Journalism ethics has been a growing interest of mine ever since my first law and ethics class at Kent State two years ago. The easy part was memorizing this one simple explanation between the difference: Law is what you have to do; ethics is what you should do.
But applying that philosophy is not as easy as it seems. Sure, you have your cut and dry ethical guidelines, like don't fabricate, plagiarize or manipulate. But ethics goes much deeper than that, according to the paper Teaching Ethics and Moral Reasoning in Scholastic Journalism, by Louis Day and John Butler.
This is one document I will print and keep with me as long as I teach. The authors not only advise that teaching journalism ethics is necessary, they insist journalism instructors should also be responsible for teaching the kind of ethical behavior children learn at home.
Their reasoning for this is because students come from different backgrounds and have varying degrees of ethical training and behaviors, so we should never assume students come to class ethically fit.
I appreciate they went so far as to offer a pedagogical lesson tool: the case study simulation. This is a great way of teaching and evaluating a student's understanding of using analytical thinking when faced with ethical dilemmas. In fact, I'm going to create a lesson plan for this class that I can actually use in the Intro to PJ course I teach.
I feel it's my duty, as a journalism instructor, to help students be as ethically fit as they can be in this stage of their lives.
And the more ethically fit they are, the more can understand and attempt to practice the social role of the media.
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