Role of the Media Ethics Course in the Education of Journalists

Abstract

The number of separate, free-standing media ethics courses increased by 56 percent in schools, departments, and programs of journalism and mass communication (JMC) over the past decade. The number of JMC units offering modules on ethics in conceptual and courses increased almost tenfold.Seventy-eight percent of ethics instructors responding to the survey were male and 22 percent were female. Seven percent were minorities. Among those ethics instructors hired within the past 10 years, however, 36 percent were female and 12.5 percent were minorities.These were among the key findings of a 1992-93 survey of JMC units and their ethics instructors. Of 325 journalism and mass communication programs surveyed from listings in the 1992-93 AEJMC Directory, 260, or 80 percent, responded.Specifically, the number of ethics courses increased 56 percent--from 117 to 183 since the last tally in 1984. The increase reaches 84 percent--from 117 to 216--if the total includes 33 courses the 1992-93 survey identified as planned to be offered in the next year or two.When the comparison is based on a benchmark study in 1977 sponsored by the now-defunct Ethics Committee of AEJMC the growth is even more dramatic.(1) In that year, 68 courses were reported. Thus, the number of courses has tripled since 1977.In 1992-93, 132 schools, department or colleges offered one media ethics course 21 units offered two courses and three other units each taught three ethics courses for a total of 183 media ethics course taught by 158 schools. Two schools offering ethics courses did not indicate the number of courses they offered.Even more expansion occurred in schools reporting modules on ethics taught in either or conceptual courses in mass communication. They jumped from 24 of 238 schools in a survey by Clifford G. Christians in 1984(2) to 222 of 260 schools in our most recent study, almost a tenfold increase.Growth in coursesIn 1984, Christians reported that schools requiring ethics of undergraduate majors were exceptions. In the 1992-93 survey, 66 units say a media ethics course is of majors. In addition, 28 other units include the ethics course on a list of courses from which students may choose. This represents an apparently significant increase in as much as 94 schools, departments and colleges--or 61.4 percent of the 158 units which report having ethics courses--either require them of majors or make the course an option on a required list.Nonetheless, a total of 102 schools, or almost 40 percent of those responding, say they do not offer a separate course on ethics. Among the multiple reasons, the most frequently mentioned were first, Ethical issues are discussed as they arise in other courses, 71.3 percent; No room in the curriculum, 33 percent, and Insufficient budget, 15.9 percent.The emphasis placed on ethics by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications seemed apparent in the fact that almost 70 percent of the accredited schools (60 of 86) responding to the survey reported offering an ethics course. By comparison, about 57 percent of the non-accredited members of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (47 of 82) reported having an ethics course. Not far behind were the institutional respondents that were neither accredited nor members of ASJMC. Of these units, about 55 percent (51 of 92) said they offered ethics courses.Course contentAfter the academic units were surveyed for administrative data on ethics instruction, questionnaires were sent to the ethics instructors themselves to identify teaching goals and approaches. As Table 2 clearly shows, fostering moral reasoning skills and surveying current ethical practice were the course objectives most frequently checked by the 164 instructors who responded.(Table 2 omitted)Instructors of the separate, free-standing ethics course appear to subordinate the evaluation of collective media performance and key media-and-society issues to the cultivation of individual critical-thinking skills. …