我国新闻职业道德研究的历史与现状述评

本文分析了我国新闻职业道德的研究状况、研究的主要视角和内容。     

CORRECTING THE RECORD

Contemporary journalists are, on a daily basis, adopting new work practices to remain relevant in the changing media environment. This study examines these changing practices to determine if, and how, they have been accompanied by changes in journalists’ abilities to enact traditional ethical standards in the newsroom. It posits that by examining the performance of ethics by news actors, as opposed to ethical standards themselves, the importance and impact of changing news practices can be realized and addressed. To illustrate these changes, I explore the use of news corrections as a means for maintaining journalistic accountability. The findings suggest that key attributes of the contemporary news environment, including the rapid speed with which online information is transmitted, and the increasing participation of news consumers in the media environment, can help journalists in their quests for accountability. However, other changes associated with the online news environment, such as the ease with which online information can be erased from history, and the continuous evolution of newsroom technologies, highlight the need for journalists’ ongoing pursuit of new techniques to ensure that the standard of accountability is maintained.     

重视新闻职业道德体系的建构——从山西繁峙大矿难记者受贿说开去

山西繁峙金矿主向有关新闻记者送现金和金元宝作为“封口费”事件的发生 ,再一次向我们敲响了警钟。如果仅将记者这个职业视为养家糊口、安身立命的饭碗 ,把这个职业所特有的神圣感、社会责任感、历史使命感完全抛诸脑后 ,对一个记者的成长乃至媒介的发展 ,甚至对整个社会都将产生不可估量的负面影响。新闻职业道德准则需要从业者身体力行地遵守维护。建构新闻职业道德体系的已迫在眉睫     

Ethical Boundaries among Freelance Journalists

This article sheds light on the professional role of freelance journalists and examines ethical dilemmas faced by Norwegian freelance journalists. Freelancers and self-employed journalists have to manage their own financial interests and secure their income, as well as the professional ethics of journalism. Finding themselves placed between autonomy and precarity, these freelancers are also engaged in non-journalistic activities, such as PR, because these kinds of jobs usually pay better than news work. This article discusses freelancers and ethical dilemmas. Further, it addresses how freelancers deal with the blurring borders between journalism and PR.     

JOURNALISTS' MORAL JUDGMENT ABOUT CHILDREN

This study used a controlled experiment to examine the ethical decision-making of 99 professional journalists in the United States to see if they held different attitudes, made different decisions, and used different levels of moral judgment when stories involved children than when they involved adults. It found that these journalists were significantly more concerned with protecting children's privacy, keeping them from harm, and ensuring informed consent than they were for adults. But they did not use significantly higher levels of moral judgment for children than adults, nor did they withhold children's photographs significantly more often than adults'. The journalists in this study believed they were protecting children from harm but did not carry through with those beliefs. It is important that the news media treat children well because having children's voices in news stories is vital to understanding their worlds and reporting on injustices against them.     

Journalism in Disguise: Standpoint Theory and the Ethics of Günter Wallraff’s Undercover Immersion

ABSTRACT

Deception is a key element of immersive undercover journalism, achieved through the omission of information, the perpetuation of misconceptions, or possibly the assumption of a false identity. Usually when proponents defend going undercover, they use the-ends-justify-the-means arguments; that despite the journalist’s duplicity, public benefit outweighs the dishonesty that lies at the heart of the practice. Yet, such statements are usually made in the absence of in-depth theoretical analysis. This paper seeks to redress this by applying Standpoint Theory, testing it against the work of Günter Wallraff, Germany’s lauded but controversial undercover journalist who uses disguises to report on that country’s marginalized and disadvantaged. While the authors applaud Wallraff’s exposure of the deplorable illegal and immoral dealings he uncovers, and do not seek to dismiss the significant results he has achieved, this paper uses the case study of his work to test the applicability of Standpoint Theory to undercover journalism, concluding that even under this accommodating theory, there may be ethical limits to journalism’s most ethically contentious practice.     

PRACTICE REVIEW: JOURNALISM ETHICS AND CONFESSIONAL JOURNALISM

Confessional journalism has become a staple of contemporary journalism, either in the form of first-person real-life experiences (often ghosted by journalists) or regular columns by journalists detailing intimate details of their lives. The form is now recognised as a distinct genre but what has not received attention, except as an internal debate within journalism itself, are the consequences of this form of writing for journalism and journalists. There is mounting evidence that editors are exerting pressure towards this form of writing, favouring particular types of writers. This review investigates the compelling ethical implications for writers and their subjects within the genre and argues that these implications are producing distinctive journalistic responses and strategies.     

Conversing Ethics in India’s News Media

This paper identifies the significant ethical challenges expressed by journalists and editors working in media companies in the city of Hyderabad, India. Keeping those dilemmas and challenges in mind, the authors propose economist and Noble laureate Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach as a theoretical outline for the development of future journalism ethics curricula. The major challenges described by the journalists and editors were cross-media ownership, which fosters a political economy focused on revenue generation rather than journalism for public good; problems with the publication of inaccurate information, which are now precipitated by the omnipresence of social media; and a culture of “democratic deficit” where journalists find it increasingly difficult to practice journalism safely and to report about poverty, corruption, crime, environment, caste, and gender. The specific knowledge systems from Sen’s capabilities approach suggested for integration are the study and coverage of injustices in a democratic society; the focus on whether people have flourishing lives that give them the opportunities, freedoms, and choices they need; and economic and political freedoms that give journalists an understanding and appreciation for reporting on inequality and strengthening democratic institutions.     

The Distant Other

This study analyses the representation of immigrants in four Spanish national newspapers, El País, El Mundo, La Razón and ABC, between 1 June 2013 and 31 June 2014. Seven days per month were randomly selected, each corresponding to a different day of the week; 91 editions of each paper, 364 in total, were analysed. Of the 289 items relating to immigrants, 179 in which one or more photographs appeared in addition to text were chosen for analysis. Among the main results, two stand out: first, immigrants do not usually have an opportunity to communicate directly with readers and, secondly, the treatment of news items on immigration by the four Spanish newspapers is variable.     

Protection or Participation?

Children’s status as a particularly vulnerable group in society implies a journalistic obligation to shed light on children’s stories and listen to their perspectives, but their vulnerable position also means they deserve protection from potentially harmful news coverage. Based on a close-reading of two extensively covered news serials concerning irregular migrant children facing deportation, and on in-depth interviews with journalists, editors, and key actors working on behalf of irregular migrant children, the present article sheds light on how journalists balance competing, ethical, professional, and organizational concerns when reporting on issues concerning children. The article shows that while journalists say they are aware of the ethical aspects concerning extensive media exposure of young children, they justify the reporting by foregrounding children as innocent victims of the immigration system and by highlighting the journalistic obligation of shedding light on the wrongdoings of this system. The potential burden of media exposure is relativized as less harmful than the alternative—deportation. Theoretically, the article contributes to the literature on children in the news media, human-interest stories and journalism, and the role of journalism reporting vulnerable groups.     

Don’t Quote me: Effects of Named,Quoted, and Partisan News Sources

ABSTRACT

Many news organizations have developed policies on the use of named and unnamed sources, including whether the latter can be directly quoted or paraphrased in news stories. In this experiment, we test how audience members respond to these policy dictates by measuring news credibility in a political story that manipulated whether the source was named, whether that source was directly quoted, and the source’s political connection to the story. We found that while each of these manipulations had little or no main effects, they combined to trigger a discernible change in credibility in the eyes of the audience.     

How U.S. and Chinese journalists think about plagiarism

A comparison of 1,096 professional journalists in China and the United States on attitudes toward attribution and plagiarism reveals Chinese journalists were more likely to see attribution as a practice to be embraced regardless of career longevity and culture, suggesting journalistic norms are more important than a collectivist orientation. Attribution was more likely to be embraced by those who see principles as more important than expediency, affirming research that plagiarism is hardly a monolithic concept. Overall, journalists in the two nations did not vary significantly in their attitudes toward plagiarism, despite vast differences in culture and politics as well as evidence that in some other fields China is more accepting of reusing material without attribution. The data show that among journalists, attitudes toward plagiarism are shared across national boundaries, reinforcing related research showing that a journalism culture exists and is shared at least in part across national boundaries.     

3Ws of Data Journalism Education

This paper explores data journalism education, with a particular focus on formal training in the higher education sector globally. The study draws on data from: (1) the 2017 Global Data Journalism Survey, to study the state of data journalism education and the requirements in terms of training and (2) a dataset of 219 unique modules or programmes on data journalism or related fields that were curated and examined in order to understand the nature of data journalism education in universities across the world. The results show that while journalists interested in data are highly educated in journalism or closely related fields, they do not have a strong level of education in the more technical areas of data journalism, such as data analysis, coding and data visualisation. The study further reveals that a high proportion of data journalism courses are concentrated in the United States, with a growing number of courses developing across the world, and particularly in Europe. Despite this, education in the field does not have a strong academic underpinning, and while many courses are emerging in this area, there are not enough academically trained instructors to lead and/or teach such interdisciplinary programmes in the higher education sector.     

COVERING TERRORISM

This paper examines how journalists in India and Sri Lanka define social responsibility and whether they consider their news media to be socially responsible when covering terrorism. Interviews with 68 Indian and Sri Lankan journalists suggest that they do not consider their media to be socially responsible. They identify several problems including: government manipulation of news, pressures to pander to the marketplace, pressure to please a public indoctrinated with governmental and corporate definitions of “patriotism,” fear of physical reprisals, and lack of professional training as main reasons that journalists in these two countries cannot act in a socially responsible manner whenever they are writing and reporting about terrorism.     

Determinants of diachronic information seeking among communication intermediaries

While the study of the ethical use of new technologies in journalistic work is imperative given the widespread use of such technology, such studies are few and far between, particularly for the developing world. This paper provides results of an exploratory, qualitative study of Indian journalists’ views about the ethical use of new computer and Internet-based technologies for news gathering and reporting in India. New digital technology was widely accessible to the respondents, but not all journalists were given the tools by their employers. Opinions about ethical news practices using new technology were mixed and revealed a few grey areas. English language national newspapers tended to indicate that their standards were strict and that ethical violations, exacerbated by new technology, occurred mostly in vernacular newspapers. On the whole, respondents had not heard often of other organizations or individuals committing unethical practices such as plagiarism and lack of attribution using new technology. Still, some beliefs indicated uncertainty about ethical practice or breach of ethical principles. The findings of this study have implications for journalism education and on-the-job training of Indian journalists, as well as for formulating ethical codes of journalism, particularly with regard to new media. Indian codes focus more on the roles journalists should play in society and do not provide very specific tactical guidance for everyday news gathering. Coupled with lack of training, this creates a situation where perceptions about journalistic ethics are sometimes vague and variant.     

What is Slow Journalism?

In an era of fast and instantaneous journalism and concerns about the deleterious effects of speed, it can be easy to lose sight of the other kinds of journalism being practiced, other temporalities for its production. There has been little scholarly work on slow journalism, so the first aim of this article is, if not to define, then at least to describe some key characteristics of what slow journalism might be. It will look at how the term has been used on blogs, websites, public forums, and in the minimal scholarly literature available. It will also explore some examples by producers who identify with the term to see what slow journalism looks like in practice. The proliferation of independent journalism using Slow as a way of thinking about production suggests that we are witnessing a new alternative emerging in the mediascape.     

CRISIS JOURNALISM AT A CROSSROADS?

The ongoing changes in journalism in Finland have forced the profession to consider its position and practices. This need for reflection was particularly clear after the recent school shooting cases in Jokela in 2007 and in Kauhajoki in 2008 that gave rise to a public debate about journalists’ actions. Using qualitative content analysis and the idea of reflective practice as its methods, this study investigates how 45 Finnish journalists reflected on their and their profession's work after the two cases. The study focuses on journalists’ views of reporting on the shooters and victims, and reveals a shift in journalists’ thinking from a strong deontological ethos towards a more teleological stance. It also highlights the need for further research to determine whether the change observed is a permanent one.     

REVELATION,INTRUSION, AND QUESTIONS OF TASTE

Obituary columns pick over the expired human condition and deliver their posthumous review with a formidable exercise of authority. They inform, they enlighten, they entertain; they also have the capacity to offend and wound. The obituarist's appraisal will be scrutinised by relatives, lovers, antagonists, and acquaintances who remember the characters on the page with a familiarity not necessarily available to the readership at large. At the same time, though, there is a duty to present a complete account so that the cause of historical record is satisfied. In composing these posthumous studies, therefore, writers and editors frequently encounter an ethical dilemma in deciding what measure of intimate information should be revealed. The cause of death (particularly if self-inflicted) and the subject's sexual persuasion appear in this regard as questions of notable complexity. Then there is the matter of qualification for the page itself. Formerly concerned largely with society's more prominent citizens, whose life histories could safely be compiled from biographies and the files, obituary practice has been extended in recent times to offer an egalitarian coverage—notably in the aftermath of terrorism. Obituary desks have had to intrude on grief and seek information from the newly (and violently) bereaved. This article considers prevailing demands in obituary practice which require the exercise of delicate editorial judgment.     

Classifying Data Journalism

The review of theoretical and empirical studies in data journalism has uncovered different conceptualisations of data journalistic artefacts. This quantitative content analysis of data-driven stories published by European quality news websites Zeit Online, Spiegel Online, The Guardian and Neue Zürcher Zeitung aims to outline universal characteristics of daily data-driven stories and to compare these findings with previous analyses of data stories and acclaimed data journalism projects. Results suggest that daily data journalism stories generally feature two visualisations that are likely to be bar charts. The majority of these visualisations are not interactive whereas maps turn out to be the most interactive type of visualisation. Data journalists rely predominantly on pre-processed data drawn from domestic governmental bodies. For the most part, data-driven stories are reports on political topics paralleling traditional news reporting. The sparsity of collaborative efforts and investigative approaches distinguishes daily data journalism from previous analyses of eclectic and elaborate data-driven projects.     

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION

Journalism education is increasingly located within universities where much of the teaching is carried out by journalists and former journalists known as “hackademics”. Yet only a minority of journalists-turned-journalism-educators are engaging in the scholarly research typically expected of academics. Should this grouping be expected to undertake academic research into journalism and, if so, how might they be supported in becoming scholars? Such issues will be explored in this study of journalists-turned-journalism-educators in the higher education sectors of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Their experiences of, and attitudes to, academic research into journalism will be reported and analysed alongside the perspectives of journal editors and in comparison with the experiences of academics in other disciplines. Within the context of a growing literature on journalism education, the concept of reflection-upon-practice will be discussed as one with resonance not only for the graduate journalists now being turned out by universities, but for journalism educators internationally.