Ethical Challenges of Global Media

Abstract

and community might be a somewhat harder sell. I fully embrace community as a guiding principle, and it is heartening to see that principle given such a central position. I have always believed that a central goal of journalism is to make the world a better place—to serve the common good. Transparency is intriguing, and I am tempted by what it may accomplish, but I also worry that such a heavy emphasis on transparency may result in us expecting too little of journalists and too much of audiences. For journalists, transparency could serve to let them off the hook from doing the much-needed work of sense-making. In other words, transparency could be used as an excuse for not truly getting to the bottom of issues. (For the record, McBride and Rosenstiel contend that transparency does not equate to a lower bar.) For audiences, it might be the case that encouraging transparency simultaneously encourages the trend toward niche consumption. We are already seeing how easy it is for citizens to inhabit a news echo chamber; putting such a heavy emphasis on transparency could further enable this. In fact, McBride and Rosenstiel point out that “in a world in which an increasingly polarized public can choose from a wide array of sources for news, some consumers will demand this transparency” (p. 91). I worry that this demand emanates not from an interest in taking time to sort the reliable from the suspect but rather from a (perhaps more passive) desire to find news that simply reinforces consumers’ own points of view. It could be that my assessment of transparency sells both journalists and citizens short. I hope I am wrong. Regardless, however, of whether transparency stands up as one of three guiding principles for journalism, the concept certainly deserves consideration. What also deserve consideration are the questions offered at the end of the 14 case studies featured in The New Ethics of Journalism (one case for each chapter). Journalist Caitlin Johnson wrote each of the cases, and many of her questions do an exceptional job of prompting ethical reflection about issues related to those cases. In fact, in some instances, the questions help draw out the ethical ramifications of a case that is not explicitly about ethics, and they even help tie the chapters to their corresponding principles of truth, transparency, and community. These are the kinds of questions that work well not only in a classroom but also in a newsroom. Many of them get beyond the obvious and help stimulate the kind of ethical analysis that is so essential to working through an issue in a sophisticated way. In the end, The New Ethics of Journalism helped me better understand the landscape of journalism in the digital age; it encouraged me to reflect on what should matter most for journalism in this new landscape; and at times, it even prompted me to talk back. A book that can do all of these things is worth the read.