Ethics and Media Culture: Practices and Representations

15 And the consequence was …

Dealing with the human impact of unethical journalism

Mike Jempson

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

This chapter concentrates lar gely upon the human impact of inaccurate and intrusive newspaper stories and PressW ise who assists the public with complaints about print and broadcast journalism. I begin with a look at what PressW ise does, set in the historical and political context of debate about whether journalistic ethics exist and provide examples of the damage that can be caused by ‘bad’ journalism.

Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identity of some ‘victims of media abuse’. Simply retelling stories can reopen wounds, and some sections of the media feel no compunction about returning to the attack when former victims ...