Ethics
Ethics
RECENT UPDATES
Poynter: How to Cover the Nashville School Shooting Ethically
Makkula Center for Applied Ethics: Ethical Questions About Generative AI
Center for Ethical Media Leadership
An independent initiative whose mission is to advance culture in the news industry through training, research and education. We work with newsroom leaders, journalists and students on issues surrounding harassment and workplace rights, the leadership pipeline and the future of work.
Quill Magazine: Focus on Photojournalism Ethics
ETHICS RESOURCES
SPJ Ethics Page
Codes of ethics, resources page, tip sheets/Q&A, message board and hotline.
SPJ Ethics Central
Aggregation of links on ethics and diversity issues.
SPJ Ethics Hotline
Call or fill out a form to get confidential answers to your ethics questions.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists
Helpful website includes a toll-free number to call. The Chicago Headline Club and Northwestern University’s Medill School have assembled this great service and website for journalists. This is a free service and confidential.
Campaign Ethics: A Field Guide
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University has produced non-partisan, how-to book for candidates and political consultants on how to run an ethical campaign. It’s helpful for journalists who hope to better understand how ethics apply to the upcoming 2020 presidential elections.
Accountable Journalism
The Reynolds Journalism Institute created this database of more than 400 searchable codes of ethics from media outlets around the world.
National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics
SameDiff
Compares two or more text files and tells you how similar or different they are. Good for catching plagiarists.
MediaShift: Advice for Journalists Working with Traumatic Imagery
Dart Center: Maintaining Boundaries with Sources, Colleagues and Supervisors
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics: Ethics in the Metaverse
This team from Santa Clara University built this code to maintain safe environments and protect those individuals and communities who are relatively more vulnerable and hold less power in cultural spaces.
Center for International Media Ethics
Chicago-based organization has a goal supporting journalists in “maintaining high ethical standards that contribute to the media’s consolidation as a fourth power in their country’s governance.”
Copyright x
Twelve lectures were prepared and delivered by Prof. William Fisher at Harvard Law School.
For more training videos, visit our YouTube page.
Makkula Center for Applied Ethics: Ethical Questions About Generative AI
Trusting News: People don’t assume journalists have ethics. Here’s how you can highlight yours
SPJ Ethics: How to Cover the Elections Ethically
Webinar from former SPJ ethics chairs Lynn Walsh and Andrew Seaman.
SPJ MMJ Safety Guidelines
Safety and security, legal, ethics and mental health resources for multimedia journalists.
Poynter: Should Reporter Safety Trump Open Contact Details for Newsrooms?
Article raises serious concerns about supplying readers TOO MUCH information about reporters to the audience in the interest of transparency. It can open them up to trolling or worse.
EthicalGeo: Ethical Mapping — How Not to Map
Sunshine Week Open Meetings
Events the week of March 12 promote open records.
Vocativ: The Rise of the Social Media Killer
First Draft News Journalist Guides
Guides to social sources, copyright law and covering trauma.
Dart Center: Resources for Educators Training Journalists Covering Sensitive Issues
Resources from San Diego State professor Amy Schmitz Weiss on teaching students to cover topics such as suicide, homicides, sexual assaults and other traumatic news events.
iMedia Ethics Pinterest: Faux Photography
Doctored photos.
ONA: Journalism 360
Partnership with ONA, Google News Initiative and the Knight Foundation. It’s a global network of storytellers accelerating the understanding and production of immersive journalism. Their mission is to help news organizations, journalists, technologists, content creators and journalism educators experiment with all forms of immersive storytelling, including but not limited to 360 video, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.
Frontiers: Ethics Guidelines in Immersive Journalism
AP: Guide for Journalists in a World of Immersive 3-D Content
ONA Journalism 360: A Guide to AR and XR in Journalism
Booz Allen Hamilton: Guide to Immersive Technology
A beginner’s guide to AR. Approach is from a marketing perspective but has some helpful resources for journalists. Download the guide for free.
NPR Ethics Handbook: Visual Journalism
The Ethics of Virtual Reality Storytelling
Post by David Cohn from 2015.
The Open Notebook: How to Report International Stories Ethically
An Ethical Reality Check for Virtual Reality Journalism
Post by Tom Kent from 2015.
Cyberjournalist.net: Ethics and Credibility
Feed of stories and blog posts on web ethics issues, etc.
Buzzfeed News: Why BLM Protests Asked Journalists Not to Show Their Faces in Photos, Video
For more training videos, visit our YouTube page.
Maintaining Boundaries with Sources, Colleagues and Supervisors
Tipsheet from the Dart Center.
Center for Journalism Ethics: A Guide to Less Extractive Reporting
Fairness and Accuracy in News Reporting
The Committee of Concerned Journalists
This is a group of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics worried about the future of the profession, sponsors forums, etc.
ONA Journalism 360: A Guide to Photogrammertry Photography
National Freedom of Information Coalition
Dart Center: Working with Traumatic Imagery
Resources for Journalism Ethics
From the late Steve Buttry.
Media Ethics Initiative
As a part of the Center for Media Engagement through the Moody School of Communication, our initiative program consists of both graduate and undergraduate research scholars and assistants who write free case studies related to digital ethics, journalism ethics, political communication ethics, advertising/public relations ethics, free speech, art and aesthetics, health communication, sports media, and more.
ComingFrom.org
A research project that examines different models of transparency in journalism. Journalists are encouraged to share who they are, how they think and where they’re coming from, so that audiences can better understand and engage with their reporting. The initiative was spearheaded by the 2022 cohort of the Studio 20: Digital First master’s program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and program director Jay Rosen.
Poynter: How to Cover the Nashville School Shooting Ethically
These videos were created by the SPJ Education Committee. Here’s a playlist of all of its training videos.
Quill Magazine: Focus on Photojournalism Ethics
Center for Ethical Media Leadership
An independent initiative whose mission is to advance culture in the news industry through training, research and education. We work with newsroom leaders, journalists and students on issues surrounding harassment and workplace rights, the leadership pipeline and the future of work.
PressWise.org.uk: Global Directory of Journalism Codes
This site has one-stop shopping for ethics sites.
Campaign Ethics
Downloadable book from the Markkula Center at Santa Clara University.
Ethics and Public Policy Center
A Washington think-tank that puts together seminars and studies.
National Freedom of Information Coalition
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Ethics and Public Policy Center
A Washington think-tank that puts together seminars and studies.
Ethics Guide for Public Radio Journalism
FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
University of Minnesota: Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law
University of Hawaii: Web Resources for Studying Journalism Ethics
Copyscape Plagiarism Checker
Search for copies of your page on the web. Helps you defend your site from plagiarism. Just type in your site’s web address.
National Freedom of Information Coalition
Journalism Ethics at College Newspapers
A great site by Francis Frizzo at Hofstra University.
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
The online companion to the PBS series Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, hosted by Bob Abernethy.
Democracy Toolkit
Resources and support for pro-democracy journalists. The site includes a list of organizations, case studies, speakers and links to tools.
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