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Ethics Policies

Key Takeaways:

  • Most sites lack explicit written policies or guidelines, though a handful have invested the time and resources to create them.
  • Many editors rely on internal compasses, often shaped by their professional journalism careers.
  • With or without company policies, the best decisions get made when more people participate in the discussion.

 

Scott Lewis, Voice of San DiegoRules of the Road - Scott Lewis

Written policy can keep it clear

 

We finished our written policy last year – it’s still too hidden on our site. We decided we really wanted a formal policy on it. So we had a freelancer look through what NPR does and others and tried to come up with something that made sense for all of us. We had the board sign off on it, they liked it. So we put it in a nice format in PDF and posted it. (You can download that in the box on the right side of this page.)

As a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), we’re not required to disclose all of our individual donors, but we also want to.

We were proud of that. As a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), we’re not required to disclose all of our individual donors, but we also want to. I asked people at Minnesota Public Radio what their policy was on things like anonymous donors – that’s a tough one. It’s equally tough for Chuck Lewis at the Investigative Reporting Workshop to nail down. He prefers transparency. On the other hand, some big donors don’t want to get solicited – they don’t want to be bothered. And I’m not willing to turn down 20 grand for something like that. So it’s a tough question.

 

Rules of the Road - David Boraks David Boraks, Davidson News

Using personal judgment

 

I don’t have a written policy. I am carrying around with me my personal code of ethics that I’ve developed in 25 years in the business, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect.

Not all the places I’ve worked at have followed their own code of ethics. So it’s important for each of us to carry this internally. It’s got to be beyond just a written down policy.

 

Tracy Record, West Seattle Blog Rules of the Road - Tracey Record

Explain decisions as much as possible

 

I keep saying I would so love to write down a lot of the things that I wind up explaining to people like, we will come to your banquet, but we can’t eat and we can’t drink, but thank you very much. Or, we won’t show suspects’ faces. But there’s been no time. There’s barely enough time to breathe, to eat, to get income taxes done.

I think that if you combed through our comments over the years, you would probably find me having explained most of our policies at one point or another. But there never seems to be time to be able to sit down and write it all down. I can pay freelancers to cover stories and take pictures, I can’t really do that to run the site for two days so I can sit down and write down all our policies.

 

Rules of the Road - Howard Owens Howard Owens, The Batavian

No need for a written guideline

 

When you’re flying on your own in a competitive business environment, trying to get stuff out there, it’s hard at times, very nerve-wracking, very stressful.

I would like to think of myself as basically a centered, ethical person. And that I don’t need a written guideline because nine times out of 10 I’m going to make the ethical choice. That’s really essential for doing a job like this where you don’t have that editor over you. You don’t have a newsroom of people where somebody might play devil’s advocate and say: should we really do that? When you’re flying on your own in a competitive business environment, trying to get stuff out there, it’s hard at times, very nerve-wracking, very stressful.

 

Steve Buttry, Journal Register Company Rules of the Road - Steve Buttry

Encourage internal discussion

 

We like the easy rules that say OK, we don’t run those names, or we run those names and let’s let the chips fall where they may. But don’t we make judgment calls every day in deciding what goes on the home page or the front page? We have to weigh things, we’re very proud of our news judgment. Shouldn’t we have the spine to take on some ethical judgments?

I like having sources like SPJ or Poynter or J-Lab that are industry voices providing ethical guidance for journalists and for news organizations. But my personal view is that organizational ethics policies exist mostly to justify firing people. They’re kind of these lists of “thou shalt not” and “make sure you do this.” Rather than guiding people to good ethical decisions, they sometimes trap people in bad ethical decisions because they don’t allow for judgment. And they don’t encourage discussions, because we already know what we should do — it says, “Thou shalt never do this.”

My view is that, rather than developing an ethics policy to deal with these digital issues that were not covered by the overall company policy, we need to encourage people to talk a lot about things. Mandy Jenkins, our social media producer at TBD, had some social media guidelines that were up on her blog. And she shared those with the staff good advice on making ethical decisions. But it wasn’t a company policy that says, if you ever expressed an opinion on Twitter you’ll be fired! That’s a caricature of some of the ethics policies out there. But I think that having discussions and making good decisions is more important than giving people a list of dos-and-don’ts.

 

Rules of the Road - Donald Heider Donald Heider, Loyola School of Communication

Ethics is a process

When we find what we would consider less smart decisions, head-scratching decisions, being made, it’s usually when something trumps good sense or the ability to talk through a situation.

We definitely come to it from the view that ethics is a process it’s more questions than answers. My experience in newsrooms was, ethical decisions were made when lots of people were involved and there was robust discussion. Every decision in a tough situation, there’s always another side, another perspective. You’re trying to make the best decision you can given the information you have. In my own experience, I’ve found that decisions were made that were less than ethical, or poor decisions, are often made by one or two people in isolation. Often under deadline pressure. That really convinced me, when I got in the academy, that ethics is more of a process. It’s almost a skill set you develop. And it comes from asking good questions, trying to find out information, and then using some guidelines to help you as you ask those questions.

Journalists are good at asking questions, but when you’re in the middle of a mess, it’s funny what escapes you. In newsrooms there are all sorts of pressures. When we find what we would consider less smart decisions, head-scratching decisions, being made, it’s usually when something trumps good sense or the ability to talk through a situation.

 

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