All ethics codes serve an argumentativefunction to improve public opinion, avoid government regulation, and produce ethical behavior among members. The National Religious Broadcasters' increased eforts to enforce its code illustrates the potential for three dificnlties to surface when organizations use codes to justify their activities. Organizations tend to limit public discussions to the code 's existence, and shorthand descriptions of it, fail to address enforceability problems, and assume that the code will change corporate culture. To overcome these problems, ongoing maintenance (...) of the code in relationship to its public context is required. (shrink)

Two recurring ideologies are used to explore and explain differences in approach to media coverage and problems, both by those within the media and by critics outside the media. Models of Left (individualism, liberty, human happiness) and Right (achievement, maintenance of norms) are used to map three contemporary journalism issues: professionalism, journalist as Good Samaritan, and objective reporting. Each readily lends itself to ideological and para-ideological analysis. Ideological constructs made a significant contribution to the mapping and assessing of ethical and (...) professional media problems. (shrink)

Journalistic codes of ethics from 55 countries were analyzed for their discussions of errors and corrections. The sample includes codes from press councils, broadcast media outlets, newspa...