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Media Ethics is independent. It is editorially eclectic, and the sponsors are not responsible for its content. It strives to provide a forum for opinion and research articles on media ethics, as well as a venue for announcements and reviews of meetings, opportunities, and publications. Media Ethics welcomes any and all contributions. All submitted manuscripts are subject to editing at the discretion of the editor.
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Some Unanswered Questions About This American Life
By Steve Myers & Craig Silverman
This popular NPR program recently aired an hour-long retraction, but Myers and Silverman point out some important matters about both the original program and the retraction that still need attention.
Photo: Uwe Herman
Case Study: A Washington News Council Hearing
CPB Ombudsman Joel Kaplan wrote two reports about the Washington News Council’s formal hearing on the Vitae Foundation’s complaint against some content in a KUOW interview. Those "before" and "after" the hearing reports are published here, with other information about the use of “media accountability systems.”.
Photo: Jeff Kubina
The New NPR Ethics Handbook
By Bill Knowles
Bill Knowles examines the newly issued National Public Radio Ethics Handbook—a document that both giveth and taketh away but is sorely needed in light of some of the recent ethical mistakes of public broadcasting.
Changes in the Ethic of Television
By Gary Grossman
Television used to be better than it is today—why? Gary Grossman, with production of more than 9,000 television programs (and some spy thrillers) under his belt, has some strong views on the reasons for this decline and what may be done about it.
Photo: Denis Defreyne
Considering the Ethical Obligations of Presidential Debate Moderators
By Ryan J. Thomas
The 2012 Republican party presidential candidate selection process entailed nationally broadcast debates. The moderators, who were typically professional journalists, were faced with numerous ethical obligations of their own.
Photo: IowaPolitics.com
The Sandusky Scandal: Penn State Ethics Students Had A Front-Row Seat
By Russell Frank
The case involving a child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University still hasn’t gone to trial, but the school's journalism students have a major story taking place in their own front yard.
Photo: Terri Ogan
Let's Establish Ethics Codes for Using Twitter in Journalism
By Jerry Lanson
Jerry Lanson points out that getting a story first isn’t as important as getting it right. It is just as easy to disseminate rumor as fact when relying on near-universal, unedited means of spreading opinion, fact, and opinion-as-fact to the general public.
Photo: xmacex
We Need a First Amendment to the First Amendment
By Tom Cooper
Tom Cooper suggests that even the First Amendment might need to be amended in order to protect children from violent video games.
Photo: Luke Hayfield Photography
Cultural Diversity and Caution
By Anantha Babbili
Anantha Babbili points out how the world has changed since two airliners deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center towers and another hit the Pentagon on 9/11/01, and many Americans allowed stereotypes to bias their reactions.
Photo: Cliff1066
Scholarship on Computer-Mediated Communication Topics in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics
By Peter Joseph Gloviczki
Gloviczki analyzes all such articles dealing with the ethics of something relatively new: computer-mediated communications.
Photo: Terri Ogan
A Tribute to Rushworth Kidder
By Bob Steele
Rush Kidder, prolific journalist and author, left the Christian Science Monitor to found the Institute for Global Ethics in 1990. He died this March—and will be missed.
Photo: Institute for Global Ethics
