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Журналістська етика обговорюється в США (англ.)

05/05/2005 | Sztefan von Seitz
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/journalist_ethics

Researchers Examine Ethics of Journalists

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 5, 8:17 AM ET



COLUMBIA, Mo. - Lee Wilkins remembers well the reaction she'd often get when identifying herself as a reporter.

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"I had a standard line," said Wilkins, now a journalism professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "I would always say back, 'I won't accuse you of all the ills of your profession if you won't accuse me of all the ills of mine.'"

Recent research by Wilkins and Renita Coleman of Louisiana State University may provide some vindication for members of a profession that's taken a beating in recent years with high-profile blunders.

Wilkins and Coleman surveyed journalists for the first time using a decades-old model for assessing one's morals, a test given to more than 30,000 people representing numerous professions.

According to the researchers, journalists are significantly more ethical than the average adult — eclipsed only by seminarians, doctors and medical students.

"We did not really think that journalists would come out as high as they did," said Coleman.

Wilkins and Coleman traveled to newsrooms across the country for two years interviewing a sampling of 249 journalists.

Using a version of the Defining Issues Test, developed in the 1970s at the University of Minnesota, the professors offered participants six ethical dilemmas, each followed by a dozen questions that seek to determine what motivated a journalist's decision.

Journalists had an average score of 48.7 on a 100-point scale, meaning just about half the time, members of the profession make decisions based on the best quality ethical reasoning. That rate was exceeded only by seminarians/philosophers at 65.1, medical students at 50.2 and practicing physicians at 49.2.

Nurses, orthopedic surgeons and members of the Navy are among the groups that trailed journalists. Junior high school students scored lowest, with 20.0, just below prison inmates, with 23.7.

"What we're measuring is an ability to work out what ought to be done when you're in a dilemma," said Mickey Bebeau, executive director of the Center for the Study of Ethical Development at the University of Minnesota.

Wilkins and Coleman said age and education are the primary determinants of moral development.

Among journalists, their study showed no significant difference between broadcasters or their print counterparts, between women and men or between managers and the rank-and-file.

The findings conflict with public perception of journalists.

A Gallup poll of 1,015 people taken in November showed that only 23 percent of the public rated the ethical standards of TV reporters as high or very high. For newspaper reporters, it was 21 percent.

Відповіді

  • 2005.05.09 | ПсевдоЯ

    Пустопорожнє засідання

    American journalists have very big troubless with the ethics. As well as with proffessionalism. This is hidden in bottom line of the article. Some 20% respect their ethics. American journalistic tourned from Tedd Turner's CNN into today's military promoters' aggressive TV channels as it is CNN or FoxTV. And Americans pay for that, and not only money, but their freedom.


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