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Abstract
35:101 GROPING FOR ETHICS IN JOURNALISM by Ron F. Smith (Ames: Iowa State Press, 2003 [5th ed.]—$44.99, ISBN 0-8138-1088-4, 422 pp., illustrations, chapter notes, index) updates the previous edition by adding a chapter on the philosophy of ethics and by expanding discussions on critics of the media, journalism, and truth in the postmodern era, photo manipulation and ethics, undercover reporting, and the climate of corporate news ownership. The author, a professor of journalism at the University of Central Florida, divides the book into four sections (principles and guidelines, telling the truth, reporting the news, and conflicts of interest), whose 15 chapters explore the range of journalistic ethical dilemmas, from faking the news to deception to freebies. Each section—and all chapters in reporting the news—ends with case studies that test a student’s ability to reason through an ethical problem. In a discussion about paying sources for information, the new edition includes a photo of a survivor of the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center terrorism, who told reporters a year later that he wanted $911 to be interviewed and photographed. A chapter on compassion lays out the inevitable conflicts that arise when journalists must cover public tragedies that elicit moments of private grief. The author also tackles the sticky issue of media convergence and stacks it against questions of media ownership, arguing that “trying to practice journalism in an environment that is filled with hindrances” will fall on the shoulders of students who read this book. (Diane L. Borden)