Journalism Ethics

General Ethics: Prior to the main activity, students should have a good knowledge and understanding of ethics.

Estimated time: 10 min.

Use a KWL activity to help students express their preexisting knowledge of ethics and express any misunderstandings.

1. First, model a KWL chart, which shows one thing you (the teacher) know (“k”) about ethics, and one thing you want to know (“w”).
2. Next, have students fill out the “k” and “w” parts of their own worksheet
3. Then, choose and play one of these videos about ethics
   1. Simple explanation of ethics
   2. Another more simple explanation of ethics
   3. Advanced explanation of ethics
4. Afterward, have students fill out what they learned in the third column of the KWL worksheet. Students should be able to add at least one point to each column after watching the video

To reinforce what students learned after watching the video, ask students again (as a group or in small groups) “What are ethics?” and then follow up by asking, “How can you tell if someone is being ethical?” Write student answers on the board.

Optional follow-up discussion: Consider the word TRUST. What comes to mind when you hear this word?

PART 1:

Estimated time: 10 min

• Show or share with students the SPJ code of ethics. Explain that there are many professions with codes of ethics that give guidelines about issues that frequently crop up on the job.
• Divide up students into small groups and have each group think about one of the big areas (one per group) “seek the truth and report it;” “minimize harm;” “act independently;” “be accountable and transparent.”
• Have each group share out why they think each area is important. You can also ask: Why should journalists follow an ethical code to do their jobs well? Or, why do you think ethics in journalism is important?

Optional: Have students watch this video on journalism ethics.

PART 2:

Estimated time: 15 min.

• Hand out the Journalism Ethics Worksheet and read through page one with the class.
• Ask students to fill out the bottom of the first page or share as a class: Why is it important for student journalists to follow a code of ethics? What do you think could be some of the reasons why new organizations have ethics codes?
• Optional: Use a potter box for the decision making on this worksheet: https://michellebalmeo.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/potters_box.pdf

PART 3:

Estimated time: 20 min

Next, have students complete page two of the worksheet on their own or as homework to turn in as an assignment. Optional: Put them in groups to compare answers.

Estimated time: Additional 30 min

Ask students: What do you think are the top five ethical dilemmas of student journalists? What do you think the standard should be for each one?

Estimated time to complete: 15 min

Discuss how newsrooms and organizations tweak journalism ethics based on their community’s needs and the evolving role of journalism in our society.

Ask students: Are there other ethical points newsrooms should consider now?

Media literacy moment: In recent years, an increase in fake news sites -- sites that look like reliable news sites but were created with the intention to mislead and distort -- have made it critical for news consumers to understand how to verify news sites. Having a published ethics code is one way to suss out reliable sites from those that are not.

Research: Find your local newspaper or news site’s ethics code. Is it different from what you learned in this lesson? Does your school newspaper have an ethics code? Here’s a sample high school newspaper ethics code: http://studentpress.org/nspa/the-wheel-model-code-of-ethics/.

Estimated time to complete: 5 - 10 min

Self-reflection is important. Distribute copies of the Exit Ticket for Journalism Ethics.