About the Book
What basic ethical principles should guide American journalists to help them justify their invasion of an individual's privacy, to be objective in their reporting, to avoid being influenced by government or economic controls? A wire service and newsroom veteran and a sociologist and scholar in mass media/communications have designed a philosophical guide for students, scholars, and practitioners to use as a kind of moral compass. Key excerpts from some of the most important writings on the subject from Milton to Louis Brandeis, from Plato to Sissela Bok, and from Adam Smith to John Merrill deal with some of the most serious contemporary issues in journalism today. This short text also includes the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics and a full index.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Politics: The Press and the State
John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651
John Locke, On Civil Government: The Second Treatise, 1691
"Cato" (John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon) Cato's Letters, 1720
Tunis Wortman, A Treatise Concerning Political Enquiry and the Liberty of the Press, 1801
Maximilien Robespierre, Liberty of the Press, National Gazette, 1791
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, "The Right to Privacy," Harvard Law Review, Dec. 15, 1890
Philosophy: The Press and the Truth
Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave," The Republic, 386-367 B.C.
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, 1620
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, 1922
Warren Breed, "Social Control in the Newsroom," Social Forces, (33:4) May 1955
Suzanne Pingree and Robert Hawkins, "News Definitions and Their Effects on Women," Women and the News, 1978
Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image, 1964
Sissela Bok, Lying, 1979
Economy: The Press and the Market
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776
Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859
James Gordon Bennett, "To The Public--Enlargement of the "Herald"," New York Herald, Jan. 1, 1836: Horace Greeley, "A Great Journalist Dead," New York Tribune, June 3, 1872
Joseph Pulitzer, "The Great Issue," St. Louis Post and Dispatch, Jan. 10, 1879
Upton Sinclair, The Brass Check, 1920
A.J. Liebling, "Prologue: The End of The Free Lunch," The Press, 1961
Ben Bagdikian, "The Lords of the Global Village, The Nation, June 12, 1989
The Commission on Freedom of the Press, (The Hutchins Commission), A Free and Responsible Press, 1947
John Merrill, The Imperative of Freedom, 1974
Conclusion
Appendix: Society of Professional Journalists "Code of Ethics", 1987
About the Author :
Steven R. Knowlton, assistant professor of journalism at Pennsylvania State University with a PhD in history, worked for more than twenty years as a reporter and editor for six different newspapers around the country and for United Press International and as a press aide on a presidential campaign. His most recent book is Popular Politics and the Irish Catholic Church (1991).
Patrick R. Parsons is associate professor of communications at Pennsylvania State University with his doctoral degree in journalism and mass communications. His recent publications include Milestones in Cable Television USA (1990) and Cable Television and the First Amendment (1987). He has written at length on ethical issues for journalists and on their roles in society.
Review :
This book does not claim to offer any simple solutions; rather, it is a succinct—yet exhaustive—attempt to introduce readers to the crucial issues from a historical perspective. . . . The editors' lucid introductions provide clarification. In an age of mass media characterized by a propensity for stooping to serve the lowest common denominator—given expression in such pseudojournalism as The National Enquirer and A Current Affair-- it is refreshing to rediscover the field's noble roots.
A valuable collection of readings that will put anyone in touch with thinking on ethics from John Milton to Karl Marx to James Gordon Bennett to A.J. Liebling. The richness of these sources is what gives the book its value. . . . The book is rich in seminal ideas, and is ideal for the student of ethics. And doesn't that include all of us?
An extremely helpful map of the journalism ethics territory.
[S]hould be a worthwhile addition to the library of most media ethics professors.
