Defining journalism and activism: “Journalism has long been committed to unbiased reporting and to shining a light on injustices in society,” writes Michael Blanding.
The tension between these two mandates has become more apparent in the current polarized political moment, he says.
Anonymity exposed: Anonymity is a con game played on the public by some of the nation’s leading newspapers, says a story from the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives.
“Most reporters know that stories are only as good as the reliability of identified sources who are quoted,” says AdviceLine.
Brits propose global tech ethics code: Taking aim at fake news and disinformation, a United Kingdom parliament committee reports “our democracy is at risk” from election interference through social media.
A plea for school shooting standards: Education reporters should lead the way toward newsroom standards for covering shootings at schools, writes Emily Richmond;
“They should ask managers when their news outlets will name perpetrators and how often,” she writes. “They should also ask whether coverage of such an event will use tweets sent by students in lockdown, or share videos and photos from scenes of violence.”
High ethical standards in pursuit of news: The Center for Journalism
Ethics names ProPublica a finalist for an ethics award.
In telling the story of a high school student trying to escape gang membership, ProPublica did not publish his last name or run photos that might reveal his identity.
The new take on editing photos: Pictures are vital to covering the news at a time when technology makes it easy to alter images, says a story in the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives.
“It was not considered a big deal a decade or more ago” to alter a picture. “But now it is, because accuracy in photography is seen as important as accuracy in reporting.”
Saving local newspapers: Dwindling local news leads to partisan political polarization write Joshua P. Darr, Johanna Dunaway and Matthew P. Hitt.
“Local newspapers provide a valuable service to democracy by keeping readers’ focus on their communities,” they write. “When they lose local newspapers, we have found, readers turn to their political partisanship to inform their political choices.”
Internet reader traffic report: Promising platforms in 2019 are SmartNews and Flipboard, writes Kelsey Arendt.
Twitter and Google appear to be slipping, says Arendt. Drudge Report seen the least reliable traffic source on the internet.
Revealing a religion reporter’s religion: One religion reporter had a strict policy against revealing her faith, writes Jaweed Kaleem.
“Today, as reporters become more diverse — by race, religion and more — and notions of objectivity become increasingly debated, some journalists on the religion beat are choosing to be more open about their own faiths, and lack thereof,” he writes.
Attribution and plagiarism: In the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives, Stephen Rynkiewicz compares Renaissance artists with modern journalists.
“If the rules on fair play are shifting, the Renaissance atelier may be where to look for direction,” he writes.
“When they knew enough to transform their material, apprentices became journeymen and started their own studios. When journalists bring craft and intelligence to their work, they too become artists,” he writes.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 