Articles by admin

Brits propose global tech ethics code: Taking aim at fake news and disinformation, a United Kingdom parliament committee reports “our democracy is at risk” from election interference through social media.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

The new take on editing photos: Pictures are vital to covering the news at a time when technology makes it easy to alter images, says a story in the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives. “It was not considered a big deal a decade or more ago” to alter a picture. […]

Reinventing local TV news: Local TV newsrooms can’t expect to attract new audiences by producing the same kind of content they have for decades, write Mike Baudet and John Wihbey. Instead of short, fast-paced pieces, they say, try higher emotional impact, more context and a conversational styl   Visit […]

Saving local newspapers: Dwindling local news leads to partisan political polarization write Joshua P. Darr, Johanna Dunaway and Matthew P. Hitt. “Local newspapers provide a valuable service to democracy by keeping readers’ focus on their communities,” they write. “When they lose local newspapers, we have found, readers turn to their […]

Ethical boundaries–paying for interviews: “Reporters working with vulnerable populations, particularly in conflict situations, often face a high-stakes predicament: The job of bearing witness demands of us the highest ethical standards,” writes Annie Hylton. “At the same time, we confront extreme suffering, and even our pocket change might change someone’s circumstances, […]

Attribution and plagiarism: In the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives, Stephen Rynkiewicz compares Renaissance artists with modern journalists. “If the rules on fair play are shifting, the Renaissance atelier may be where to look for direction,” he writes. “When they knew enough to transform their material, apprentices became journeymen and […]

Revealing a religion reporter’s religion: One religion reporter had a strict policy against revealing her faith, writes Jaweed Kaleem. “Today, as reporters become more diverse — by race, religion and more — and notions of objectivity become increasingly debated, some journalists on the religion beat are choosing to be more […]

Internet reader traffic report: Promising platforms in 2019 are SmartNews and Flipboard, writes Kelsey Arendt. Twitter and Google appear to be slipping, says Arendt. Drudge Report seen the least reliable traffic source on the internet.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

The problem with native advertising: It’s paid advertising that looks like legitimate staff-written content and deceptive, writes Joshua Carroll. “The commotion over the sponsored pieces raises questions not just about the ethics of native advertising, but about news providers’ broader relationship with governments.” It’s also called advertorials and used in […]