Why New Journalism Ethics Have to be Public, Not Personal

By: Stephen J. A. Ward | PBS MediaShift

How should we reconstruct journalism ethics now that a media revolution has left a pre-digital, professional consensus in fragments?

That appears to be the question for ethicists and journalists who care about ethics. Yet the question is contested. Some journalists are skeptical about any attempt to forge a new practice-wide consensus on aims and principles.

There are too many practitioners, too many platforms, too many conflicting values. Journalism, it seems, is irrevocably fragmented. As I noted in a previous column, there is a trend toward a “personalized” or “Do It Yourself” approach. Journalists construct their own ethical guidelines.