values, practices, and forms of life worthy of preservation.

• 
  Journalistic Ethics: Moral Responsibility in the Media
  Jacquette
  ©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 312 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0131825399 | ISBN-13: 9780131825390
  Suggested retail price: $38.00  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $28.50  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses on journalistic ethics, media ethics, media in general, applied ethics, journalism, and journalistic integrity.

   

   By combining accessible theory with case studies and applications, this book offers both a solid framework for philosophical discussions of journalistic ethics and a sourcebook that journalism students can use in thinking about the moral implications of their intended profession.

   

  Dale Jacquette wrote the book in order to explore the limitations of a free and responsible press against the pressures and conflicts encountered by journalists.  This book provides a model and set of moral ideals for practicing and aspiring journalists, with the end result being an improvement in the quality and ethical standards of news reporting by readers who have become more aware of the moral implications of their work.

   

• 
  Medical Ethics
  Boylan
  ©2000 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 447 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0137738471 | ISBN-13: 9780137738472
  Suggested retail price: $59.80  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $44.85  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For courses in Medical Ethics, Biomedical Ethics, Healthcare Ethics, or Applied Ethics.

  Argument-based in style and tone, this “cutting edge” anthology explores important ethical issues that arise in the health care professions. Exceptionally contemporary in both topic choice and currency of articles, it explores such areas as the Hippocratic Oath; Paternalism and Autonomy; Privacy and Confidentiality; Informed Consent; Gender Issues; Genetic Engineering; Euthanasia; Abortion; and Healthcare Policy in the United States (with regard to the “right” to healthcare and to the allocation of transplants). It features unique first-person interviews with prominent practitioners in biomedicine, case studies from both the administrative and “front-line” perspectives, and a worldview methodology for linking theory to action.

• 
  New Perspectives in Healthcare Ethics: An Interdisciplinary and Crosscultural Approach
  Tong
  ©2007 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 368 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0130613479 | ISBN-13: 9780130613479
  Suggested retail price: $48.80  Buy from myPearsonStoreNet price: $36.60  (What's this?)Brief Description

  

  For one-quarter/semester courses in Medical Ethics, Biomedical Ethics, Allied Healthcare, Healthcare Ethics, and Healthcare Law and Ethics.

   

  Tong, a well-known biomedical ethicist, combines medical ethics, bioethics, and her own unique insights to provide a comprehensive survey of contemporary health care ethics issues.

   

   

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