Advancing ethical journalistic practices in the public interest.
The results of the 2024 election left many national media commentators stunned. This surprise begs the question: what can coastal big-city news organizations do to more accurately reflect and understand the concerns of the American public?
Ryan Howzell, project manager of NYU’s Ethics and Journalism Initiative, moderated the panel. The conversation ranged from technical discussions about the creators’ archival research process to the media’s central role in shaping public understanding of the police.
The other day, a student asked me whether, in interviewing a union official for a story, it was OK to tell the official that the student had been a union organizer a few years before entering journalism school. Would this be ethical, the student asked?
The truth is that voting in this country is relatively safe and secure. The results are reliable. Journalists need to defend the mechanics of democracy by also reporting the facts about the actual soundness of the overall system, not the corrosive conspiracy theories emanating from candidates and their social feeds.
We asked the inaugural judges for the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism to break down the seven core ethical issue areas entrants can address in their submissions. This week, Gina Chua, Executive Editor at Semafor, offers guidance on pursuing "fair and balanced" reporting when "both sides" aren't equal.
Interested in applying for the Collier Award? Learn more about our requirements for submission, and what our judges are looking for.
DECODED
Breaking down the ethics codes and guidelines shaping newsrooms across the industry.
For Stephanie Jenkins, establishing AI best practices for documentary film began as a game of catch-up, after she discovered last year that producers in the field had already begun to experiment with deploying generative AI to create false historical footage, images, and artifacts, with little or no disclosure or guardrails. Last month, she and other industry veterans released a new Best Practices guide for Use of Generative AI in Documentaries through the newly-formed Archival Producers Alliance (APA). In this edition of Decoded, Managing Editor Ryan Howzell sat down with Jenkins and fellow APA Co-Director Rachel Antell to discuss the APA's new guide and what multimedia journalists and producers stand to learn from it.
We asked the inaugural judges for the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism to break down the seven core ethical issue areas entrants can address in their submissions. This week, Gina Chua, Executive Editor at Semafor, offers guidance on pursuing "fair and balanced" reporting when "both sides" aren't equal.
Interested in applying for the Collier Award? Learn more about our requirements for submission, and what our judges are looking for.
The results of the 2024 election left many national media commentators stunned. This surprise begs the question: what can coastal big-city news organizations do to more accurately reflect and understand the concerns of the American public?
Ryan Howzell, project manager of NYU’s Ethics and Journalism Initiative, moderated the panel. The conversation ranged from technical discussions about the creators’ archival research process to the media’s central role in shaping public understanding of the police.
The other day, a student asked me whether, in interviewing a union official for a story, it was OK to tell the official that the student had been a union organizer a few years before entering journalism school. Would this be ethical, the student asked?
The truth is that voting in this country is relatively safe and secure. The results are reliable. Journalists need to defend the mechanics of democracy by also reporting the facts about the actual soundness of the overall system, not the corrosive conspiracy theories emanating from candidates and their social feeds.
DECODED
Breaking down the ethics codes and guidelines shaping newsrooms across the industry.
For Stephanie Jenkins, establishing AI best practices for documentary film began as a game of catch-up, after she discovered last year that producers in the field had already begun to experiment with deploying generative AI to create false historical footage, images, and artifacts, with little or no disclosure or guardrails. Last month, she and other industry veterans released a new Best Practices guide for Use of Generative AI in Documentaries through the newly-formed Archival Producers Alliance (APA). In this edition of Decoded, Managing Editor Ryan Howzell sat down with Jenkins and fellow APA Co-Director Rachel Antell to discuss the APA's new guide and what multimedia journalists and producers stand to learn from it.
THE ETHICS DIGEST
Pointing you toward the latest news stories and initiatives that place ethics at the forefront.
RESOURCES ARCHIVE
Looking for more information on AI usage for your pitches and essays? Want to know more about how the biggest publications treat ethics in their newsrooms? We compile all of these sources (and more) in our resources library.
UPCOMING EVENTS
New programming scheduled for the upcoming season.
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Journalistic ethical standards that form the profession’s foundation.
Ethical implications and challenges that arise from evolving technology.
Ethical reporting on diverse communities and building ethical structures within newsrooms.
Ethics, journalism and the democratic process in an increasingly polarized world.
THE LATEST
The latest in ethics news and original commentary.
Ryan Howzell, project manager of NYU’s Ethics and Journalism Initiative, moderated the panel. The conversation ranged from technical discussions about the creators’ archival research process to the media’s central role in shaping public understanding of the police.
"Disinfecting" misinformation, offering context, navigating conflicts of interest, and more in our takeaways from our Ethics in Medical Reporting event with CBS News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook.
The results of the 2024 election left many national media commentators stunned. This surprise begs the question: what can coastal big-city news organizations do to more accurately reflect and understand the concerns of the American public?
The other day, a student asked me whether, in interviewing a union official for a story, it was OK to tell the official that the student had been a union organizer a few years before entering journalism school. Would this be ethical, the student asked?
We asked the inaugural judges for the Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism to break down the seven core ethical issue areas entrants can address in their submissions. This week, Gina Chua, Executive Editor at Semafor, offers guidance on pursuing "fair and balanced" reporting when "both sides" aren't equal.
The truth is that voting in this country is relatively safe and secure. The results are reliable. Journalists need to defend the mechanics of democracy by also reporting the facts about the actual soundness of the overall system, not the corrosive conspiracy theories emanating from candidates and their social feeds.
For Stephanie Jenkins, establishing AI best practices for documentary film began as a game of catch-up, after she discovered last year that producers in the field had already begun to experiment with deploying generative AI to create false historical footage, images, and artifacts, with little or no disclosure or guardrails. Last month, she and other industry veterans released a new Best Practices guide for Use of Generative AI in Documentaries through the newly-formed Archival Producers Alliance (APA). In this edition of Decoded, Managing Editor Ryan Howzell sat down with Jenkins and fellow APA Co-Director Rachel Antell to discuss the APA's new guide and what multimedia journalists and producers stand to learn from it.
With schools back in session, it’s a great time to take a look at Chalkbeat’s Code of Ethics and see what the education-focused nonprofit newsroom can teach journalists – in and out of schools – about working with minors and about accountability.
Ethics and Democracy | Everyday Ethics
Source scrutiny, foreign intervention, audience transparency and more in our takeaways from our September event with Semafor's Ben Smith, Columbia Journalism Review's Sewell Chan, and Kathleen Carroll, former executive editor of the Associated Press.
Ethics and Diversity | Everyday Ethics
Donald Trump's and J.D. Vance's recent comments about Haitian immigrants present a familiar challenge to journalists: how to report on misinformation without amplifying it.
