The document discusses best practices in journalism ethics for new media formats. It examines limitations of traditional codes for blogs and social media where many content producers are not professional journalists. It advocates an open ethics approach involving collaborative discussion to identify emerging issues rather than prescribe solutions. The document also reviews case studies from Canada and the US on topics like fact checking, accuracy, and reporting diversity to foster cooperation and enhance media literacy.

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“Best Practices” in the Journalism
Ethics Frame: A Comparative Study
Dr Lawrie Zion
La Trobe University, Melbourne,
Australia

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Email from student
“I have started a blog and while i was
researching some information for some of
my posts i came across a youtube video
on a site. It wasnt from the actual youtube
site but it was a youtube video. i posted
the video onto my blog. Is this alright?”
(sic)

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CJR magazines online report
• Question: Is it true, as one respondent confidently
asserted, ‘If it’s fact-checked, it’s not a blog,’ and is this
an existential or a definitional question? The issue is an
important one because so many in the blogosphere
insist that blogs have (and are entitled to) their own rules
of the road.
• Subject for discussion: Why have earlier attempts at
standardizing the world of blogs and social media
notoriously failed? Is it, at long last, possible to identify
best practices for using the tools and techniques of
digital journalism?” (Navasky & Lerner, 2010, p. 42)

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Australian background
• Australia “similar but different”
• “no specific application to online platforms other
than those operated by media organisations that
one way or another are party to one of the
existing codes” (Mueller)
• debate provoked by government media inquiry
that found that self-regulation not working
• controversial recommendation for a new
government-funded statutory authority

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Key questions
• What are the limitations of traditional
codes and standards for new media
formats?
• How should ethics be understood in an
environment where increasing numbers of
content producers are not journalists?
• Who should be involved in developing
ethical norms?

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Case studies
• Unpublishing (CAJ)
• Digital accuracy and correction (CAJ)
• Public broadcasting (CSM)
• Fair Use (CSM)
• Reporting Diversity (Australia)
• Reporting Suicide (Australian Press
Council)

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Common features of case studies
• Identify emerging situations
• Share findings
• Foster collaboration
• Suggest rather than prescribe
• Consultative
• Enhance media literacy
• Regenerative

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Open ethics
• Cases studies consistent with “open ethics” as
outlined by Ward and Wasserman
• “The evaluation of an open ethics is based not
only on who participates but also on the quality
and meaningfulness of that participation, not the
content of the ethics in question.
• They refer to how principles are discussed and
who controls that discussion. “The distinction
between ‘closed’ and ‘open’ marks a difference
in the ways of doing ethics” (pp. 276-277).

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Journalistic mission in peril
“Until journalists establish their own best
practices in fair use, journalists and their
institutions and gatekeepers will continue to be
haunted by fear, letting unfounded risk-
management calculations substitute for a clear
understanding of what is normal and appropriate
in employment of fair use. As new opportunities
develop with the evolution of digital culture, the
very mission of journalism is at stake.” (
Aufderheide and Jaszi, 2012)

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Utility of “best practices” frame
• Connotations of the term
• A matter of professional self-interest to
journalists – not simply a moral
requirement
• Potential to help facilitate “ethics plus”
rather than “ethics lite” – especially if
embedded in a range of practices that
apply ethical principles

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Where does it get us?
• a more global and open approach to doing
ethics
• potential for collaborative transnational research
that involves the academy and industry
• could help step around and even resolve some
of the debates recently seen in Australia
• journalism education - intersecting with the way
students use media

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