Areas of Focus

Everyday Ethics

Dan Levine, Reuters Correspondent

Guest Column: Being Transparent With Sources Is Key to Building Trust

Guest columnist Dan Levine, a Reuters investigative reporter, explains the importance of sharing with sources how the editorial process works to earn their trust, minimize their exposure and protect their safety.

The Markup’s Syed Leads Workshop About BI Coverage and Ackman

Nabiha Syed, chief executive of The Markup and a media lawyer, led an Ethics & Journalism workshop for students in February through a case study focused on privacy, news judgment, and the role of corporate ownership in overseeing editorial decisions.

Ben Smith: Parachuting Reporters Into Hot Spots, Relying on Amateur Newsgathering Is Fraught

In a recent Semafor column, Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of the site and former media columnist at the New York Times, lays out the potential shortfalls of the historic practice in American journalism of parachuting in senior reporters to hot spots around the globe who then rely on fixers, stringers, assistants, contractors and local journalists for […]

Ethics and Technology

NYT’s Seward Shares Missteps and Potential
Of AI Use in Newsrooms

Zach Seward, the editorial director of AI initiatives at The New York Times, shared what's working and what's not in AI, as well as what we can learn from both, in a talk he gave to an audience of NYU students, alumni, faculty and professional journalists at NYU's Ethics & Journalism Initiative.

Many News Sites Are Blocking AI Web Crawlers, New Research Shows

New research by the Reuters Institute finds that news organizations in the U.S. are blocking artificial intelligence companies from copying the news sites' online content, a process known as crawling or scraping that is used to train AI applications.

Journalism Prize Groups Mull How Use of AI Should Influence Their Decisions

The increasing use of artificial intelligence to research or create journalism is prompting organizations that sponsor journalism prizes to examine how AI may affect submissions and the awarding of prizes, according to a NiemanLab report prepared by journalist Alex Perry.

Ethics and Democracy

Panel Tackles Challenges Of Covering Elections Amid Disinformation

A group of seasoned politics journalists and a leading press critic kicked off the first of two panels to launch the Ethics & Journalism Initiative at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute on Nov. 29. Moderated by EJI director Stephen J. Adler, the panel discussed how to cover politics ethically and robustly in an age of polarization and disinformation. You'll find the EJI Takeaways from the panel and a link to a video in this post.