5. Further aspects of the discussion on a journalistic ethic
As shown in the discussion of the ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility, empirical studies, with respect to journalistic ethics, are extremely important. Surveys of journalists, for example, can give a picture of journalistic ethics. A survey of German journalists, by Beate Schneider, Klaus Schönbach and Dieter Stürzbecher (1992), showed, for instance, with respect to an evaluation of the legitimacy of controversial research methods that 75% of the journalists polled would use secret government documents; 46% were prepared to pose as an employee in a business or an organisation to access internal information. Nearly 40% would pretend to have opinions or attitudes other than their own in order to gain the trust of an informant. Nearly 30% of journalists were prepared to procure confidential documents by offering money. Nearly 30% were also prepared to pretend to be someone else to acquire information. As was established in Weaver and Wilhoit's 1992 study,
American journalists approve of some of these kinds of research methods considerably more frequently. Thus they were considerably more ready to put informants under pressure (49%) and to publish private documents without permission (47%).
A further problem, which impacts the ethical conduct of journalism to different degrees from country to country, concerns the influence of public relations (
PR). Especially in Western countries (North America; Western and Central Europe) it is common to want to influence media coverage through
PR - and just as much on the part of the state as on the part of business and other associations or interest groups. There is a wide range of
PR initiatives. These include, among other things, running press conferences; confidential passing on of information (leaking); the discrediting of possible rivals; the preparation of press kits containing more or less prefabricated articles and pictures; the bribing of journalists [ Humbert Wolle (1886 - 1940) wrote: "You cannot hope to bribe or twist, thank God! the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to."] - be it with money, or other gifts (e.g. trips) etc. In every respect, the
PR people have the whip hand over the journalists. The former have the time to research the relevant material and to put it together according to their interests.
Furthermore, the
PR practitioners know exactly the criteria used to turn information into news. Moreover, the journalists, in every case, are under constant time pressure and therefore tend to be forced to accept public relations output. At the same time, the relationship between
PR and journalism does not have to be seen automatically in a negative light, for without the appropriate
PR, many issues would not be researched at all. Using
PR materials can definitely relieve time constraints faced by journalists. But it is important for journalists to maintain a critical distance from
PR output so as to be able to manage the flow of information.
In conclusion, one must refer once again to the basic and self-evident fact that in different countries, different understandings of journalism prevail (e.g. big differences exist in Europe between Germany and Great Britain). It is also important to look at the authority to make the rules within individual media, be they organised by the state, under public law or by the private sector. In other words, it is also a question of internal press freedom - the question as to how far journalists have to take orders from higher ranking people and in which areas they can report independently.
6. Outlook
As late as 1973, the Handbook of Communications (Chicago, Rand McNally) appeared, edited by Ithiel de Sola Pool et al, which contained no articles on the topic of the ethics of communication or the ethics of journalism; not once is the term ethics to be found in the subject index (at best, the article by Marc A. Franklin, a professor of law, on Freedom and Control of communication, touches upon the ethical dimension). The times when this was possible, in a publication aiming to cover the entire breadth of the communications field, are quite clearly over. The debate around the ethics of journalism will not go away, but, in view of dramatic changes in the media sector, will be even more intensively pursued. The changes concern not only technological developments (e.g. the ability to manipulate images at will; development of new media such as multimedia; the speed at which information is transmitted, etc.), but, above all, the globalisation of the communication sector. Conditional upon changes in American media legislation - especially the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 - new media giants of previously unimaginable size have come into being in the USA (particularly Time Warner and CNN, as well as Disney and ABC/Capital Cities). The consequence must be that the ethics of journalism can no longer be seen in isolation. It is a matter of the development of a global journalistic ethic, which, in the face of ever spreading commercialisation, is being allowed to combine closely with an ethic of economic activity. In the end, if one wants to avoid regressing to the primitive capitalism of the robber barons, economic activity also requires regulatory norms, which presupposes regular confirmation and feedback through participants in the market. The ethics of related professions, such as public relations, advertising and marketing, also need to be taken into account. Finally, however, it must be a matter of how the self-regulation of journalists - and, related to this, their freedom and ability to criticize in the face of pressure applied by politicians and business, etc. - can be ensured, and this is wrapped up in the ethical debate which is only about ethics at the systemic level, considering the place of the journalist in society.
Incidentally, this collection of essays harks back to important groundwork. In 1989, Communication ethics and global change (New York; Longman), edited by Thomas Cooper et alii, appeared. This publication emphasised that the quest for truth (also called objectivity or precision) represents the central theme of journalistic ethics. As the second thematic area, Cooper stressed "a desire for responsibility among public communicators." This idea includes wanting to serve a just society, in which equality and respect for privacy prevail. At the same time, reporting should not damage innocent people. Finally, as a third element of professionally ethical journalism, freedom of expression is respected. In his foreword George Gerbner writes: "If ethics is a word that makes journalists squirm, international ethics makes them see red. And not without reasons."