The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason About Ethics

Lee Wilkins, Renita Coleman9780805844740, 0805844740, 0805844759

At a time when journalists are coming under fire for their ethical choices, The Moral Media provides an in-depth analysis of journalistic decisions and the influences on them. Representing the first empirical exploration of this topic, this volume provides an overview of moral development for journalists and advertising practitioners, and compares thinking about ethics by these two groups with the thinking of other professionals. It addresses connections among various intellectual disciplines, between the academy and the profession of journalism, and among those who believe that what journalists do is essential. In addition to making theoretical contributions about the role of visual information on moral thinking, Wilkins and Coleman explore the implications of these findings for the academy – both teachers and scholars – and for members of this influential profession. They provide readers with preliminary answers about ethical thinking in a professional environment, and this work thus serves as a foundation on which other scholars – and professionals who are concerned with quality of ethical decision-making in the media – can build. The Moral Media offers compelling, provocative, and potentially controversial insights to current and future journalists: scholars in journalism and mass communication: psychologists: and philosophers.