Journalism ethics is a subset of communication ethics studies that seek to define, analyze, and promote the correct and virtuous conduct among professional media workers. The first substantial attempts to develop the norms of responsible journalism can be traced back to 17th century Europe (Ward 307). Inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, people developed such free-press values as objectivity and respect for the different opinions (Hamada 194). Such ethical rules proved to be effective for many years as they are without a doubt beneficial to society members in many ways.
However, the recent development of technology and the growth of social media and online media platforms changed information circulation significantly worldwide. As a result, a number of crucial changes – such as, for instance, the growing number of fake information – have occurred, which led to the necessity to elaborate the ‘updated’ journalism ethics (Garcia-Aviles 10). For this reason, this research intends to investigate what are the new standards of ethical communication that professional media workers should adopt.
Works Cited
Garcia-Aviles, Jose Alberto. “An Inquiry into the Ethics of Innovation in Digital Journalism.” News Media Innovation Reconsidered: Ethics and Values in a Creative Reconstruction of Journalism, edited by MarÃa Luengo and Susana Herrera-Damas, John Wiley & Sons, 2021, pp. 3-19.
Hamada, Basyouni Ibrahim. “Towards a Global Journalism Ethics Model: An Islamic perspective.” The Journal of International Communication, vol. 22, no. 2, 2016, pp. 188-208.
Ward, Stephen JA. “Journalism Ethics.” The Handbook of Journalism Studies, edited by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen and Thomas Hanitzsch, Routledge, 2019, pp. 307-323.