Journalism and Media Ethics
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics explores ethical issues in journalism and media.
What is Journalism and Media Ethics?
by Subramaniam Vincent, director of Journalism and Media Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
We are dedicated to helping media producers, journalists, product designers, members of the public, and critics develop ways to address pressing -- and persistent -- ethical dilemmas that continue to have wide-reaching consequences for us all. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics is uniquely well-positioned to provide ethical frameworks to help stakeholders proactively identify and analyze normative questions from the early stages to later in delivery cycles, while at the same time enriching the ongoing debates in these spheres.
Journalism Source Diversity Dashboard and Monitor
SCU’s Source Diversity audit technology for news articles consists of a front-end WordPress dashboard plugin supported by a DEI annotation API (application programming interface) service at the back-end. The plugin helps annotate news articles on demand from within WordPress, and works for all stories, both drafts and published.
Learn More About the Source Diversity Audit Toolkit for Wordpress Newsrooms
News Distribution Ethics Roundtable
The News Distribution Roundtable recommends that news platforms and aggregators make their distribution mechanics more transparent and constructs a set of guidelines based on rights, harms, and discourse.
How might students systematically record the use of sourcing and attribution present in everyday news stories? Use this standalone guide to annotating sourcing. It comes with all the crucial definitions and media ethics context you'll need, examples, instructions, and template spreadsheet.
A creative and ethical inquiry into what it means to be a designer, or any kind of creator, in an AI-saturated world.
This resource will provide guardrails for everyday news headlining for headline writers in newsrooms, including news editors, SEO specialists and social media editors.
Dignity as a word has framing power. It can help expand the listening window when discussing societal challenges such as disparities and injustices. Three reading references for you to explore this possibility.
Subbu Vincent on Ethics and Broadcast News
This episode features a conversation with Subbu Vincent, Director of Media and Journalism Ethics at the Markkula Center. Why did Fox News fire Tucker Carlson? And why did CNN fire Don Lemon? Do broadcast news networks follow any code of ethics?
Ethical Considerations for Student Reporters, Editors, and News Consumers
Student journalists, student editors, and student news consumers often plunge into the news ecosystem without much guidance or formal training. What foundational knowledge might help budding news consumers as well as student journalists and editors?
Ethics and Misinformation
Joan Donovan, Ph.D., Research Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Director of the Technology and Social Change project (TaSC), and Author of Meme Wars., spoke about the connection between ethics and misinformation and the philosophical frameworks for how to research, report on, and understand this moment in internet history and American politics.
Journalism and Media Articles
Articles on journalism and media ethics including trust, accuracy, engagement, data journalism, and inclusiveness.
Journalism and Media Case Studies
Case studies pertaining to ethical issues in journalism and media ethics.
Journalism and Media Resources
More resources for journalists and others in the media field including videos, ethics codes, and student examples.
Journalism and Media Ethics Council
As ethical issues in the media are increasingly relevant to today’s climate this team of professionals from public, private, and academic sectors collaborates with the Ethics Center to identify and prioritize complex issues.
Subbu Vincent, director, media and journalism ethics, quoted by the Columbia Journalism Review.
Subbu Vincent, director of journalism & media ethics, quoted by Reuters.
Subramaniam Vincent, director, journalism and media ethics, published by the Kettering Foundation.
Subbu Vincent, director, media and journalism ethics, quoted by Ethics and Journalism.
Solidarity and Ethical Journalism: Aligning Journalism with Accuracy, not Neutrality
With solidarity techniques, journalists do what the most celebrated journalism has always done in this country: insist on representing truthful narratives, amplify sources who have the most insight into an issue, and leverage public means of communication in the service of conveying outrage at people’s dignity being stripped away.
