Media Ethics: A Guide For Professional Conduct - Society of Professional Journalists

Home > Ethics > Publications > Journalism Ethics: A Casebook of Professional Conduct for News Media, Fourth edition

Ethics
Media Ethics
A Guide For Professional Conduct
5th Edition

Available: June 25, 2020

Price (MSRP):
Paperback: $24.99
eBook: $19.99

Pre-order today at your favorite bookstore or online using one of links below:

Paperback

– Bookshop.org
– Amazon
– IndieBound.org
– Barnes & Noble

eBook

– Amazon Kindle
– Kobo
– Apple Books
– Indigo

Closely organized around the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics — the news industry’s widely accepted gold standard of journalism principles — this updated edition uses real-life case studies to demonstrate how students and professionals in journalism and other communication disciplines identify and reason through ethical dilemmas.

“This new handbook is much more than just a collection of codes though. It gives students tools and procedures for using these codes for ethical decision-making. What makes it unique are the case studies that intersperse its pages. Some of them will feel familiar from previous editions or other media ethics books (Deep Throat, and His Motive, for instance, about the Watergate story and protecting sources). But what excited me about this book were the new ones — timely case studies that will intrigue our students and (hopefully) lead to lively discussions.”

— Carolyn Schurr Levin, College Media Review

Providing a new template for analyzing moral predicaments, this study features a wide selection of case studies — including several new additions — that offer examples of thoughtful and principled decision-making. Cases where regrettable outcomes have taught important lessons also are included. Examining the similarities and differences between media law and media ethics, this revised edition includes case studies on:

— Accuracy and Fairness
— Deception
— Minimizing Harm
— Diversity
— Conflicts of Interest
— Photojournalism
— Privacy
— Source/Reporter Relationships
— Accountability and Transparency

Designed to be useful across numerous media and modes of communication, this is a lively, succinct and accessible discussion of how to arrive at and uphold moral standards of truth and fairness.

Fred Brown is a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists and an active member of its ethics committee. He served on the committee that wrote both the Society’s previous (1996) and current (2014) codes of ethics. Brown officially retired from The Denver Post in early 2002 and now teaches media ethics at the University of Denver. He is an Honor Alumnus of Colorado State University, a recipient of SPJ’s Wells Key, a member of the Denver Press Club Hall of Fame, and serves on the boards of directors of Colorado Public Radio, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the Society of Professional Journalists Foundation. He lives in Aurora, Colorado.