Conflicted interests, contested terrain: journalism ethics codes then and now

Abstract

By analyzing ethics codes, a professional statement of what constitutes good work, this essay links codes to a theory of culture and history. It considers two early journalism ethics codes and assesses the latest New York Times code in the light of philosophical theory. The paper suggests that professional tensions outlined in Good Work are reified in the Times code—and that history and culture may be less supportive of a positive outcome of this struggle over values than the insights of psychology might suggest.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• Journalism History
• Ethics Codes
• Cultural Materialism
• New York Times
• American Newspaper Guild
• American Society of Newspaper Editors

Notes

See, for example, International Codes of ethics on Independent Press Council's website, available at www.presscouncils.org.

See Starck (2001) for a historical approach that is international in breadth.

The authors draw on the ASNE code reprinted in MacDougall (1941) for the specific language of the code.

Brandenburg (1934) includes the Guild's code of ethics in his reportage of the American Newspaper Guild's St. Paul convention. The authors draw on this source for specific wording of the code.

For news coverage of these changes see Steinberg (2003a, 2003b).