These are slides for a class I'm teaching on upholding and updating journalism values.

1. Upholding & Updating
Journalism Values
Steve Buttry
Manship Media Ethics class
January 25, 2017

2. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stevebuttry@lsu.edu

3. Are ethics timeless?
Should ethics be:
1. Timeless, reflecting values unchanged by
technology, markets, circumstances?
2. Timely, reacting to changes in the
situation where profession is practiced?
3. Rooted in core values but adapting to
change?

7. Core principles, 1996-2014
• Seek truth and report it
• Minimize harm
• Act independently
• Be accountable

8. Core principles, updated 2014
• Seek truth and report it
• Minimize harm
• Act independently
• Be accountable and transparent

10. Core principles, 1990s-2013
• Seek truth and report it as fully as
possible
• Act independently
• Minimize harm

12. Core principles, updated 2013
• Seek truth and report it as fully as
possible
• Be transparent
• Engage community as an end, rather
than as a means

15. Core principles, updated 2015
• Truth and accuracy above all
• Independence and transparency
• Accountability for consequences

17. Fundamentals in 4 areas
• Telling the truth
• Conflicts of interests
• Community
• Professional conduct

18. Nature of your organization
• Is your journalism impartial or point-of-
view?
• Are your journalists independent or
involved?

19. Guidance in 45 specific areas,
broken down into 7 groups
• Reporting issues
• Writing and editing
• Professional conduct
• Organizational
policies
• Social concerns
• Multimedia and data
• Financing your
journalism

20. Reporting issues
• Bombs and other
threats
• Concealing identity
• Confidential sources
• Children: Coverage,
images and
interviews
• Hostage situations
• Interviewing
• Sources: reliability
and attribution

21. Each of 45 sections:
• Essay with discussion questions for staff in
deciding policy in this area
• Further reading
• Ethical choices (which you can edit)
• Best practices

26. Enforcing ethics
• First Amendment bars licensing, inhibits
legal enforcement
• Courts do have jurisdiction in some areas
(defamation/truth, privacy)
• Employers use ethics codes to fire
unethical professionals
• News councils

27. Is linking a matter of ethics?
1. It’s a service to the reader, providing
depth, context, verification (but not
every service to readers is a matter of
ethics)
2. Best form of attribution in digital
content
3. Practice of linking can prevent
plagiarism

29. On all ethics matters
Practice > policy
Conversations > codes

30. NYT stylebook on sources

32. SPJ on confidential sources

33. Using confidential sources
1. Opinions are worthless without names
2. Beware of eager or powerful people
who won’t be accountable
3. Use confidentiality w/ reluctant sources
4. Should you avoid background briefings?
5. Use confidential sources to get to
documents or on-the-record sources

41. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stevebuttry@lsu.edu