Download Academic Planning & Review

Media’s missing morals?
It’s mostly a matter of skill
Guy Berger, Rhodes University.
MISA conference
August 22-24, 2005. Windhoek
Do the right thinks:
☻
1. “I ought to be ethical” … is a start:
– but not all share this attitude
– So … need to name, shame,
untame, enflame.
2. How do you know when “ethics” are
called for?
(Editor of UK Sun: county next to Sussex?).
3. What constitutes the “right” response?
From head to hands…
• Once you’ve figured out,
when ethics, and what
ethics, can you do the
quality practical journalism
to implement it?
• In short, you need a moral
compass… And…

You need the skills to make use of it
in navigating daily journalism.
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Ethics-skills interface: eg. racism
Doing ethics – a skill on its own
Knowledges needed
How craft skills impact on ethics
SA findings – Sanef survey 2002
SA findings – Sanef survey 2005
Conclusion
1: Ethics-Skills interface
•
2000-1: Racism in SA media enquiry
some editors
HRC
So what’s the ethics-skill link?
•
•
Ending media racism is about both
ethical issues AND skills.
i.e. ethics & skills can be separate
issues, or interrelated.
One equation:
- ethics
+ skills
=0
Bad ethics
can devalue
good skills.
– Specially
relevant to
tabloids!
The converse equation:
- skills
+ ethics
=0
Bad skills can
devalue good
ethics.
– Specially
relevant to
worthy info
But:
good skills
plus
good ethics
= combo!
2: ETHICS - A SKILL ON ITS OWN
• Doing ethics ≠ intuitive conscience.
• Needs systematic method:
Eg. Stages model:
– H…eart 
– E…xternalise – under the ☼?
– L…ook again at assumptions
– P…ossibilities for alternatives?
Eg. Poynter:
traffic light model
3. KNOWLEDGE NEEDED
•
In externalising, you need to know:
– the law,
– general canon of journalistic ethics,
– your medium’s editorial code/policies.
Often, result is:
privileging one
above the
others, when
they pull apart.

3a. Law & ethics
•
•
Law should be taken cognisance of.
Violating a law should not:
– be taken lightly
– be done in ignorance.
•
What is legal is not always ethical,
•
What is ethical is not always legal.
You may need to choose the trump.
There is skill in making the call.

3b. Knowing the norms

• Broadly accepted professional
standards & dominant morality
i.e. general journalistic ethics,
(with cultural differences).
• A challenge:
This knowledge must be used in
less general form, i.e. to recognise
where an ethical issue exists in
given specific instances.
3c. Knowing house style
•
•
•
Formal & informal
codes/policies.
Qtn of degree of
independence vs
upward referral.
Sometimes you have
to choose general
ethics over house
ones … & argue or
resign!
The Editor
If you don’t know
the law, nor general
journ ethics, nor
house policies, you
can’t “do” ethics.
i.e. Knowledges
need to accompany
the skill of doing
ethics as a method
3. More skills needed so you can:
•
Decide in murky & fast moving news;
– Pinpoint the key issues, be decisive.

•
Handle conflicts between ethical
principles – like:

3. Understanding needed:
•
Deeply understand issues:
©
eg. greenlight on plagiarism if:
– info in the public domain?,
– if you credit the source?,
But is it ethical to present near-verbatim
a press-release as if that was your own
work?
4. CRAFT SKILLS IMPACT ETHICS
•
•
•
if you’re slow, and risk missing a
deadline, you may chance rather
than check.
if you fluff the right photo,
you might be tempted to do a
digital manipulation.
if your skills are too to poor find
and tell good stories, you will be
more prone to hyping a story, or
to burning a source.
6. SA FINDINGS: (SANEF)
•
Two studies by SANEF
– 2002 – reporters
– 2005 – newsroom managers
• = insight into understanding how
skills impact on ethics.

6a. Junior reporters
•
Have poor skills in newsgathering, writing
skills, law, and general, historical &
contextual knowledge.
•
Have attitude problems: lack concern with
accuracy, low commitment to profession,
lack of sense of personal accountability for
what appears.
6a. Junior reporters
•

Not surprisingly, against this skill backdrop,
many are insensitive re: covering HIV/Aids
and race, and have weak knowledge of
ethics.
– Eg. 1/3 can’t see wrong in “black rapist”
– Eg. 90% can’t see wrong in “died of AIDS”
• Editors: “approx 1 in 5 reporters are not
honest & fair”
6b. News editors

•
Their incompetencies also impact newsroom
ethics, helps us understand why problems
with reporters endure.
•
•
Also junior: 40% less than 3 yrs journalism
60% been in job less than 3 yrs

6b. News editors
,,,
• Poor motivation, lack confidence to
handle reporters, do not elicit respect.
• Reporters see them as:
weak organisers, uninformed,
unilingual, culturally limited, poor
communicators.
6b. News editors
•
•

Reporters want briefings & feedback,
but news editors unable.
News editors say no time to “nurse-maid”.
In other words:
Skills deficits at ground level are ignored
by skill-challenged managers.
Result: ethics suffers.
•
Senior editors: unaware of the problem
7. CONCLUSION:
•
Does ethics-skills buck stop with editors?
?
•
Do they themselves have:
– Pro-ethical attitudes?
– Quality craft & ethical skills?
– Time to intervene?
7. CONCLUSION:
•
Or, are they setting poor examples?
Are they themselves under pressure
from bosses – diversions from skills,
ethics, and the interface between them?
What’s the answer?
7. Recap and last word
• Ethics is in every decision
• Attitude insufficient: doing
ethics is a skill.
• Nec knowledge: law,
norms, codes/policies
• SA experience with
reporters, news eds
7. Recap and last word
Ethics hangs on a range of competencies
– Specific to media
ethics
– Quality skills related
to the craft
And….
– Managerial and
leadership skills.
Thank you
Moral of all this?
A willing spirit is
necessary, but not
enough
All-round capacitybuilding is called for.