Abstract
Reporting live news events in an environment of continuous, instantaneous global information flow – in a vastly broadened communication network encompassing the internet and social media – exacerbates the ethical challenges that journalists have long faced in handling breaking news. This chapter examines two sets of values that are universal to moral systems worldwide and are relevant to covering breaking news in the age of online and social media: truthfulness and transparency, and humaneness and compassion. These sets of values are applied to three important areas of ethical challenge that journalists face in the global networked environment: verification of information from social media, openness with audience/users about the newsgathering process, and reporting of sensitive images. For each of these issues, a case study illustrates good ethical practice and the difficulties involved in acting ethically. Fostering ethical breaking news coverage and cultivating standards of excellence call for individual reflection by journalists and pursuit of these universal values in their daily lives. However, engagement with broader communities of practice is also vital, especially in environments where acting ethically runs into intense pressure. Newsroom discussion, professional conferences, and online training and interaction can strengthen ethical standards for breaking news coverage.
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