Stephen J. Ward, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, has developed in the last decade an impressive body of work to articulate how journalism can perform its functions ethically.
(Full disclosure: He is a former colleague at both UBC, where I worked with and for him, and at The Canadian Press, where he worked with and, very briefly, for me.)
Ward, in a post for PBS' MediaShift, identifies the principles of ethics journalism education.
In summary, he suggests:
1. Starting from the students' world, not your own. No laying down of media laws.
2. Assisting with reflective engagement. Help them reach their own ethical views.
3. Insisting on critical, not just fashionable, thinking.
4. Accommodating the transitional. Ideas of old may not work today.
5. Being global in perspective.
He advocates dialectical, holistic, Socratic teaching. The tall order is a very good guide.
(Full disclosure: He is a former colleague at both UBC, where I worked with and for him, and at The Canadian Press, where he worked with and, very briefly, for me.)
Ward, in a post for PBS' MediaShift, identifies the principles of ethics journalism education.
In summary, he suggests:
1. Starting from the students' world, not your own. No laying down of media laws.
2. Assisting with reflective engagement. Help them reach their own ethical views.
3. Insisting on critical, not just fashionable, thinking.
4. Accommodating the transitional. Ideas of old may not work today.
5. Being global in perspective.
He advocates dialectical, holistic, Socratic teaching. The tall order is a very good guide.
