Making Hard Choices in Journalism Ethics: Cases and Practice

by Boeyink; David E.

• ISBN13: 9780415990004
• ISBN10: 0415990009
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2010-03-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book teaches students how to make the difficult ethical decisions that journalists routinely face. By taking a case-based approach, the authors argue that the best way to make an ethical decision is to look closely at a particular situation, rather than looking first to an abstract set of ethical theories or principles. This book goes beyond the traditional approaches of many other journalism textbooks by using cases as the starting point for building ethical practices. Casuistry, the technical name of such a method, develops provisional guidelines from the bottom up by reasoning analogically from an "easy" ethical case (the "paradigm") to "harder" ethical cases. Thoroughly grounded in actual experience, this method admits more nuanced judgments than most theoretical approaches.

Author Biography

David E. Boeyink is Associate Professor of Journalism and Director of the Journalism Honors program at Indiana University. His research on the ethics of decision-making in newsrooms is published in Journalism Quarterly, the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, and the Newspaper Research Journal. Sandra L. Borden is professor of Communication and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University. She is author of Journalism as Practice: MacIntyre, Virtue Ethics and the Press (available in paperback from Routledge), winner of the 2008 Award for top Book in Applied Ethics from the National Communication Association's Communication Ethics Division.

Table of Contents

Hard Cases in Journalism Ethics	p. 1
Why Do Journalists Need To Worry About Ethics?	p. 3
How Things Are Versus How They Should Be	p. 5
What About Rules In Ethics?	p. 9
Casuistry: CSI for Journalists	p. 11
Eye On Privacy	p. 13
Privacy Cases And Walk-Through Exercises	p. 19
Minor Embarrassment or Major Indignity?	p. 19
Moment of Death	p. 20
Cheater-in-Chief	p. 22
Privacy Invasion Goes Viral	p. 24
Without a Voice	p. 26
Without a Vote	p. 27
The Role of Ethical Theory	p. 31
Top-Down Approaches To Tackling Cases	p. 32
Person-Centered Approaches To Tackling Cases	p. 38
Why Professional Ethics Matters	p. 43
Strengths And Limits Of Using Theory	p. 46
Eye On Conflict Of Interest	p. 47
Conflict Of Interest Cases And Walk-Through Exercises	p. 51
The Borgata Hotel	p. 51
Friends as Sources	p. 53
Special Perspectives, Special Problems	p. 55
Naming of the St. Pete Times Forum	p. 58
Pedophiles in the Magic Kingdom	p. 60
The Paradigm Case as Ethical Standard	p. 65
Tools Of The Trade: Identification And Classification	p. 66
Using Paradigm Cases In Journalism Ethics	p. 70
Eye On Deception	p. 77
Deception Cases And Walk-Through Exercises	p. 81
Participant Observation in Prison	p. 81
The Dictator's Advocate Who Wasn't	p. 83
Packing Chickens-and a Punch	p. 84
Black and White	p. 85
To Catch a Murderer	p. 86
To Catch a Predator	p. 88
Explosive Footage	p. 89
Dueling Covers	p. 90
Dueling Skaters	p. 90
Using Case Comparisons to Make Ethical Choices	p. 93
Using Case Comparisons In Ethics	p. 93
Eye On Truth Telling	p. 105
Truth-Telling Cases And Walk-Through Exercises	p. 107
Reporting Rumors during Hurricane Katrina	p. 107
Outing a Confidential Source	p. 108
The Pedophile Physician	p. 111
The AIDS Handbook	p. 113
Tehran Video	p. 116
Evaluating Ethical Judgments	p. 121
Theory As A Safeguard Against Sloppy Thinking	p. 125
Eye On Social Justice	p. 132
Social Justice Cases And Walk-Through Exercises	p. 135
The Littlest Victims	p. 135
Katrina and the Social Contract	p. 138
Flooded by Stereotypes	p. 140
Desecrating Muhammad	p. 141
Alternative Media	p. 144
Casuistry and Newsroom Policy	p. 147
Character And Good Reasoning	p. 153
Eye On Guidelines	p. 157
Cases And Walk-Through Exercises	p. 157
What the Q@$%^%#$#@?	p. 157
Anonymous Sources and the Judge	p. 161
Naming Rape Victims	p. 164
CNN's iReport and Policies on Verification	p. 166
The JANIE Blacksburg Case: Casuistry in Action	p. 173
The Janie Blacksburg Case	p. 174
The Janie Blacksburg Story	p. 175
Final Questions	p. 189
Notes	p. 191
Bibliography	p. 195
Index	p. 205
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