The engaging blogger, Felix Salmon of Reuters, has taken on the task of assessing journalism ethics and concluded the focus of attention is all wrong.
Salmon says journalism is spending far too much time articulating and enforcing rules and too little time examining what constitutes ethical practice ---- that is, what sorts of things journalists can do to make the craft more ethically sound.
Which is not to say he believes there should not be boundaries.
"I don’t have a problem with those rules existing, but I worry that an unintended consequence of putting those rules in place is that journalists end up worrying much more about the rules, and what side of the rules they’re on, than they do about the underlying ethics of what it is that they’re doing, or not doing," he said.
Salmon would like more discussion on a broader plane that serves to improve the craft and not necessarily just the practices of the craftspeople.
"I’d particularly love to see that conversation take place in the context of an increasingly social world, where friendships and relationships are more out in the open than they have been in the past, and where grown-ups recognize that conflicts are a fact of life, rather than something which should always be avoided," he writes.
Salmon says journalism is spending far too much time articulating and enforcing rules and too little time examining what constitutes ethical practice ---- that is, what sorts of things journalists can do to make the craft more ethically sound.
Which is not to say he believes there should not be boundaries.
"I don’t have a problem with those rules existing, but I worry that an unintended consequence of putting those rules in place is that journalists end up worrying much more about the rules, and what side of the rules they’re on, than they do about the underlying ethics of what it is that they’re doing, or not doing," he said.
Salmon would like more discussion on a broader plane that serves to improve the craft and not necessarily just the practices of the craftspeople.
"I’d particularly love to see that conversation take place in the context of an increasingly social world, where friendships and relationships are more out in the open than they have been in the past, and where grown-ups recognize that conflicts are a fact of life, rather than something which should always be avoided," he writes.
