Television Field Production and Reporting, 6th Edition

 

CHAPTER

15

Journalistic Ethics

 

 

 

 

Numerous journalists make unethical decisions during their careers, sometimes further diminishing public trust and confidence in the profession. Some journalists use deception to expose deception, citing occasions when it may be both necessary and ethical to break the law to expose a larger wrongdoing—to obtain false identities, for example, to show how easily false documents can be obtained. Others might practice misrepresentation to gather evidence of nursing home fraud, for example, by posing as a patient’s relative. Still other journalists, equally committed to serving the public good, may leap from concealed areas with cameras rolling to ambush unsuspecting adversaries. Later they may march with ...