Journalism ethics: The old oxymoron

In a recent op-ed in the China Post, Joe Hung revisits an old argument in journalistic circles after two cable TV networks were disciplined for airing fabricated video footage, forcing senior staff to attend journalism ethics lectures.

“Most practicing journalists, including editors, consider school inculcation to be of no use and a sheer waste of time,” Hung writes. “Some academics, however, insist that professional ethics have to be taught, though they lament there are few qualified instructors and little literature in this specific field of study to draw on.”

The first half of Hung’s characterization has a measure of truth – an editor told me recently that journalism ethics is nothing more than “get it first, and get it right.”

But his lament is dated, not to mention inaccurate, as he asserts that the only graduate journalism ethics class is taught at his alma mater, Southern Illinois University.

Not so, as I’m about to realize as I take the class next semester at UBC.

But, more importantly, Hung’s analysis is rooted in an old mindset that sees journalism as just the making of a daily paper.

In today’s multimedia, instantaneous, user-generated, global world of journalism, there’s a lot more to think about than getting it first and getting it right. We’re revisioning journalism, and thankfully we’ve got forums to do it.