Ian Richards

Stakeholders Versus Shareholders: Journalism, Business, and Ethics

Although the individual journalist is an essential unit of ethical agency, journalists are increasingly employees of large companies or corporations whose primary aim is to maximize returns to shareholders. Consequently, many, perhaps most, of the ethical dilemmas journalists face begin with the inherent conflict between the individuals role as a journalist and his or her employers quest for profit. My underlying argument in this article is that this situation is not unique, that other fields are confronting similar dilemmas, and consequently, journalism may have much to learn from them. In the article I contend that business and journalism ethics, in particular, appear to have more in common than has generally been acknowledged and that the field of business ethics has yielded many concepts that appear to have relevance to journalism. In the article, I conclude that considering the insights offered by those who operate from the perspective of business ethics will facilitate analysis of the interface between individual journalists and the corporate forces that affect so many of them.

Beyond city limits: Regional journalism and social capital

This article reports a pilot study which investigated the relationship between regional journalism and social capital in two regional locations in the Australian state of South Australia, and one in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The study aimed to explore the role of local media in facilitating community communication and understanding, and, through this, to shed light on their possible contribution to regional social capital. Although social capital is a contested notion, the article argues that most definitions can be placed into one of three broad categories, and that the results of the study suggest that local media facilitate connectivity in terms of each of these understandings. A number of themes emerged during the study which help to clarify and illuminate the role of regional media in setting the communication context for social capital. At the same time, however, the ways in which local journalists approached their work raised a number of professional and ethical issues. The article concludes that, despite these difficulties, local media at the sites studied appear to facilitate communication between different sections of the community to the benefit of that community, and to contribute to the development of social capital.

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM ON CAMPUS

Despite many obstacles, investigative journalism continues to flourish in Australia. A significant part of the explanation for this appears to lie with universities which have journalism programs. Investigative journalism has a strong presence in these programs across Australia, a presence which is increasingly being felt at postgraduate level. As a result, an increasing number of journalism graduates have the skills and understanding necessary to embark on serious investigative work, and several institutions have embarked on projects with innovative approaches to collaborative investigative work. However, the wider context in which Australias tertiary institutions operate is far from benign, and journalism programs—and thus the teaching of investigative journalism—are subject to many pressures. The paper finds that, although university journalism programs are increasingly taking responsibility for educating their students about investigative journalism, thereby picking up a key responsibility which would once have been borne entirely by the industry, there are also forces at work which limit their capacity to do this.

On the factory floor of the knowledge production plant: editors’ perspectives on publishing in academic journals

Abstract Debates about the asymmetries in global scholarly production have highlighted the problems that hound African scholarship, ranging from the political economy of publishing to epistemological bias among peer reviewers. Surprisingly little research has, however, been devoted to the views of the journal editors who play such a central role in the process of dissemination of scholarship, and setting and maintaining the boundaries of disciplines, as well as their perspectives on the imbalances of global knowledge production. This article reports on a pilot project which set out to shed some light on these views. As editors of two peer-reviewed journals in the fields of journalism and journalism studies, the authors initially drew upon their own experience to identify common issues facing journal editors. Their approach was also informed by perspectives acquired from the personal experience of their own global positioning – one located on the periphery of the Global North and the other in the Global South. An online questionnaire was distributed to the editors of 24 journals in the fields of communication, journalism and journalism studies. The article reports that the responses received suggest that journal editors are not only conversant with a plethora of complicated and vexing problems, but have also developed a range of successful strategies for responding to them. At the same time, however, publication – or, rather, non-publication – of papers authored in the Global South is a contentious issue which produced divergent responses. The authors conclude that this is the issue most likely to become politicised in the future.

The heart of the matter: Journal editors and journals

Publication in peer-reviewed journals is the life-blood of academic existence. Yet surprisingly little research has been devoted to the views of the journal editors who play such a central role in this process. This essay reports a pilot project which set out to shed some light on these views. As editors of two peer-reviewed journals in the fields of journalism and journalism studies, the essay’s authors initially drew upon their own experience to identify common issues facing journal editors. Their approach was also informed by perspectives acquired from the personal experience of their own global positioning – one located on the periphery of the Global North and one in the Global South. An online questionnaire was distributed to editors of 24 journals in the fields of communication, journalism and journalism studies. The essay reports that the responses received suggest that journal editors are not only conversant with a plethora of complicated and vexing problems, but also have developed a range of successful strategies for responding to them. At the same time, however, publication – or, rather, non-publication – of papers authored in the Global South is a contentious issue which produced divergent responses. The authors conclude that this is the issue most likely to become politicised in future.

For the lifestyle and a love of creativity: Australian students’ motivations for studying journalism

A number of studies have examined why students choose to study journalism at university, but overall, this area is still relatively underexplored. Yet, understanding why students choose journalism, and what career expectations they hold, is important not only for educators but also for wider society and public debates about the future of journalism and the value of tertiary journalism education. This article examines the motivations of 1884 Australian journalism students enrolled across 10 universities. It finds that hopes for a varied lifestyle and opportunities to express their creativity are the most dominant motivations among students. Public service ideals are somewhat less important, while financial concerns and fame are least important. These motivations also find expression in students’ preferred areas of specialisation (referred to in Australia as rounds): lifestyle rounds are far more popular than politics and business rounds or science and development rounds.

Trust 2.0

Borden, S. L. (2009). Journalism as practice: MacIntyre, virtue ethics and the press. New York, NY: Routledge. Christians, C. G., Glasser, T. L., McQuail, D., Nordenstreng, K., & White, R. A. (2009). Normative theories of the media: Journalism in democratic societies. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Christians, C. G., Ferré, J. P., & Fackler, P. M. (1993). Good news: Social ethics & the press. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Christians, C., & Traber, M. (Eds.). (1997). Communication ethics and universal values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Coleman, R. (2000). The ethical context for public journalism: As an ethical foundation for public journalism, communitarian philosophy provides principles for practitioners to apply to real-world problems. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 24(1), 41–66. Fortner, R., & Fackler, M. (2010). Ethics and evil in the public sphere: Media, universal values and global development. Essays in honor of Clifford G. Christians. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Plaisance, P. L. (2005). The mass media as discursive network: Building on the implications of libertarian and communitarian claims for news media ethics theory. Communication Theory, 15(3), 292–313.