Ethics AdviceLine

Disinformation villains illustrated: Steve Brodner illustrates the seven worst, writes Sam Thielman.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

Sympathy for Daily Northwestern apology: Issac J. Bailey writes to the Daily’s editor-in-chief saying “what you did moved me.” “You’re going to mess up again,” writes Bailey. “There’s no getting around that truth. It may sting even more the next time. That’s the nature of the beast and why in […]

Disinformation is winning: “We’re dangerously close to a situation in which facts no longer function as a journalistic response,” writes Kyle Pope. “Then what?”   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

Medill dean’s views on conflict: The uproar over the Daily Northwestern shows a need for media literary, says Charles Whitaker, in a CNN report by Katie Pellico and Brian Stelter.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

AI in newsrooms: A report by think-tank Polis says artificial intelligence is used in newsrooms for news gathering, production and distribution. Defining AI “can be fuzzy.”   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

Ethics of promoting advertisers: A New York TV station’s management tells the news staff to give favorable “news” coverage to local advertisers. From the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

Banning abused words and phrases: Alexandria Neason begins a campaign to ban words and phrases that “no longer mean anything at all,” like “woke.”   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.

Campus journalists under fire: Entrenched viewpoints and growing criticism of media have converged on college campuses, write Lindsey McGinnis and Noah Robertson. Reporting opposing views seen as threatening by student activists. “If readers think certain groups don’t deserve a voice, does listening to that group make journalists complicit?” they ask. […]

NU’s backlash to the backlash: The Daily Northwestern apologized to activists for its coverage and photos of a stormy news event, writes Robby Soave. The activists worried that the student newspaper’s coverage of their disruptive actions undermined their safety and could get them in trouble. Journalism dean  calls the paper’s […]

Facebook fake news: It’s not easy to spot fake news, writes Laura Hazard Owen, who conducted a test on whether posts identified as fake are flagged as false.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.