Юридическое равенство, законность и справедливость, как социально-правовые категории Равенство, з... more Юридическое равенство, законность и справедливость, как социально-правовые категории Равенство, законность и справедливость являются наиболее проблемными социально-правовыми категориями. Вокруг этих понятий многие века идут горячие споры, бурные обсуждения. Однако до сих пор не существует единого мнения в их понимании, не выработана общая точка зрения на соотношение данных категорий. Поэтому возникает необходимость подробного научного исследования правовой наукой. В настоящее время и политиками, и учёными-теоретиками, и юристами-практиками обсуждается возможность и необходимость равенства. На первый взгляд, этот термин не требует объяснения, он прост и понятен. Его происхождение относится к античному периоду. У древнегреческих мыслителей господствовало представление о сбалансированности всего существующего, что относится и к обществу, и к окружающей среде. При таком равновесном состоянии любое действие нарушает баланс, и гармонию можно восстановить только аналогичным противодействием. Юридическое равенство было известно также в древнеримском праве, которое закрепляло тезисы о том, что «перед законом все равны», что «закон обращается ко всем одним голосом» 1 и тому подобные. После религиозных войн в XV -XVI вв., когда государство объявило о своём нейтралитете в отношении к разным теориям «правильной жизни» и закрепило одинаковую ценность и значение индивидов с точки зрения права, данный принцип окончательно сформировался в теории права. В настоящее время международные акты закрепляют принцип равенства, равноправия людей. В частности, Всеобщая декларация прав человека признаёт достоинство, присущее всем членам человеческой семьи, и равные и неотъемлемые права.
The percentage of stories that include a rationale for using anonymous sources rose dramatically ... more The percentage of stories that include a rationale for using anonymous sources rose dramatically in both The New York Times and The Washington Post following the Blair-Kelley scandals and the setting up of new newsroom policies.
Of the 352 journalists interviewed in Canada, nearly half were women (43.5%). The mean age was 44... more Of the 352 journalists interviewed in Canada, nearly half were women (43.5%). The mean age was 44.51 years (s=11.88), which corresponds almost exactly to the median age of 44.50. With respect to their education, the majority of these journalists hold a minimum of a college diploma or university degree (93.4%), with 27.4 percent completing a Master's degree and just over 1.0 percent completing a doctorate. Of those completing post-secondary education, only 25.2 percent specialized in a field other than journalism or communications. Most respondents (61.3%) specialized only in journalism, 9.0 percent specialized in another communication field, and 4.5 percent specialized in journalism in addition to another communication field. Only 6.6 percent of respondents have not completed post-secondary education, and less than 1 percent had less than a high school education. These data suggest Canadian journalists are well educated. Journalists in the Newsroom Canadian journalists are most likely to be employed full time (78.1%), and only 3.4 percent were employed part-time; however, 17.0 percent of the respondents were freelance and 1.4 percent self-reported as "other." On average, respondents had been working in journalism for 18.88 years (s=11.17), with half of all respondents working in the field for at least 18 years, and 25 percent of respondents working in journalism for 27 years or longer. With respect to the type of journalism they do, 50.3 percent of respondents are specialists, and 49.7 percent are generalists. On average, respondents worked for 1.92 newsrooms; however, there is considerable variation around this mean (s=2.15). Further, 26.1 percent of journalists worked for only 1 newsroom. 29.3 percent of respondents had other paid work. The majority (56.4%) are members of a professional association. Canadian journalists work for a range of media. While 16.8 percent of respondents did not specify the type of media in which they work, the remaining 83.2 percent are distributed accordingly: 58.7 percent worked for a daily newspaper; 22.5 percent worked in television; 6.8 percent worked for a news agency; 5.1 percent worked for a magazine; 4.1 percent worked for a stand-alone online outlet; 2.4 percent worked in radio; and less than 1 percent worked for a weekly newspaper.
Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including h... more Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including having French as a minority language. The trio also shares similar media landscapes, systems and approaches to journalism to those of other Western European and Northern American countries. These commonalities offer an opportunity to probe for the possibility of a language-based differentiation in journalists’ professional identities. Our comparative analysis of Worlds of Journalism Study data suggests that francophone journalists in our three countries have much more in common than not with their other-language peers. However, the francophone journalists seem more likely to identify with a politicized role that includes agenda-setting, citizen-motivation and scrutinizing power, and less likely to be driven by attracting and satisfying audiences. A différence francophone exists, but it is modest.
This document is a major step in ongoing research into Canadian press councils' models of practic... more This document is a major step in ongoing research into Canadian press councils' models of practice and future options. While future reports will provide further theoretical content and practical examples that will underpin and further substantiate our observations, this report should nonetheless stand alone as starting point for possible press council reform in Canada. This research has been supported by an arms-length personal donation by Torstar chair John Honderich, made on behalf of Newspapers Canada, to the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre. Additional funding from Mitacs-Accelerate made it possible for Edward Tubb, a Master of Journalism candidate at Ryerson University, to join the project. Canada's premiere research internship program enables graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to apply theory in real-world settings, while companies gain a competitive advantage by accessing high-quality research expertise. We invite feedback on this preliminary report and will address any responses we receive in our ongoing reports on this study, which should conclude, with findings submitted for peer review, in the spring of 2013.
A survey of online news people rated the quality of online news. Top rankings went to content cri... more A survey of online news people rated the quality of online news. Top rankings went to content criteria, such as credibility and utility, suggesting that many traditional journalism values remain paramount. Xn his review of scholarly attempts to define journalistic quality and identify related attributes or criteria, both subjective and objective, Bogart observed in 2004: American editors and journalists share a fairly broad consensus on what constitutes excellence in the press. When experienced news people are asked what makes for quality, a number of words and phrases inevitably surface: integrity, fairness, balance, accuracy, comprehensiveness, diligence of discovery, authority, breadth of coverage, variety of content, reflection ofthe entire home community, vivid writing, attractive makeup, packaging or appearance, and easy navigability.Ĥ
ABSTRACT While a concerted quest for accuracy is seen by many journalists as central to their pro... more ABSTRACT While a concerted quest for accuracy is seen by many journalists as central to their professional identity, informal rules of practice for achieving news accuracy are elusive and highly nuanced. We conducted post hoc qualitative interviews with 28 semi-randomly selected Canadian journalists working for French- and English-language newspapers; each journalist reconstructed in detail the process of verification used in reporting a single newspaper story. Findings suggest considerable diversity in verification strategies, at times mirroring social scientific methods (source triangulation, analysis of primary data sources or official documents, semi-participant observation), and different degrees of reflexivity or critical awareness of journalists' own blind spots and limitations. Most interviewees expressed passionate support for the norm of verification, but described a range of pragmatic compromises when selecting various types of facts for, and when conducting, verification. Proper names, numbers and some other concrete details were verified with greater care than some other types of factual statement. On the other hand, statements were frequently relayed, with or without attribution, based on a single subject's word. We also observed that verification cannot easily or consistently be identified as a distinct process within the normal course of reporting: rather, the relationship between the reporting and verification processes may often be circular, and some verification rests in knowledge derived from a reporter's earlier work.
In view of the robust link often inferred between autonomous journalism and the strength of a soc... more In view of the robust link often inferred between autonomous journalism and the strength of a society's democratic institutions, and against the background of current challenges to journalists' traditional roles as purveyors of timely and independent information, we interviewed 352 Canadian journalists about their social and political roles and the influences on their news choices. Comparison of their responses against an international dataset (N=27,567) suggests that Canadian journalists place greater value on detached monitorial roles and claim relative autonomy from commercial and other influences on their work. Further, in comparing these findings to an influential panel study from 1999 to 2003, we conclude that the Canadian journalists' "credo," focused on neutral reporting and oriented more to perceived public interest than to business or audience interests, remains surprisingly intact despite contemporary pressures on news forms and business models. This professed neutrality is mitigated by a desire to promote diversity and tolerance.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, May 5, 2014
The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century. Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel, ... more The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century. Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2013. 243 pp. $38.00 pbk.Does a new century require new principles? Not necessarily, but nor could one easily resist a revised look at ethics in the wake of this particular century's eruptions in the economy and technology of how people make, form, and receive news. It hardly will surprise that a fourteen-essay map of journalism's changed moral landscape produced under the acute curation of the Poynter Institute's Kelly McBride and the American Press Institute's Tom Rosenstiel offers both elegant contours and sometimes provoca- tive route-markers.Nor, given the still-molten geological state of post-millennial journalism so far, should it surprise that the resulting map includes a few blank spots-and, to this read- er's mind, the odd navigational error.The most elegant thinking is offered in the opening two chapters, which jointly address a timeless yet currently compelling question facing every journalist (among others): "What is truth?" Twitterite orthodoxy has, to date, shed upon this point mostly the meme that facts are whatever the crowd eventually determines to be factual, an epistemological soup that is neither meatless nor especially nutritious. But Clay Shirky and Roy Peter Clark, variously at odds and in sync, offer far more nuanced ideas on the meaning and attainability of accuracy.Here is how Shirky, for example, puts the post-postmodern conundrum of truth-seek- ing in an ubiquitous, boundary-agnostic universe of opinions as to what constitute facts:"Seeking truth and reporting it" is becoming less about finding consensus, which has become rarer, and more about publicly sorting the relevant actors from the irrelevant ones. . . . In this environment, journalists have to get more practiced at sorting . . . legitimate from illegitimate opinions. In an even more significant rupture from their past, they have to get practiced at explaining to their readers why they are making the choices they are making.The latter point makes more compelling the editors' most prominent-and most controversial-suggestion that transparency is no longer merely an essential strategy for attaining credibility and accountability (as is, by now, almost universally accepted). Rather, it is one of just three ethical "principles" for journalism. The other two moral pillars are, according to the editors, the more preeminent (and familiar) pursuit of truths, or rather, as is wisely argued, truths, and the highly fashionable (and, yes, unar- guable) idea of engagement with communities.This elevated position for transparency, though certainly debatable, should not be oversimplified. McBride and Rosenstiel do not present it as a cure-all, a low-bar uber-ethic:In fact, true transparency is more than disclosure. It also requires producing the news in ways that can be explained and even defended. It becomes the key to a method. Transparency requires those who produce the news to anticipate how they will explain their actions before they act.Not merely one of ethical journalism's three moral pillars, then, but "the key to a method." Yet, the lack of methodological development of this vision of transparency is the book's most striking gap. McBride and Rosenstiel rightly state that today's pub- lic demands to know how alleged facts have been sourced, chosen, and verified; what biases have been controlled for, and how so; and how news organizations themselves are comprised, supported, and operated. The editors then assert thatMost news organizations fall short every day answering these questions. We have yet to develop best practices for transparency on this level. …
Suddenly, they're everywhere. A Halifax-based stringer for the Boston Globe fabricates graphic de... more Suddenly, they're everywhere. A Halifax-based stringer for the Boston Globe fabricates graphic details of a seal hunt that, unbeknownst to her, was postponed. A staff member of the Ottawa Citizen apologizes and loses his position on the editorial board after being caught in plagiarism. The National Post hires a sportswriter recently fired for plagiarism at the Winnipeg Free Press. Harper's magazine editor Lewis Lapham and syndicated author Mitch Albom write details about things yet to happen, in the past tense. The Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press is fired for fabricating experts and organizations. The Iowa State Daily publishes material lifted from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. North American newspapers hit with cheating scandals in this very young century, and the sometimes storied names of the perpetrators, have included the New York Times (Jayson Blair, Michael Finkel, Rick Bragg), the Toronto Star (Prithi Yelaja), USA Today (Jack Kelley), the National Post (Brad Evenson, Elizabeth Nickson, Gillian Cosgrove), and the Boston Globe (Mike Barnicle). Or maybe what's sudden is the cheaters are getting caught. The Internet helps, of course: if you think you've seen a passage somewhere before, it's no longer hard work to find the smoking gun of plagiarism. And it's become more likely that someone who knows something about a story for which a reporter has fabricated details will actually see the story, recognize the lie, and maybe expose it. You'd think this ever-present e-danger, and the frequent stories of disgrace, would put the fear of God into journalists. But (judging by the pace of new scandals), the cheaters carry on undaunted. So the question becomes: Why do they do it? Why does dishonesty thrive?
... Broersma , Marcel Jeroen 2007 “Form, Style and Journalistic Strategies” , in : Marcel Jeroen ... more ... Broersma , Marcel Jeroen 2007 “Form, Style and Journalistic Strategies” , in : Marcel Jeroen Broersma Form and Style in Journalism: European newspapers and the presentation of news, 1880–2005 , Leuven and Dudley, MA : Peeters , ix xxix . View all references, p. xxviii). ...
de l'article Les journalistes subissent désormais la concurrence d'un nombre quasi infini de sour... more de l'article Les journalistes subissent désormais la concurrence d'un nombre quasi infini de sources sur Internet. Sur quelles bases peuvent-ils aujourd'hui réclamer l'attention et la confiance du public? L'exigence d'exactitude apparaît comme fondamentale et universelle, mais, au-delà de l'importance que les journalistes accordent d'emblée à la vérification, quelles sont les règles qui régissent leurs routines quotidiennes? Cette étude examine à la fois les pratiques et le discours des journalistes de quotidiens canadiens, dans le but de contribuer au développement de meilleures pratiques de vérification journalistique. Nous y présentons les résultats de quatre entretiens individuels réalisés auprès de journalistes récipiendaires ou finalistes de prix d'excellence afin de reconstruire les stratégies de vérification utilisées par les reporters et de comprendre leur point de vue sur les normes qui les régissent.
When journalists compete with bloggers and anyone with a smartphone, on what basis may profession... more When journalists compete with bloggers and anyone with a smartphone, on what basis may professional reporters now claim public attention and trust? The profession's quality criteria have traditionally been tacit, intuitive, and varied rather than codified or standardized. However, accuracy remains a core value. When speed often prevails over accuracy, what exactly does verification mean in everyday practice? Through a series of individual in-depth interviews conducted in Quebec and Ontario, we seek to describe the fact-checking strategies used by a group of award-winning journalists and by a control group of randomly selected journalists. In both groups, we see rigorous methodologies that can be described as "best practices." Nevertheless, we note a cleavage between spoken ideals and everyday practice in the participants' discourse. Résumé Au moment où les journalistes entrent en compétition avec des blogueurs et des citoyens armés de téléphones intelligents, sur quelles bases peuvent-ils réclamer l'attention et la confiance du public? Les critères de qualité de la profession demeurent encore aujourd'hui basés sur des règles tacites, intuitives et variées. Pourtant, l'exactitude demeure une valeur fondamentale pour les journalistes. Quand la vitesse l'emporte sur l'exactitude, quelles sont les règles qui régissent le travail des journalistes de quotidien? Grâce à une série d'entrevues réalisées au Québec et en Ontario auprès d'un groupe de journalistes primés et d'un groupe contrôle, nous avons reconstruit les stratégies de vérification de ces reporters. Alors que des méthodes de vérification rigoureuses sont observées dans les deux groupes, un clivage est visible entre les idéaux des participants et leur pratique quotidienne.
The right to be forgotten" (RTBF) is a relatively new concept in human-rights law, but it deals i... more The right to be forgotten" (RTBF) is a relatively new concept in human-rights law, but it deals in root ethical issues familiar to news people and their sources. Editors must routinely weigh the news' long-term role as a "historical record" against its potential negative impacts on individuals. In the digital-journalism era, publication is at the same time both more enduring and less static, creating new parameters and possibilities for ethical decision-making. Because news content may be seen by more people in more places for much longer, the potential to do lasting good or harm is greater, but, because digital publication is more retractable and redactible than legacy platforms, the possibility of correction, clarification and removal creates both new harm-reduction opportunities and new challenges to the historical record. Also known as a "right to erasure" or "right to oblivion," the RTBF, now accepted in the European Union, recognizes that, even in the age of Google, people should retain some degree of control over information about themselves and their pasts. (Factsheet on the 'Right to be Forgotten' ruling (C131-12), n.d.; Manna, 2014; Rosen, 2012). This paper will explore both legal and ethical implications of the issue.
This paper presents an overview of preliminary results from a comparative study of existing press... more This paper presents an overview of preliminary results from a comparative study of existing press council models in Canadian provinces and similar democracies abroad. Gathering information by a combination of survey and qualitative-interview methodologies, we are analyzing the relative effectiveness of, and difficulties faced by, varying models of councils. Among the issues to be analyzed are: how existing models of Canadian press councils compare with one another, and with models operating in other democracies; how various stakeholders define the purpose(s) of press councils; the difficulties faced by existing and defunct provincial news councils in achieving their various goals; whether a national press council may be viable and, if so, what the key function(s) of a national press council might be.
Юридическое равенство, законность и справедливость, как социально-правовые категории Равенство, з... more Юридическое равенство, законность и справедливость, как социально-правовые категории Равенство, законность и справедливость являются наиболее проблемными социально-правовыми категориями. Вокруг этих понятий многие века идут горячие споры, бурные обсуждения. Однако до сих пор не существует единого мнения в их понимании, не выработана общая точка зрения на соотношение данных категорий. Поэтому возникает необходимость подробного научного исследования правовой наукой. В настоящее время и политиками, и учёными-теоретиками, и юристами-практиками обсуждается возможность и необходимость равенства. На первый взгляд, этот термин не требует объяснения, он прост и понятен. Его происхождение относится к античному периоду. У древнегреческих мыслителей господствовало представление о сбалансированности всего существующего, что относится и к обществу, и к окружающей среде. При таком равновесном состоянии любое действие нарушает баланс, и гармонию можно восстановить только аналогичным противодействием. Юридическое равенство было известно также в древнеримском праве, которое закрепляло тезисы о том, что «перед законом все равны», что «закон обращается ко всем одним голосом» 1 и тому подобные. После религиозных войн в XV -XVI вв., когда государство объявило о своём нейтралитете в отношении к разным теориям «правильной жизни» и закрепило одинаковую ценность и значение индивидов с точки зрения права, данный принцип окончательно сформировался в теории права. В настоящее время международные акты закрепляют принцип равенства, равноправия людей. В частности, Всеобщая декларация прав человека признаёт достоинство, присущее всем членам человеческой семьи, и равные и неотъемлемые права.
The percentage of stories that include a rationale for using anonymous sources rose dramatically ... more The percentage of stories that include a rationale for using anonymous sources rose dramatically in both The New York Times and The Washington Post following the Blair-Kelley scandals and the setting up of new newsroom policies.
Of the 352 journalists interviewed in Canada, nearly half were women (43.5%). The mean age was 44... more Of the 352 journalists interviewed in Canada, nearly half were women (43.5%). The mean age was 44.51 years (s=11.88), which corresponds almost exactly to the median age of 44.50. With respect to their education, the majority of these journalists hold a minimum of a college diploma or university degree (93.4%), with 27.4 percent completing a Master's degree and just over 1.0 percent completing a doctorate. Of those completing post-secondary education, only 25.2 percent specialized in a field other than journalism or communications. Most respondents (61.3%) specialized only in journalism, 9.0 percent specialized in another communication field, and 4.5 percent specialized in journalism in addition to another communication field. Only 6.6 percent of respondents have not completed post-secondary education, and less than 1 percent had less than a high school education. These data suggest Canadian journalists are well educated. Journalists in the Newsroom Canadian journalists are most likely to be employed full time (78.1%), and only 3.4 percent were employed part-time; however, 17.0 percent of the respondents were freelance and 1.4 percent self-reported as "other." On average, respondents had been working in journalism for 18.88 years (s=11.17), with half of all respondents working in the field for at least 18 years, and 25 percent of respondents working in journalism for 27 years or longer. With respect to the type of journalism they do, 50.3 percent of respondents are specialists, and 49.7 percent are generalists. On average, respondents worked for 1.92 newsrooms; however, there is considerable variation around this mean (s=2.15). Further, 26.1 percent of journalists worked for only 1 newsroom. 29.3 percent of respondents had other paid work. The majority (56.4%) are members of a professional association. Canadian journalists work for a range of media. While 16.8 percent of respondents did not specify the type of media in which they work, the remaining 83.2 percent are distributed accordingly: 58.7 percent worked for a daily newspaper; 22.5 percent worked in television; 6.8 percent worked for a news agency; 5.1 percent worked for a magazine; 4.1 percent worked for a stand-alone online outlet; 2.4 percent worked in radio; and less than 1 percent worked for a weekly newspaper.
Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including h... more Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are multicultural countries with several similarities including having French as a minority language. The trio also shares similar media landscapes, systems and approaches to journalism to those of other Western European and Northern American countries. These commonalities offer an opportunity to probe for the possibility of a language-based differentiation in journalists’ professional identities. Our comparative analysis of Worlds of Journalism Study data suggests that francophone journalists in our three countries have much more in common than not with their other-language peers. However, the francophone journalists seem more likely to identify with a politicized role that includes agenda-setting, citizen-motivation and scrutinizing power, and less likely to be driven by attracting and satisfying audiences. A différence francophone exists, but it is modest.
This document is a major step in ongoing research into Canadian press councils' models of practic... more This document is a major step in ongoing research into Canadian press councils' models of practice and future options. While future reports will provide further theoretical content and practical examples that will underpin and further substantiate our observations, this report should nonetheless stand alone as starting point for possible press council reform in Canada. This research has been supported by an arms-length personal donation by Torstar chair John Honderich, made on behalf of Newspapers Canada, to the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre. Additional funding from Mitacs-Accelerate made it possible for Edward Tubb, a Master of Journalism candidate at Ryerson University, to join the project. Canada's premiere research internship program enables graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to apply theory in real-world settings, while companies gain a competitive advantage by accessing high-quality research expertise. We invite feedback on this preliminary report and will address any responses we receive in our ongoing reports on this study, which should conclude, with findings submitted for peer review, in the spring of 2013.
A survey of online news people rated the quality of online news. Top rankings went to content cri... more A survey of online news people rated the quality of online news. Top rankings went to content criteria, such as credibility and utility, suggesting that many traditional journalism values remain paramount. Xn his review of scholarly attempts to define journalistic quality and identify related attributes or criteria, both subjective and objective, Bogart observed in 2004: American editors and journalists share a fairly broad consensus on what constitutes excellence in the press. When experienced news people are asked what makes for quality, a number of words and phrases inevitably surface: integrity, fairness, balance, accuracy, comprehensiveness, diligence of discovery, authority, breadth of coverage, variety of content, reflection ofthe entire home community, vivid writing, attractive makeup, packaging or appearance, and easy navigability.Ĥ
ABSTRACT While a concerted quest for accuracy is seen by many journalists as central to their pro... more ABSTRACT While a concerted quest for accuracy is seen by many journalists as central to their professional identity, informal rules of practice for achieving news accuracy are elusive and highly nuanced. We conducted post hoc qualitative interviews with 28 semi-randomly selected Canadian journalists working for French- and English-language newspapers; each journalist reconstructed in detail the process of verification used in reporting a single newspaper story. Findings suggest considerable diversity in verification strategies, at times mirroring social scientific methods (source triangulation, analysis of primary data sources or official documents, semi-participant observation), and different degrees of reflexivity or critical awareness of journalists' own blind spots and limitations. Most interviewees expressed passionate support for the norm of verification, but described a range of pragmatic compromises when selecting various types of facts for, and when conducting, verification. Proper names, numbers and some other concrete details were verified with greater care than some other types of factual statement. On the other hand, statements were frequently relayed, with or without attribution, based on a single subject's word. We also observed that verification cannot easily or consistently be identified as a distinct process within the normal course of reporting: rather, the relationship between the reporting and verification processes may often be circular, and some verification rests in knowledge derived from a reporter's earlier work.
In view of the robust link often inferred between autonomous journalism and the strength of a soc... more In view of the robust link often inferred between autonomous journalism and the strength of a society's democratic institutions, and against the background of current challenges to journalists' traditional roles as purveyors of timely and independent information, we interviewed 352 Canadian journalists about their social and political roles and the influences on their news choices. Comparison of their responses against an international dataset (N=27,567) suggests that Canadian journalists place greater value on detached monitorial roles and claim relative autonomy from commercial and other influences on their work. Further, in comparing these findings to an influential panel study from 1999 to 2003, we conclude that the Canadian journalists' "credo," focused on neutral reporting and oriented more to perceived public interest than to business or audience interests, remains surprisingly intact despite contemporary pressures on news forms and business models. This professed neutrality is mitigated by a desire to promote diversity and tolerance.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, May 5, 2014
The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century. Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel, ... more The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century. Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2013. 243 pp. $38.00 pbk.Does a new century require new principles? Not necessarily, but nor could one easily resist a revised look at ethics in the wake of this particular century's eruptions in the economy and technology of how people make, form, and receive news. It hardly will surprise that a fourteen-essay map of journalism's changed moral landscape produced under the acute curation of the Poynter Institute's Kelly McBride and the American Press Institute's Tom Rosenstiel offers both elegant contours and sometimes provoca- tive route-markers.Nor, given the still-molten geological state of post-millennial journalism so far, should it surprise that the resulting map includes a few blank spots-and, to this read- er's mind, the odd navigational error.The most elegant thinking is offered in the opening two chapters, which jointly address a timeless yet currently compelling question facing every journalist (among others): "What is truth?" Twitterite orthodoxy has, to date, shed upon this point mostly the meme that facts are whatever the crowd eventually determines to be factual, an epistemological soup that is neither meatless nor especially nutritious. But Clay Shirky and Roy Peter Clark, variously at odds and in sync, offer far more nuanced ideas on the meaning and attainability of accuracy.Here is how Shirky, for example, puts the post-postmodern conundrum of truth-seek- ing in an ubiquitous, boundary-agnostic universe of opinions as to what constitute facts:"Seeking truth and reporting it" is becoming less about finding consensus, which has become rarer, and more about publicly sorting the relevant actors from the irrelevant ones. . . . In this environment, journalists have to get more practiced at sorting . . . legitimate from illegitimate opinions. In an even more significant rupture from their past, they have to get practiced at explaining to their readers why they are making the choices they are making.The latter point makes more compelling the editors' most prominent-and most controversial-suggestion that transparency is no longer merely an essential strategy for attaining credibility and accountability (as is, by now, almost universally accepted). Rather, it is one of just three ethical "principles" for journalism. The other two moral pillars are, according to the editors, the more preeminent (and familiar) pursuit of truths, or rather, as is wisely argued, truths, and the highly fashionable (and, yes, unar- guable) idea of engagement with communities.This elevated position for transparency, though certainly debatable, should not be oversimplified. McBride and Rosenstiel do not present it as a cure-all, a low-bar uber-ethic:In fact, true transparency is more than disclosure. It also requires producing the news in ways that can be explained and even defended. It becomes the key to a method. Transparency requires those who produce the news to anticipate how they will explain their actions before they act.Not merely one of ethical journalism's three moral pillars, then, but "the key to a method." Yet, the lack of methodological development of this vision of transparency is the book's most striking gap. McBride and Rosenstiel rightly state that today's pub- lic demands to know how alleged facts have been sourced, chosen, and verified; what biases have been controlled for, and how so; and how news organizations themselves are comprised, supported, and operated. The editors then assert thatMost news organizations fall short every day answering these questions. We have yet to develop best practices for transparency on this level. …
Suddenly, they're everywhere. A Halifax-based stringer for the Boston Globe fabricates graphic de... more Suddenly, they're everywhere. A Halifax-based stringer for the Boston Globe fabricates graphic details of a seal hunt that, unbeknownst to her, was postponed. A staff member of the Ottawa Citizen apologizes and loses his position on the editorial board after being caught in plagiarism. The National Post hires a sportswriter recently fired for plagiarism at the Winnipeg Free Press. Harper's magazine editor Lewis Lapham and syndicated author Mitch Albom write details about things yet to happen, in the past tense. The Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press is fired for fabricating experts and organizations. The Iowa State Daily publishes material lifted from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. North American newspapers hit with cheating scandals in this very young century, and the sometimes storied names of the perpetrators, have included the New York Times (Jayson Blair, Michael Finkel, Rick Bragg), the Toronto Star (Prithi Yelaja), USA Today (Jack Kelley), the National Post (Brad Evenson, Elizabeth Nickson, Gillian Cosgrove), and the Boston Globe (Mike Barnicle). Or maybe what's sudden is the cheaters are getting caught. The Internet helps, of course: if you think you've seen a passage somewhere before, it's no longer hard work to find the smoking gun of plagiarism. And it's become more likely that someone who knows something about a story for which a reporter has fabricated details will actually see the story, recognize the lie, and maybe expose it. You'd think this ever-present e-danger, and the frequent stories of disgrace, would put the fear of God into journalists. But (judging by the pace of new scandals), the cheaters carry on undaunted. So the question becomes: Why do they do it? Why does dishonesty thrive?
... Broersma , Marcel Jeroen 2007 “Form, Style and Journalistic Strategies” , in : Marcel Jeroen ... more ... Broersma , Marcel Jeroen 2007 “Form, Style and Journalistic Strategies” , in : Marcel Jeroen Broersma Form and Style in Journalism: European newspapers and the presentation of news, 1880–2005 , Leuven and Dudley, MA : Peeters , ix xxix . View all references, p. xxviii). ...
de l'article Les journalistes subissent désormais la concurrence d'un nombre quasi infini de sour... more de l'article Les journalistes subissent désormais la concurrence d'un nombre quasi infini de sources sur Internet. Sur quelles bases peuvent-ils aujourd'hui réclamer l'attention et la confiance du public? L'exigence d'exactitude apparaît comme fondamentale et universelle, mais, au-delà de l'importance que les journalistes accordent d'emblée à la vérification, quelles sont les règles qui régissent leurs routines quotidiennes? Cette étude examine à la fois les pratiques et le discours des journalistes de quotidiens canadiens, dans le but de contribuer au développement de meilleures pratiques de vérification journalistique. Nous y présentons les résultats de quatre entretiens individuels réalisés auprès de journalistes récipiendaires ou finalistes de prix d'excellence afin de reconstruire les stratégies de vérification utilisées par les reporters et de comprendre leur point de vue sur les normes qui les régissent.
When journalists compete with bloggers and anyone with a smartphone, on what basis may profession... more When journalists compete with bloggers and anyone with a smartphone, on what basis may professional reporters now claim public attention and trust? The profession's quality criteria have traditionally been tacit, intuitive, and varied rather than codified or standardized. However, accuracy remains a core value. When speed often prevails over accuracy, what exactly does verification mean in everyday practice? Through a series of individual in-depth interviews conducted in Quebec and Ontario, we seek to describe the fact-checking strategies used by a group of award-winning journalists and by a control group of randomly selected journalists. In both groups, we see rigorous methodologies that can be described as "best practices." Nevertheless, we note a cleavage between spoken ideals and everyday practice in the participants' discourse. Résumé Au moment où les journalistes entrent en compétition avec des blogueurs et des citoyens armés de téléphones intelligents, sur quelles bases peuvent-ils réclamer l'attention et la confiance du public? Les critères de qualité de la profession demeurent encore aujourd'hui basés sur des règles tacites, intuitives et variées. Pourtant, l'exactitude demeure une valeur fondamentale pour les journalistes. Quand la vitesse l'emporte sur l'exactitude, quelles sont les règles qui régissent le travail des journalistes de quotidien? Grâce à une série d'entrevues réalisées au Québec et en Ontario auprès d'un groupe de journalistes primés et d'un groupe contrôle, nous avons reconstruit les stratégies de vérification de ces reporters. Alors que des méthodes de vérification rigoureuses sont observées dans les deux groupes, un clivage est visible entre les idéaux des participants et leur pratique quotidienne.
The right to be forgotten" (RTBF) is a relatively new concept in human-rights law, but it deals i... more The right to be forgotten" (RTBF) is a relatively new concept in human-rights law, but it deals in root ethical issues familiar to news people and their sources. Editors must routinely weigh the news' long-term role as a "historical record" against its potential negative impacts on individuals. In the digital-journalism era, publication is at the same time both more enduring and less static, creating new parameters and possibilities for ethical decision-making. Because news content may be seen by more people in more places for much longer, the potential to do lasting good or harm is greater, but, because digital publication is more retractable and redactible than legacy platforms, the possibility of correction, clarification and removal creates both new harm-reduction opportunities and new challenges to the historical record. Also known as a "right to erasure" or "right to oblivion," the RTBF, now accepted in the European Union, recognizes that, even in the age of Google, people should retain some degree of control over information about themselves and their pasts. (Factsheet on the 'Right to be Forgotten' ruling (C131-12), n.d.; Manna, 2014; Rosen, 2012). This paper will explore both legal and ethical implications of the issue.
This paper presents an overview of preliminary results from a comparative study of existing press... more This paper presents an overview of preliminary results from a comparative study of existing press council models in Canadian provinces and similar democracies abroad. Gathering information by a combination of survey and qualitative-interview methodologies, we are analyzing the relative effectiveness of, and difficulties faced by, varying models of councils. Among the issues to be analyzed are: how existing models of Canadian press councils compare with one another, and with models operating in other democracies; how various stakeholders define the purpose(s) of press councils; the difficulties faced by existing and defunct provincial news councils in achieving their various goals; whether a national press council may be viable and, if so, what the key function(s) of a national press council might be.
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