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Research Ethics in Investigative Journalism

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• First Online: 06 November 2019
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• Yvonne T. Chua 2  

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Investigative journalism has made inroads into academia: from courses taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels to special and capstone projects. In the twenty-first-century journalism ecosystem, universities in some parts of the world find themselves accommodating or affiliating with nonprofit journalism organizations or establishing their own reporting centers to undertake in-depth, public service journalism. Indeed, journalism, especially investigative journalism, has increasingly been recognized as a valuable academic research methodology. Academic journalists, however, may find the guiding principles for ethical academic research at times incongruent with professional practice, one which invokes public interest and free expression. Navigating the ethical minefields in academia and investigative journalism will be explored in this chapter.

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Chua, Y.T. (2019). Research Ethics in Investigative Journalism. In: Iphofen, R. (eds) Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_66-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_66-1

Received : 16 July 2019

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The journalistic method: Five principles for blending analysis and narrative

Columbia Journalism School's Nicholas Lemann explains a series of rules that can help journalists successfully integrate research and reporting.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by The Journalist's Resource, The Journalist's Resource April 8, 2016

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/media/journalistic-method-tip-sheet-blending-analysis-narrative/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

The intersection of knowledge and narrative, of informed journalism, is the heart of what the Journalist’s Resource project continues to explore. In the short essay below, Nicholas Lemann, a professor and dean emeritus at the Columbia Journalism School and a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker , articulates a method for journalism that integrates knowledge while preserving the art of storytelling. We reprint it here with his permission:

A central problem in the practice of journalism is that most of the time, we are trying to engage in narrative and analysis at the same time. They don’t naturally go together. Journalists more often unwittingly let the narrative distort the analysis than vice versa. What follows is an attempt at a journalistic version of the scientific method, aimed at protecting us from writing stories that are factually accurate and narratively compelling, but still fail to capture the truth of a situation.

• Awareness. On any complicated subject, beware, when you set out, of overly simple conceptions of what ‘the story’ is. Often these involve your having unwittingly accepted somebody else’s frame of reference, or having been primed to see the story in a certain way, or having mistaken correlation for causation, or having succumbed to some other form of embedded misperception. As a first step, you should always stop and ask yourself what you have bought into before you have begun.
• Forming a hypothesis. It’s healthier to admit to yourself that you have one than to go into a story with the idea that you have no presuppositions at all – that would be impossible. You should state a working hypothesis (to yourself, anyway), and then ask yourself what would prove the hypothesis false and what would be an alternate hypothesis to explain whatever it is you are investigating. As you report, you should try not just to prove but also to disprove your working hypothesis, and you should engage in a continuing process of revision of the hypothesis, if necessary. If you don’t design your reporting in such a way that if your hypothesis is flawed, you will find that out before you finish the story, then you are leaving yourself open to getting the story seriously wrong.
• Mapping the discourse. On any important issue, there is likely to be a long-running debate with a set of established compass points. Therefore the idea that you can find ‘an expert’ who can explain the issue quickly over the phone is unrealistic, and so, probably, is the idea that you can find two experts, one on each side, who between them can do justice to the subject. Instead, you should familiarize yourself with the expert discourse on the subject. You don’t need to read everything, but you need to know what the major schools of thought are, and where the debate stands at present, and you should be able to read the primary material for yourself as a way of enriching what other people tell you about it.
• Evaluating the data. Never accept a conclusion from an expert at face value. Instead, you should follow the steps that led to the conclusion, and you should make some judgment as to whether the methodology and presentation are sound. You should also find out whether somebody else has drawn a different conclusion about the same subject.
• Transparency. Journalism is not scholarship and does not generally use bibliographies or footnotes, but you should use attribution in your work in such a way that readers and colleagues can see, to the greatest extent possible, where your information came from and how you have reached your conclusions. Therefore, the use of anonymous sources should be kept to a minimum – you should always try to avoid saying something important with only the testimony of an unnamed person as proof. Even your journalistic competitors should be able to tell, from your work, how to pursue your story further.

Nicholas Lemann is the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. 

Keywords: reporting, style, writing

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• Americans’ Changing Relationship With Local News

As news consumption habits become more digital, U.S. adults continue to see value in local outlets

Table of contents.

• 1. Attention to local news
• 2. Local news topics
• Americans’ changing local news providers
• How people feel about their local news media’s performance
• Most Americans think local journalists are in touch with their communities
• Interactions with local journalists
• 5. Americans’ views on the financial health of local news
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

The Pew-Knight Initiative supports new research on how Americans absorb civic information, form beliefs and identities, and engage in their communities.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Knight Foundation is a social investor committed to supporting informed and engaged communities. Learn more >

Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand the local news habits and attitudes of U.S. adults. It is a follow-up to a similar study conducted in 2018 .

The survey of 5,146 U.S. adults was conducted from Jan. 22 to 28, 2024. Everyone who completed the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.  Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Refer to the topline for the questions used for this survey , along with responses, and to the methodology for more details.

This is a Pew Research Center report from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/pew-knight/ .

The local news landscape in America is going through profound changes as both news consumers and producers continue to adapt to a more digital news environment. We recently asked U.S. adults about the ways they access local news, as well as their attitudes toward local journalism, finding that:

• A growing share of Americans prefer to get local news online, while fewer are getting news on TV or in print. And newspapers are no longer primarily consumed as a print product – the majority of readers of local daily newspapers now access them digitally.
• The share of U.S. adults who say they are paying close attention to local news has dropped since our last major survey of attitudes toward local news in 2018, mirroring declining attention to national news.
• Americans still see value in local news and local journalists. A large majority say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community. Most people also say local journalists are in touch with their communities and that their local news media perform well at several aspects of their jobs, such as reporting the news accurately.
• At the same time, a relatively small share of Americans (15%) say they have paid for local news in the last year. And many seem unaware of the major financial challenges facing local news: A 63% majority (albeit a smaller majority than in 2018) say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well financially.
• Majorities of both major parties say local media in their area are doing their jobs well. While Republicans and GOP-leaning independents are slightly less positive than Democrats and Democratic leaners in their opinions of local media, views of local news don’t have the same stark political divides that exist within Americans’ opinions about national media .
• Most Americans say local journalists should remain neutral on issues in their community, but a substantial minority say local journalists should take a more active role. About three-in-ten say local journalists should advocate for change in their communities, a view that’s especially common among Democrats and younger adults.

These are some of the key findings from a new Pew Research Center survey of about 5,000 U.S. adults conducted in January 2024. This is the first in a series of Pew Research Center reports on local news from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Americans largely hold positive views of local news organizations

At a time when many local news outlets are struggling and Americans’ trust in the news media has waned, the vast majority of U.S. adults (85%) say local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community. This includes 44% who say local journalism is extremely or very important to their community

About seven-in-ten U.S. adults (69%) say that local journalists in their area are mostly in touch with their community, up from 63% who said this in 2018. And most Americans also say their local news organizations are doing well at four key roles:

• Reporting news accurately (71%)
• Covering the most important stories (68%)
• Being transparent (63%)
• Keeping an eye on local political leaders (61%).

These are relatively positive views compared with how Americans see news organizations more broadly. For instance, a 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that fewer than half of U.S. adults say that news organizations in general do a very or somewhat good job of covering the most important stories, reporting the news accurately and serving as a watchdog over elected leaders.

What’s more, views toward local news are not as politically polarized as Americans’ opinions about the news media overall. While Republicans and GOP-leaning independents are not quite as positive as Democrats and Democratic leaners in some of their assessments of local journalists, most Republicans still say the local media in their area are doing their jobs well.

For example, roughly three-quarters of Democrats (78%) say their local media do well at reporting news accurately, compared with about two-thirds of Republicans (66%).

By comparison, the 2022 survey found that 51% of Democrats and just 17% of Republicans say that news organizations in general do a very or somewhat good job of reporting the news accurately.

Jump to more information on views toward local news organizations.

Fewer Americans are closely following local news – and other types of news

Despite these positive views toward local news organizations, there are signs that Americans are engaging less with local journalism than they used to.

The share of Americans who say they follow local news very closely has fallen by 15 percentage points since 2016 (from 37% to 22%). Most U.S. adults still say they follow local news at least somewhat closely (66%), but this figure also has dropped in recent years.

This trend is not unique to local news – Americans’ attention to national and international news also has declined.

The local news landscape is becoming more digital

The ways in which Americans access local news are changing, reflecting an increasingly digital landscape – and matching patterns in overall news consumption habits .

Preferred pathways to local news

• Fewer people now say they prefer to get local news through a television set (32%, down from 41% who said the same in 2018).
• Americans are now more likely to say they prefer to get local news online, either through news websites (26%) or social media (23%). Both of these numbers have increased in recent years.
• Smaller shares prefer getting their local news from a print newspaper or on the radio (9% each).

Specific sources for local news

The types of sources (e.g., outlets or organizations) Americans are turning to are changing as well:

• While local television stations are still the most common source of local news beyond friends, family and neighbors, the share who often or sometimes get news there has declined from 70% to 64% in recent years.
• Online forums, such as Facebook groups or the Nextdoor app, have become a more common destination for local news: 52% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get local news from these types of forums, up 14 percentage points from 2018. This is on par with the percentage who get local news at least sometimes from local radio stations.
• Meanwhile, a third of Americans say they at least sometimes get local news from a daily newspaper, regardless of whether it is accessed via print, online or through a social media website – down 10 points from 2018. The share of Americans who get local news from newspapers is now roughly on par with the share who get local news from local government agencies (35%) or local newsletters or Listservs (31%).

Not only are fewer Americans getting local news from newspapers, but local daily newspapers are now more likely to be accessed online than in print.

• 31% of those who get news from daily newspapers do so via print, while far more (66%) do so digitally, whether through websites, apps, emails or social media posts that include content from the paper.
• In 2018, just over half of those who got news from local daily newspapers (54%) did so from print, and 43% did so via a website, app, email or social media site.

There is a similar move toward digital access for local TV stations, though local TV news is still mostly consumed through a TV set.

• In 2024, 62% of those getting news from local TV stations do so through a television, compared with 37% who do so through one of the digital pathways.
• An even bigger majority of local TV news consumers (76%) got that news through a TV set in 2018.

Jump to more information on how people access local news.

The financial state of local news

The turmoil for the local news industry in recent years has come with major financial challenges. Circulation and advertising revenue for newspapers have seen sharp declines in the last decade, according to our analysis of industry data , and other researchers have documented that thousands of newspapers have stopped publishing in the last two decades. There also is evidence of audience decline for local TV news stations, although advertising revenue on local TV has been more stable.

When asked about the financial state of the news outlets in their community, a majority of Americans (63%) say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well, with a third saying that they’re not doing too well or not doing well at all. This is a slightly more pessimistic view than in 2018, when 71% said their local outlets were doing well, though it is still a relatively positive assessment of the financial state of the industry.

Just 15% of Americans say they have paid or given money to any local news source in the past year – a number that has not changed much since 2018. The survey also asked Americans who did not pay for news in the past year the main reason why not. The most common explanation is that people don’t pay because they can find plenty of free local news, although young adults are more inclined to say they just aren’t interested enough in local news to pay for it.

Jump to more information on how people view the financial state of local news.

Other key findings in this report

Americans get local news about a wide variety of topics. Two-thirds or more of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news about local weather, crime, government and politics, and traffic and transportation, while smaller shares (but still at least half) say they get local news about arts and culture, the economy, schools, and sports.

Relatively few Americans are highly satisfied with the coverage they see of many topics. The survey also asked respondents who at least sometimes get each type of local news how satisfied they are with the news they get. With the exception of weather, fewer than half say they are extremely or very satisfied with the quality of the news they get about each topic. For example, about a quarter of those who consume news about their local economy (26%) say they are extremely or very satisfied with this news. Read more about different local news topics in Chapter 2.

When asked whether local journalists should remain neutral on community issues or advocate for change in the community, a majority of Americans (69%) say journalists should remain neutral, reflecting more traditional journalistic norms. However, 29% say that local journalists should be advocating for change in their communities. Younger adults are the most likely to favor advocacy by journalists: 39% of those ages 18 to 29 say that local journalists should push for change, as do 34% of those 30 to 49. Read more about Americans’ views of the role of local journalists in Chapter 4.

Americans who feel a strong sense of connection to their community are more likely to engage with local news, say that local news outlets are important to the community, and rate local media more highly overall. For example, 66% of those who say they are very attached to their community say local news outlets are extremely or very important to the well-being of their local community, compared with 46% of those who are somewhat attached and 31% of those who are not very or not at all attached to their community.

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What OpenAI’s deal with News Corp means for journalism (and for you)

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T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an affiliate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

James Meese has received funding from the Australian Research Council, Meta, the International Association of Privacy Professionals and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. He is an affiliate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

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OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, and News Corp, the international media conglomerate, have signed a deal that will let OpenAI use and learn from News Corp’s content.

In practical terms, this means when a user asks ChatGPT a question, the results might be informed by previous reporting in News Corp outlets, including Australian mastheads such as The Australian and The Daily Telegraph. It’s unclear whether the agreement includes only editorial or also opinion content.

OpenAI has licensed News Corp content because generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a ravenous beast: it needs data to learn from and generate useful outputs in return. Its ability to do this is impacted by the size and quality of its training data.

But could the media be signing its own death warrant by sharing its journalism? Or do we all benefit from the wider availability of reliable information?

Work with AI, or fight it?

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s major service, has learned from consuming books, articles and publicly available web content. This includes online news articles from across the internet.

However, there are unresolved questions over who owns the content. The New York Times, for example, is suing OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement. By inking deals with media companies, generative AI services like ChatGPT can ensure they stay clear of legal questions by paying to learn from their content.

The quality and provenance of the training data also matter and can lead to biases in what generative AI produces. So it is notable that while some news media organisations are trying to stop their content from being used, others, including Associated Press, are signing deals .

ChatGPT is a complex technical system. Just because some outlets opt in to licensing deals and others don’t won’t mean the technology will sound more like The Australian than The New York Times.

However, at a broader level, where ChatGPT gets its news content from may affect how it responds to questions about current events.

Working out what sort of news content gets included from each publication may also have an impact on how ChatGPT answers queries. Opinion articles are often more sensationalist than straight news, for example, and sometimes do not accurately reflect current issues.

Jobs on the chopping block?

It also remains to be seen how deals like these will affect the human labour of journalists and editors.

On one hand, since generative AI needs more and better content to provide better answers, journalists and content creators will be needed to ensure there is ongoing training data for AI to learn from.

On the other hand, it’s not clear how many journalists organisations like News Corp think are necessary to do that job as further cuts at the organisation are expected next week.

At the same time, the ability for AI to “hallucinate,” or make things up, is well-known. The role of editors in fact-checking content, and critical thinking among those consuming content, is paramount.

In all this, small and medium-sized players in the media landscape seem once more to be pushed to the side, as the big players battle for lucrative content deals while smaller organisations fight for scraps or are left hungry.

Proceeding with caution

These deals also raise questions about the role of ABC and SBS in a changing media environment. Australians pay for public service media through their taxes, but OpenAI is not rushing to do deals with these organisations.

However, companies like OpenAI are gradually accepting the principle that producing quality news costs money and that they need to secure licences to use content. If they want to be consistent, there is strong case to be made that such companies should not just include public service media content in their models, but recompense these organisations in the process, much like Google and Meta organised deals with the ABC through the News Media Bargaining Code.

Where you get your news matters. More people may use AI services for news in the future, but right now it is an underwhelming source of reliable information. Signing content-sharing agreements with companies like News Corp may help improve the quality of answers and increase the relevance of ChatGPT outputs for Australian users.

News Corp also doesn’t have journalists in every community, so supporting independent media in your local area can help you get quality information and prevent news deserts from increasing.

At the end of the day, generative AI doesn’t always get it right (and often gets it wrong) so treat outputs with a healthy level of caution and compare results with those from reputable sources before using AI-generated content to make decisions.

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The Brown Institute announces its 2024-2025 Magic Grant recipients

This was a milestone year for the Magic Grant program, which received a record number of applications, nearly doubling the count from last year. Many of this year’s submissions focus on AI and the ways in which AI-inspired technologies can meet the current and unique demands of journalism and media.

A total of 10 Magic Grants and 3 smaller Magic “Seed” Grants were awarded. This year, the projects span a wide range of areas – one team is developing an AI-assisted platform to analyze cross-lingual, country-specific perspectives on global news stories. Another is creating a discussion layer on top of arXiv, the largest open access preprint repository. And another is looking at the social costs of AI through the lens of new forms of automation in customer service.

“It is exciting to see projects addressing a variety of societal issues via media, journalism, and innovative applications of new technologies,” said Maneesh Agrawala , professor of computer science at Stanford Engineering and the West Coast Director of the Brown Institute.

Established in 2012 with a generous gift from the famed Cosmopolitan Magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown, the Brown Institute honors the memory of Helen’s late husband, David Brown, a successful filmmaker and alumnus of both the Columbia Journalism School and Stanford University. The institute is committed to fostering unique interdisciplinary collaborations, sparking the “magic” that arises from combining diverse perspectives and expertise.

“While the winning teams may have very different topics, they’ve all proposed working across disciplines,” said Mark Hansen, the East Coast Director of the Brown Institute. “To date, we’ve funded over 325 people through our Magic Grant program – the most gratifying part of my job is watching the teams in each cohort grow by learning from each other. Where will these new grantees take us?”

We warmly congratulate our 2024-2025 Magic Grant winners. Supporting your groundbreaking work is an honor, and we can’t wait to see what you produce in the year ahead! 

alphaXiv: Open Research Discussion Directly On Top of arXiv

Rehaan Ahmad, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford); Raj Palleti, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford);Daniel Zamoshchin, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford); Daniel Kim, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford); Advised by Professors Sebastian Thrun and Michael Bernstein (Stanford)

alphaXiv is a discussion platform for students and researchers to ask questions and exchange ideas directly on top of papers from arXiv, the largest open access preprint repository with nearly 2.4 million academic papers. Early researchers often find it hard to understand new research papers, and it’s even harder for them to reach authors and academics to ask questions. With alphaXiv, the team hopes that anyone from distinguished researchers to curious students can interact with authors and partake in high-quality discussions directly on top of papers, connecting scholars from all over the world.

Cross-Lingual Multi-Perspective News (Bicoastal)

Jialiang Xu, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford); Tiffany Weiyang Le, MS ’24 Journalism (Columbia); Advised by Professors Ty Lawson (Columbia), Jennifer Pan (Stanford), and Monica S. Lam (Stanford)

Researchers from Columbia and Stanford are creating the first AI-assisted platform to deliver breaking news from around the world while analyzing the differences in their reporting points of view. The analysis draws from local news outlets in each country’s native language. This platform gives consumers, journalists, and social scientists better access to on-the-ground perspectives in foreign countries as well as an understanding of how international events are portrayed across the globe.

Business Monitor to Empower Worker Stories

Max Siegelbaum, MS ’16 Journalism (Columbia); Lam Thuy Vo, MS ’08 Journalism (Columbia)

The Business Monitor is an accountability-focused database built from datasets created by federal, city, and state agencies in New York aimed at telling the stories of workplace abuse. This project builds on Documented’s Wage Theft Monitor, New York State’s first searchable list of confirmed cases of wage theft. 

DataTalk: All Documents and Data, All at Once, All Verified (Bicoastal)

Shicheng Liu, PhD Candidate in CS (Stanford); Eryn Davis, MS ’24 Journalism (Columbia); Sajid Omar Farook, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford); Leah Harrison, MS ’93 Journalism (Columbia); Advised by Professors Serdar Tumgoren, Cheryl Phillips, and Monica S. Lam (Stanford)

Investigative journalism often relies on the ability to mine diverse data sets, with both structured and unstructured forms. In collaboration with Stanford’s Big Local News initiative, the Stanford Department of Computer Science, and Columbia Journalism School, DataTalk: All Documents and Data, All at Once, All Verified aims to develop trustworthy conversational agents for journalists to uncover insights from such hybrid data sources using natural-language queries. Building on a novel programming language, SUQL (Structured and Unstructured Query Language), the project will expand the current research prototype into a full development framework to enable non-AI experts to quickly deploy tools to probe complex datasets and fact-check results to produce groundbreaking stories.

African History from the Bottom Up with LLM-Augmented Agents

Sina J. Semnani, PhD Candidate in CS (Stanford); Kwame Nyarkoh-Ocran, MS Candidate in CS (Stanford); Ashley Celestine Kamdom Tamdjo, BS Candidate (Stanford); Advised by Professors Trevor R. Getz, Robin P. Chapdelaine, and Monica S. Lam (Stanford)

African History from the Bottom Up with LLM-Augmented Agents is a joint project between the Center for African Studies and the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. Together, the team will create HistoryChat, an AI tool that enables scholars, students, and teachers of history to interact with and study historical corpora. The first subject of this project is The African Times, a unique, historically significant newspaper produced by members of the transatlantic African diaspora in the late 19th century. HistoryChat will be openly accessible so that it can be applied to any historical corpus, addressing the intellectual gap in the history of other underrepresented communities.

Improper Conduct

Kristen Lombardi, Director of Columbia Journalism Investigations; Smaranda Muresan, Sr. Researcher at the Data Science Institute at Columbia; Jeffrey Fagan, Professor at Columbia Law School

The team will use an original dataset of prosecutorial misconduct cases in Ohio as a test case for developing artificial intelligence tools based on large language models (LLMs), in a collaborative human-LLM framework, to automate, update, and lay the foundation for a first-of-its-kind public database tracking improper behavior by prosecutors during criminal trials. Through these AI tools, they will leverage the legwork of our investigative reporters to publish a recent repository of these Ohio cases – a prototype of what the team hopes will become an interactive database enabling watchdog journalists, legal researchers, and others to identify patterns of improper and at times illegal behavior by prosecutors in this state and beyond. Along the way, they will produce a user study to assess the utility of the human-LLM collaboration framework and models, as well as a guidebook to help journalists replicate this database in states with online court dockets similar to Ohio’s.

HairFlow – Bridging Representation Gaps in Image to 3D Hair Generation

Sarah Jobalia, PhD Candidate in CS (Stanford); Yitong Deng, PhD Candidate in CS (Stanford); Advised by Professor Ron Fedkiw (Stanford)

Hair is one of the physical traits that is most often used to express personality and identity. Despite this, building 3D hairstyles for virtual characters today relies on a multitude of complicated tools, making it one of the most difficult parts of the character creation pipeline. HairFlow aims to make generating hair easy, allowing users to create an artist-ready 3D hair groom from just a few cellphone-quality photos. Additionally, HairFlow is the first system to incorporate an understanding of diversity within hair, creating accurate models for any hair type regardless of curl pattern or texture. This system will allow artists of any technical background to generate characters with a diversity of hairstyles, making character creation more accessible and representative.

Justice Delayed

Shalaka Shinde, MS ’23 Journalism (Columbia); Tazbia Fatima, Dual MS ’23 Journalism and CS (Columbia)

Justice Delayed will be an essential database that will catalog long-pending criminal cases across 650+ district courts in India. The data, and the software system it will fuel, will equip journalists from remote parts of the country with the tools to scrutinize every aspect of the criminal justice system within their respective regions. By extracting and organizing data from district-level courts, the project aims to pinpoint cases contributing to India’s staggering backlog of nearly 50 million court cases, primarily concentrated in district-level jurisdictions.

Measuring Silence on Social Media

Dorothy Zhao, PhD Candidate in CS (Stanford); Jordan Troutman, PhD Candidate in CS (Stanford); Advised by Professors Michael Bernstein and Diyi Yang (Stanford)

As a part of Measuring Silence on Social Media, the team will conduct a broad census of what perspectives are being systematically under- or over-represented across various online communities. To do so, they propose a novel human + AI pipeline that leverages large language models and survey methods to measure this silencing effect.

Digital Archives of Refugees’ Self-Representation

Pamela Martinez, MFA Candidate (Stanford); Artem Arzym, MS Candidate (Stanford); Advised by Professor Natalia Almada (Stanford)

Digital Archives of Refugees’ Self-Representation is a digital archive of self-represented audiovisual media that attempts to diversify journalistic practices by recentering the agency of those traditionally excluded from humanitarian discourse pertinent to the U.S.-Mexico border. The team will be investigating how migrants use social media to share their stories, uncover which groups of migrants don’t, and work with translation and transcription software and local community organizations to increase marginalized communities’ accessibility to storytelling technology. In that process, they investigate what long-term consent of data can mean in a seemingly permanent digital space for individuals in legally precarious circumstances whose needs can change.

2024-25 MAGIC “SEED” GRANTS

This Call May Be Recorded

Professor Habiba Nosheen (Columbia) and Theo Balcomb, Creator of The Daily

This Call May Be Recorded is an investigative podcast by Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Habiba Nosheen and Theo Balcomb, also a Peabody Award-winning journalist, and the creator of The Daily from The New York Times. The podcast will go inside the world of people’s most haunting customer service problems and will untangle one thorny quandary at a time with the goal to help listeners navigate the often maddening and rapidly evolving use of AI by companies instead of human beings to deal with customers. The team will craft an easy-breezy romp through that moment of collective angst as they come up against chatbots, a fun-filled journey that helps the little people win in little ways, especially when they’re going up against AI, and offer just a bit of catharsis for anyone whose nightmares have been haunted by hold music. The project aims to make today’s often inhospitable world of customer service just a little safer to navigate. The goal is to be the voice of the people who feel unheard and along the way win some well-deserved victories for those who don’t have the time, money, or power to advocate for themselves in our increasingly automated world.

pollfinder.ai

Professor Dhrumil Mehta (Columbia); Aisvarya Chandrasekar, Researcher (Columbia); Ken Miura, MS Candidate in CS (Columbia)

During election cycles, journalists are inundated with data from surveys asking Americans who they plan to vote for and, perhaps more important, how they feel about the issues at stake. But given the sheer volume of polls and the myriad formats in which pollsters release them, it is hard for newsrooms to keep up and for journalists to know which polls to reference. pollfinder.ai aims to use large language models to help newsrooms collect and organize both horserace and issue polls so that journalists can write stories that are informed by an up-to-date aggregation of public opinion polls that can provide a more complete picture of what Americans think about a given topic.

Lethal Italy

Natasha Caragnano, MA ’24 Journalism (Columbia); Sacha Biazzo, MA ’24 Journalism (Columbia)

Lethal Italy confronts the devastating environmental impact of industrial pollution in southern Italy, using groundbreaking data and multimedia storytelling to raise global awareness and enforce sustainable practices.

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Journalism ethics.

• Patrick Lee Plaisance Patrick Lee Plaisance Department of Journalism & Media Communication, Colorado State University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.89
• Published online: 09 June 2016

News workers—writers, editors, videographers, bloggers, photographers, designers—regularly confront questions of potential harms and conflicting values in the course of their work, and the field of journalism ethics concerns itself with standards of behavior and the quality of justifications used to defend controversial journalistic decisions. While journalism ethics, as with the philosophy of ethics in general, is less concerned with pronouncements of the “rightness” or “wrongness” of certain acts, it relies on longstanding notions of the public-service mission of journalism. However, informing the public and serving a “watchdog” function regularly require journalists to negotiate questions of privacy, autonomy, community engagement, and the potentially damaging consequences of providing information that individuals and governments would rather withhold.

As news organizations continue to search for successful business models to support journalistic work, ethics questions over conflicts of interest and content transparency (e.g., native advertising) have gained prominence. Media technology platforms that have served to democratize and decentralize the dissemination of news have underscored the debate about who, or what type of content, should be subjected to journalism ethics standards. Media ethics scholars, most of whom are from Western democracies, also are struggling to articulate the features of a “global” journalism ethics framework that emphasizes broad internationalist ideals yet accommodates cultural pluralism. This is particularly challenging given that the very idea of “press freedom” remains an alien one in many countries of the world, and the notion is explicitly included in the constitutions of only a few of the world’s democratic societies. The global trend toward recognizing and promoting press freedom is clear, but it is occurring at different rates in different countries. Other work in the field explores the factors on the individual, organizational, and societal levels that help or hinder journalists seeking to ensure that their work is defined by widely accepted virtues and ethical principles.

• minimizing harm
• public service
• global ethics
• newsgathering standards
• framing effects
• journalism culture
• media technology

Introduction

Potential harm posed by news accounts, the use of deceptive tactics to secure stories, and the increasing prevalence of infotainment content are all examples of journalism ethics issues. In addition to specific practices, the field of journalism ethics also addresses broader theoretical issues such as what roles the news media should play in society, whether the idea of patriotism poses a conflict of interest for journalists, and what might constitute a set of universal or global values to define good journalism across cultures. As a field, journalism ethics spans a wide range of issues from examination of specific case studies that raise questions of privacy and editorial independence, to abstract, normative arguments about how concepts from moral philosophy such as realism, relativism, and the Aristotelian notion of eudaimonia , or flourishing, should inform the work of journalism.

As the idea of journalism has evolved over the centuries, economic imperatives and the desire to be seen as performing “professionalized” work have motivated news publishers and journalists to embrace various standards of behavior. Depending on its cultural context, the idea of journalism emerged from commercial or political “hack” work, where newspapers were entertainment or party organs, to its role in most developed countries as an autonomous broker of information and “watchdog” of power centers on behalf of citizens. As a result, publishers, editors, and writers recognized the value of embracing standards of conduct to build integrity and commercial viability. Journalism ethics scholars and researchers have explored the philosophical underpinnings of these standards, the recurrent failures of news workers to meet them, and the moral obligations of journalism on a societal level.

Ethics and the Journalistic Mission

While ethics is conventionally understood as the work involved to discern “right” actions from wrong, it is more precisely a field of inquiry focused on examining the quality of our deliberations when dealing with moral dilemmas. It is about asking the “right” questions to best illuminate our duties and potential impacts on others. As such, ethics rarely provides clear answers about the best way to handle quandaries. Rather, ethics serves to help us highlight morally relevant issues and come up with optimal defensible decisions. This also describes the field of journalism ethics: while there are some clear rules and standards about how journalists should operate, more common are abstract statements of value that are intended to inform good behavior. Journalism ethics is a distinct subfield of media ethics in that it addresses behavior and dilemmas unique to the practices of gathering and presenting news content. It works within the context of journalism culture that assumes a critical public-service function of the work in a professional or semi-professional setting distinct from marketing or promotional media content. While journalism ethics scholarship draws from moral philosophy in its use of concepts such as autonomy, harm, and justice, it also represents an applied ethics approach, focusing as it often does on case studies and analyses of situations that pose dilemmas involving protection of journalistic credibility or potential harm to story subjects. Ethicists in media often call for a deontological approach in journalism practice—for journalists to be more mindful of these broad duties and less concerned about the consequences of providing the news to the public. True public service, they argue, requires journalists to report the news, as explosive, discomforting, or controversial as it may be, and let the chips fall where they may. The public must decide how that information will be utilized. These ethicists insist that journalists should resist paternalistic impulses and pressure to “sanitize” the news. Despite this general tendency, many journalism ethics codes and standards also include explicitly utilitarian concerns—a recognition that journalists must, of course, be mindful of the consequences of their work, particularly when it comes to potential harmful effects of some information. The tensions created by these two approaches often constitute the heart of many journalism ethics controversies, just as they do in other areas of applied ethics. A look at codes of ethics embraced by various journalistic organizations around the world illustrates how both approaches are invoked. These codes most often avoid clear declarations of prohibitions or required actions, and instead provide aspirational calls for journalists to report the news courageously, to be accountable to the public, and to minimize harm as much as possible. All of these imply a special covenant with the public and an obligation to act in ways that serve more than the commercial interests of individual journalists or news organizations. This includes, as one of the first publishers of the New York Times famously said, to report the news “without fear or favor”—in other words, without being cowed or intimidated by powerful people or institutions who might want to shape the news for their own interests, and also without any agenda to promote any single individual, cause, or policy in the course of reporting. In commercial media systems, the specter of corporate conflict of interest is a recurring journalism ethics issue: corporate media conglomerates use their journalism divisions to promote, in the guise of news content, products or services (such as a film or musical artist) produced by another division. Similarly, nationalized or party-owned news outlets subject to government or political control are typically perceived as lacking sufficient editorial autonomy to report news that may adversely impact those in power. Accountability in journalism most often refers to fulfilling a public-service role in the dissemination of news. It calls for journalists to respond quickly to questions about accuracy, and to acknowledge and correct mistakes. It also implies the notion that journalists wield considerable power in their ability to spotlight and scrutinize the behavior of others, and that they must use that power judiciously. Journalists, consequently, are expected to acknowledge their own ethical lapses, and to apply the same standards of behavior to themselves that they hold for news subjects. Most journalistic ethics codes also call for minimizing harm in the course of news work. Note that the call to minimize harm is distinct from imperatives to “prevent” or “avoid” harm, which are virtually non-existent in journalism. This semantic distinction is deliberate and reflects an acknowledgement that harmful effects are occasionally inevitable in the course of good journalism. Journalistic harm is most conventionally understood as materially “setting back” an important and legitimate “interest” of someone or some group that is the focus of news. Some such harms might be easily defended, such as the economic harm caused by an investigative report on the questionable or illegal practices of a company. Other such harms are more difficult to justify, such as the damage created to someone’s reputation by the disclosure of personal facts not considered very newsworthy. But harm can take many other forms. Ill-considered behavior might result in harm to the individual journalist’s reputation or that of his or her news organization. As with most other lines of work, the ethically questionable behavior of individual actors can easily reflect on—and harm—the profession or field as a whole, reducing trust. The public also can be harmed with misinformation and sensationalistic coverage or content that leaves people with an inaccurate understanding of a topic or issue. In most cases, journalists minimize potential harms by articulating the public value of published information and by considering withholding information that might be less important or relevant for a story. Journalists also consider story “play”—how images and graphics are used as well as story placement and prominence. More recently, journalism ethics discussions and scholarship have emphasized additional values. One is transparency, or being aboveboard in explaining news decisions. For example, recent efforts to revise the code of ethics of the Society for Professional Journalists in the United States resulted in adding the imperative that journalists “be transparent.” In some cases, this has meant inviting the public to observe, either personally or via streaming video, editorial meetings of news organizations. In others, it has meant allowing digital access to databases and other files that are used in building news stories. Another value that has gained in prominence in journalism ethics is community engagement. More journalistic organizations, particularly digital-only news sites, have expressed an obligation to move beyond mere reporting of the news and to make efforts to foster civic participation. At its most basic, this manifests itself through active story comment lines and forums to discuss stories and issues. But it also can include the sponsorship by news organizations of public meetings to address specific issues of concern as well as inviting audience members to “sponsor” an investigative effort, which a news organization, once receiving sufficient financial support, “pledges” to publish.

Journalism and Ethics Frameworks

Much work in journalism ethics is rooted in two predominant strains found in the philosophy of ethics. One is consequentialism , in which much of the moral weight of decisions is placed on the goodness of the outcome. In journalism, this is most clearly illustrated by the focus on possible harms resulting from newsgathering and publishing. The other predominant strain is deontology , or duty-based ethics. Many news outlets and journalism associations have embraced ethics codes that itemize the various duties that responsible journalists must carry out: duty to serve the public, duty to scrutinize centers of power, duty to be as transparent and accountable as possible. But the “third way” in ethics, virtue theory, has recently been gathering prominence in journalism practice as well. Rooted in the work of Aristotle, this approach focuses instead on identifying “virtues”—what it means to be courageous, charitable, honest, and so forth—and articulating how such virtues ought to be manifested in our lives if we are serious about the promotion of human “flourishing.” Insisting that journalists should “be virtuous” may sound like a less-than-useful platitude, but recognizing and living by virtues is far from simple. We would not still be discussing them thousands of years after Aristotle if it were. And as we have seen, ethics is rarely black and white. We must juggle competing claims, weigh various possible harms, articulate often multiple duties—all in the course of just one ethical question. In moral psychology (discussed later in this article), the idea of “moral commitment” is an important one—the degree to which individuals internalize moral principles, or virtues, into their very self-identities, so that those principles almost reflexively inform daily behavior. Moral “exemplars” are those among us who not only internalize these principles, but whose moral development has given them what might be called a highly developed skill of discrimination: the ability to make fine-grained distinctions among similar situations and to thoughtfully respond with just the right mix of appraisals, beliefs, and behavior that still reflect one’s broader moral commitments. This is the more character-driven approach that preoccupies virtue ethicists. One of them, Rosalind Hursthouse ( 1999 , p. 154), argued that the virtues “are not excellences of character, not traits that, by their very nature, make their possessors good and result in good conduct.” Rather, she said we must remember the “Aristotelian idea that each of the virtues involves practical wisdom, the ability to reason correctly about practical matters.” It is more of a “ground-up” approach, rather than the “top-down” approach of duty ethics or the “ends-focused” approach of consequentialism. And for a growing chorus of journalism ethics scholars, it may be the most useful one. “By building from our appreciation of ‘particular facts’ about how the media operate in the contemporary world, we have a more useful starting point for the tangled problems of media ethics than by relying on supposedly consensual norms, rights or obligations,” wrote media ethicist Nick Couldry ( 2013 , p. 42).

A notable example of virtue ethics applied to journalism is offered by media ethicist Sandra Borden. Borden draws on the work of philosopher Alistair MacIntyre, who argues that the ancient Greeks understood the notion of virtues as qualities that were critical to have if one were to perform well in his or her social roles. Aristotle described virtues not as ends in themselves, but as tools to achieve what he said should be our broader aim: “the good life,” or eudaimonia . As individuals, we not only contribute to our own well-being but help bring about such flourishing for all through specialized work that is often referred to as professional behavior. In his landmark book, After Virtue , MacIntyre ( 2007 , p. 187) called this type of work a practice :

By ‘practice’ I . . . mean any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized in the course of trying to achieve those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity, with the result that human powers to achieve excellence, and human conceptions of the end and good involved, are systematically extended.

Such practices, he argued, involve “standards of excellence and obedience to rules” that are aimed at attaining internal goods, or things that contribute to the common good regardless of who actually receives them. Media professionals, when deliberately informing their work with the “standards of excellence” that are attached to their “practices,” are able to deliver public goods such as providing information and analysis that enables the public to participate in a vigorous democratic life. As Borden ( 2007 , p. 16) summarized, “an occupation’s purpose provides it with moral justification, from a virtue perspective, if it can be integrated into a broader conception of what is good for humans.” In her book, Journalism as Practice , she made the compelling case that journalism should indeed be treated as a MacIntyrean practice . Another media ethicist, Victor Pickard ( 2011 , p. 76), eloquently described the “practice” of journalism having internal goods as its aim:

[Journalism] is an essential public service with social benefits that transcend its revenue stream. In its ideal form, journalism creates tremendous positive externalities. It serves as a watchdog over the powerful, covers crucial social issues, and provides a forum for diverse voices and viewpoints. As such, journalism functions as democracy’s critical infrastructure.

Implications of Specific Practices

Due to the ongoing nature and recurring tensions inherent in news work, several specific types of questions and controversies regularly surface. Yet it should be clear that ethics provides no clear-cut solution to cases of the same type; indeed, ethicists often argue for very different resolutions or optimal decisions among similar cases, depending on context and factors that may have more or less importance in different situations. It nonetheless is valuable to note several broad types of journalism ethics questions:

Conflict of interest. As noted previously, corporate and political conflicts of interest commonly raise questions of journalistic autonomy and adherence to ideals of public service. Conflict of interest can also occur at the individual level, where the interests or values of a single journalist might tempt him or her to compromise his or her news judgements. Most journalistic policies require news workers to treat potential appearances of conflict of interest as just as much a threat to credibility as actual conflicts, and, in cases of the latter, to take explicit steps to acknowledge the conflict and to either minimize or eliminate it. In most cases, journalists are expected to recuse themselves from activities that might pose a journalistic conflict. This includes policies that prohibit reporters covering politics from featuring political bumper stickers on their private vehicles.

Minimizing harm. Also as noted, the concept of harm can take many forms, and journalists are regularly called upon to justify their decisions that arguably cause harm to individuals or groups. Photojournalists in war zones and those covering sites of humanitarian tragedy have been challenged, for example, for their decisions to maintain their role as dispassionate witnesses to scenes of human suffering, rather than setting down their cameras and helping those in need. News organizations also have drawn criticism when disclosing secret or classified information that, in the course of informing the public, may arguably harm or undermine national interests.

Balancing privacy interests. Generally, theorists agree that everyone requires a degree of privacy to allow for self-development and to enable individuals to manage their multiple social roles. But with the value of privacy regularly being contested, journalists confront the dilemma of the extent to which respect for individual privacy should determine news coverage. While some scholars have argued that protecting privacy should never be considered the job of the journalist because of myriad and shifting definitions, others emphasize that journalism that respects privacy can encourage civic participation and engagement. Ethics arguments frequently flare over when disclosure of personal information is merited as well as when story subjects arguably seek to dodge accountability by invoking questionable or ill-informed privacy claims.

News frame effects. News content that may have negative effects on society frequently raises ethics questions. For example, psychologists have long warned of the “contagion” effect of coverage of suicide that focuses on the method of death and emotional state of the subject, which may prompt others in a similar emotional state to “copy” the story. Journalists have embraced media guidelines for responsible coverage of suicide as a social-health issue rather than as spectacle. The way an issue in the news is “framed” by story narratives, using factors such as sourcing, point of view, emphasis, and description, can leave audiences with a particular understanding of that issue. Framing of hot-button topics such as gun violence, gender roles, or obesity can serve to emphasize or favor one perspective over another and thus raise ethical questions.

Stereotypes. Relying on or perpetuating gender, racial, or ethnic stereotypes in news stories also can be considered a framing issue, and journalists must be mindful of inadvertent stereotyping. Expediency, narrative brevity, and the press of deadlines often discourage thoughtful considerations of the descriptions used for story subjects, be they local celebrities or police suspects. Research has suggested a consistent gender bias in news descriptions of physicality, emphasizing clothing items for women but not men, for example. Also, consistent focus on race often leaves skewed perceptions of crime patterns in the mind of the public.

Newsgathering techniques. What methods are justifiable in the collection of information valuable to the public? Classic what-ends-justify-the-means questions regularly confront journalists. While absolutist policies are rare, many news organizations refuse to pay for news or interviews, though tabloid outlets commonly do so. The concern is that sources with a financial incentive may be tempted to embellish, alter, or even fabricate facts and events, thereby undermining the journalistic enterprise. In some developing countries, such as Kenya, China, and India, money is regularly passed to individual journalists to curry favor and secure positive treatment. With celebrity periodicals, where exposure has created its own competitive market among a finite pool of public figures, payment for attention has become more removed from objective newsworthiness standards. The use of deceptive tactics, such as hidden cameras, also raises ethical questions. Several journalistic organizations have adopted policies stating that hidden cameras should be used only as a last resort and only when the information sought has high potential value for the public. Similar policies apply to journalists misrepresenting themselves to access information.

Graphic images. The publication of photos that depict gore, violence, and suffering regularly raises ethical questions for news journalists. Such questions become particularly heated during times of war or conflict, and when patriotic sentiments may bring added pressure to bear on journalists to depict the “right” story and avoid using images that audiences might perceive to be demoralizing. Claims that graphic images can be offensive, harmful, or unnecessary clash with concerns that avoiding such images risks sanitizing or propagandizing the news, which can easily undermine journalistic credibility. As with other journalistic ethics issues, the controversies over the publication of graphic images reflect diametric approaches within ethics itself: A utilitarian concern focused on minimizing harmful consequences of a decision versus a deontological ethos that calls for depicting the news with courage and relying on audiences to make their own decisions about the value of such images.

Ethics and Journalism Sociology

A variety of factors influences and even determines the behavior of journalists. The professional, cultural, and organizational environments in which journalists work have been referred to as their “moral ecology,” a recognition that news workers, like everyone else, do not operate in a self-defined vacuum, and that individual beliefs and predispositions are routinely subsumed by broader processes of socialization that can both help and hinder the exercise of ethical reasoning skills and moral autonomy. Thus, normative claims about what journalists should or should not do in the course of their work must rest not on assumptions that journalists are guided solely by personal beliefs but on an appreciation of these socialization processes. For example, journalists are criticized for advancing a “news agenda” reflecting their personal biases, but such claims often ignore how the broader constraints of the news decision-making process (e.g., the requirements of video production on deadline), organizational structure (e.g., the allocation of resources intended to produce one type of news content over another), or professional culture (e.g., the internal system of sanctions and rewards from editors based on impartiality of work) function as much greater influences. That moral ecology, of course, varies widely around the globe. Journalism sociology research over the years has identified broad “levels” or categories of factors that influence the production of news, generally distinguishing among individual-, organizational-, and societal-level spheres. For example, the ongoing “Worlds of Journalism” project examining news work across cultures has identified six levels of influence:

The individual level includes personal opinions, values, and demographic data as well as information on specific roles and occupational characteristics within a news organization.

The media routines level includes deadlines, production procedures, and standards and other constraints posed by newsgathering practices.

The organizational level includes technological imperatives, advertising or revenue considerations, and editorial decision-making.

The media structures level includes the economic model of news that entails profitability and resource allocation as realities in the relatively high costs of news production.

The systemic level includes national-level data such as regulatory policies, ideological assumptions, and degree of press freedoms.

Reference groups constitute a dimension that spans professional and personal domains to include competing news organizations, audiences, colleagues, friends, and family members.

In much research on journalism culture since the late 20th century, organizational- and societal-level factors have been found to be stronger influences on news content than individual-level factors, suggesting a hierarchical structure of influences in which the higher the level, the stronger the influence. However, no definitive model of influence has emerged.

Media Technology

The proliferation of online media has resulted in a host of new complications for journalists and news organizations. While traditional ethical concepts do not fundamentally change when information is delivered online, the ease and ubiquity of digital media provide new ways of interacting with audience members and story subjects. And everyone is tempted to do things he or she may not otherwise contemplate without the speed and ease of media technology. As one media ethics scholar noted, “Deceptive behavior in cyberspace is . . . not a new moral issue though it raises the problem of ‘moral distance’ with extra urgency . . . The speed of digital communication does not create new forms of immorality, but makes it possible to commit immoral acts so fast one hardly notices” ( 2000 , pp. 34–35). For example, the issue of corrections and retractions in digital journalism has received considerable attention.

Generally, many journalistic organizations, such as the Canadian Association of Journalists, have adopted policies against “unpublishing” erroneous reports from their archives and instead amending corrections to them. News organizations also have felt increasing pressure from story subjects who are embarrassed by content and argue that it is unfair for the news organizations to archive material long after it is no longer relevant. But allowing individuals to “scrub” the public record for their own interests raises deeper questions about the value of independently curated public information, and it also can threaten a key aspect of the journalistic mission, which is to document history. As one journalism educator has said, “Source remorse is not a reason to unpublish.” Unpublishing material also does little to eliminate the “echoes” that likely exist all over the Web on search engines, blogs, and other news sites. Better to correct or amend the existing archived material, which both preserves the integrity of the journalistic process and also fosters credibility through transparent action. For instance, editors at the Boston Globe cited the latter for their decision to correct, but not remove, a live blog post erroneously stating that an arrest had been made shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 . In rare cases, a news organization may consider unpublishing a story that is judged to be unethical or even be questionable legally, or when continued accessibility of an archived story may pose a real threat to someone’s well-being. In such cases, many policies urge journalists to look for evidence of concrete harm, such a doctor’s opinion, and for any such decisions to unpublish to be made by consensus, never leaving them to a single person.

The immediacy provided by media technology has enabled journalists to increase their relevance and value and to foster new forms of interaction with audiences. It also can encourage broad collaborative efforts with non-journalists whose perspectives and information can augment journalistic efforts. But that very immediacy can threaten to become deterministic —the value of now can displace ethical concerns of credibility, verification, and care. In the rush to be a part of the conversation and buzz on breaking stories, many news organizations have fallen victim to all stripes of hoaxes. “The development of social networks for real-time news and information, and the integration of social media content in the news media, creates tensions for a profession based on a discipline of verification,” said journalism technology scholar Alfred Hermida. News sites around the world, for example, circulated what turned out to be a fake photo of Osama Bin Laden’s body soon after his death in May 2011 . The immediacy of digital technology tempts journalists to post, share, and verify later—often at the cost of their long-term credibility. This risk of compromised integrity or even partiality is a serious concern reflected in the social media policies of most news organizations. The notion of technological determinism—that values emphasized by technology such as convenience tempt us to set aside other values such as respect, conscientiousness, and even safety—has resulted in abetting the perilous impulse in a competitive media system of getting it first rather than getting it right. Critic Evgeny Morozov ( 2011 , p. xvi) calls this “cyber-centrism,” or our tendency to “prioritize the tool over the environment.” The integration of social media also has required journalists to resist the temptation for informality. Several news organizations have adopted explicit policies that reinforce how traditional concerns of ethics as well as etiquette apply to social media. For example, the Associated Press cautions its writers about the peril residing in too-informal use of Twitter:

Twitter, in particular, can present some challenges—with a tight character count and no way to modulate your body language or the volume and tone of your voice, requests that are intended to be sensitive can come across as cold or even demanding. Think about how your tweet would come across if spoken with an angry voice, because that’s just how the recipient may hear it in his head.

Media technology has collapsed time and space in the exchange of information, but it also has arguably initiated a reformation of communication structures. No longer is the news media system a “closed” one in which journalists serve a central gatekeeping function; now we have an “open” system in which the sourcing and distribution of information has been radically democratized and globalized. As many theorists have said, we now have a networked society. Journalists and journalistic brands are now just single nodes among a constellation of voices and sources, all moving in a “shared” information space. This, writes scholar Ansgard Heinrich, “sketches the evolution of an interactive sphere that, at least in theory, fosters a greater level of interaction and exchange. Connection, interaction, and collaboration are the markers of this shift.” This transformation, however, poses many questions for journalism as it has been conventionally understood, in the form of print newspapers and broadcast networks. Who do you link to? How do you distinguish between activist bloggers and more dispassionate collaborators? Do these distinctions matter anymore? And in this new “network journalism,” how are journalists to act responsibly in what is now a global sphere? Scholars have begun insisting that journalists have a responsibility to be more cosmopolitan in their outlook and their framing of news, and to work harder to transcend the “nationalistic” lenses that have traditionally dominated news narratives. As Heinrich argues, “This nationally inward looking focus of news reporting, however, does not do justice to a world (1) where events in one corner of the world might affect the other; (2) where news stories produced by one outlet are not restricted in access to ‘local,’ i.e., national audiences; and (3) in which many voices roam through the spheres of a digitally connected world that might provide an alternative take on a news story.” Globally responsible journalists, then, must break out of the tradition of foreign correspondent narratives that focus almost exclusively on elite or official sources and on how events impact a particular nation, instead engaging in the multitude of activist and “unofficial” sources that provide often competing narratives.

Global Journalism Ethics Theorizing

Much journalism ethics theorizing since the end of the 20th century has been preoccupied with the desire to establish viable ethical norms that transcend cultural boundaries and reflect what one researcher referred to as an empirical trend toward “ever-increasing globalization of journalism standards.” Some of this work calls for a media system that relies on a framework of international human rights, or a general veneration of human life, to guide news work regardless of culture. Others have called for a “modified contractualist” approach that would respect differing cultural manifestations of broad principles. Still others insist that any such global framework reject Enlightenment assumptions of the primacy of individual rights and rationality. Too often, claims of journalism standards of behavior remain rooted in Western cultural assumptions and are imperialistically imposed onto non-Western cultures in which the values of social stability and collective well-being replace individualistic models. As one scholar observed, “It is a global reality that the common concerns we have as human beings coexist with differences of ethical thinking and priorities in different cultures. This coexistence of common ground and different places plays out in the work of journalists across the world.” Notwithstanding the rarity with which the value of press freedom is enshrined in Western media systems, American and European scholars and journalistic organizations continue to dominate journalism ethics discourse. As a result, that discourse is focused on protecting journalistic functions with the rule of law and insulating them from power and identity politics. The European Federation of Journalists, for example, released a report in 2015 examining the effects of chronic corruption in 18 countries, noting how “media managers are doing ‘deals’ with advertisers to carry paid-for material disguised as news, how editors are being bribed by politicians or corporate managers and how this whole process makes it increasingly difficult to separate journalism from propaganda from public relations.” But voices from other parts of the world are joining the discourse on press freedom and journalism ethics. Many sociology and philosophy scholars on the African continent have offered critiques of postcolonial systems to promote journalism institutions (e.g., Kasoma, 1996 ; Wasserman, 2006 ). In 2015 , the Journal of Media Ethics published a special issue devoted to the notion of ubuntu as a guiding framework for media practice—the idea common among several south African cultures that individual flourishing is possible only through community belonging and social identity. The widespread practice of journalists accepting gifts and cash in exchange for favorable treatment—called “brown-envelope” journalism in Nigeria and “red-envelope” journalism in China—is receiving an increased amount of attention by journalism sociology scholars around the world (Xu, 2016 ). The practice in China was an intrinsic part of the commercialization of the media system in China beginning in the 1980s, and was actually initiated by foreign companies to entice journalists to attend press conferences (Zhao, 1998 ).

Cultural diversity notwithstanding, research worldwide has identified several key areas and concepts that concern journalists across cultures. These include truth-telling, accuracy, factualness, objectivity, credibility, balance, verification, independence, fairness, accountability, honesty, and respect. Of course, many of these overlap, and they can apply to one or more of the influence levels referred to previously. But many journalism ethics scholars agree that these are not enough. It is shared moral principles, rather than agreed-upon practices, that can bind responsible journalists around the world in ethical solidarity. As scholar Clifford Christians ( 2010 , p. 6) argues:

Without a defensible conception of the good, our practices are arbitrary. How can we condemn violent practices such as suicide bombings in the name of jihad except through widely accepted principles? We are stunned at the blatant greed and plundering of the earth, but without norms we are only elitists and hot-tempered moralists. Conflicts among people, communities, and nations need principles other than their own for their resolution. A credible ethics, as a minimum, must be transnational in character.

Christians and others argue that such a global media ethic cannot start with conventional morality that assumes a superior rationality, such as that of Kant. Instead, it must begin with a much more “naturalistic” principle: universal human solidarity, which prioritizes human dignity, truth, and nonviolence, all of which are grounded in the notion of the sacredness of life. In addition to this notion, scholars point to the fundamentally social reality of human existence—that despite the predominance of Western individualism, our realities and even our identities are arguably rooted in interaction and community belonging. In this reality, communication is central, as it is through exchange that we understand ourselves and we see the importance of “the Other”—individuals we encounter who may not share our culture or perspective, but whose existence requires respect and validation. Again, Christians, drawing on a long line of earlier philosophers, explains: “Communication is not the transference of knowledge but a dialogic encounter of subjects creating it together.” This leads us to a framework of “anthropological realism” that provides a hopeful basis for a global media ethic. It is anthropological in nature because it is rooted in the realities of human existence rather than claims about any rationalistic ideals. It is realist in that it insists morality has an explicit character that exists independently of our perceptions and judgements. For the moral realist, moral claims of rightness or wrongness are true regardless of any beliefs an individual might have about them. The casual observer, however, might see an immediate problem with such a framework, a problem wrestled with by philosophers since antiquity: what exactly is the nature of the “good” and how do we apprehend it? Is there more to a moral claim than a sort of intuition that we just know right from wrong? And how might journalists articulate this framework of moral realism in the judgements they make about news, about ethnic conflict, about graphic images? In journalism ethics scholarship, these debates continue.

Moral Psychology Research

Broad-brushed, deductive theorizing such as that discussed previously is one active area of journalism ethics research. But other researchers are increasingly acknowledging the need for more empirical work that seeks to better understand ethical reasoning processes on the ground by bringing long-established psychology measurements to bear. This moral psychology research draws on important philosophical concepts as well as instruments that assess beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions to explore possible patterns and relationships among factors in ethical decision-making. Recent cross-cultural research involving interviewing journalists around the globe, led by German researcher Thomas Hanitzsch, suggests that they perceive notions of objectivity, accuracy, and truth-telling as “core elements” of a widely accepted ethic for journalism practice. Journalists, of course, have been socialized into these norms through formal journalism education as well as through immersion in the newsroom culture, with its internal system of sanctions and rewards by peers and superiors based on the perceived quality of one’s work. Other researchers emphasize that social psychological processes resulting in bias perceptions, such as social validation and attitude stabilization, also must be recognized as evident in the work of journalists.

Moral development theory provides several models to help explain how individuals’ moral agency and sense of morality evolve over the course of a lifetime. The most widely cited moral development theory is that of Lawrence Kohlberg, who has argued that our moral development is tied largely to two factors. One is the degree to which we internalize moral principles that apply to all and move away from relativistic thinking—the notion that moral decisions regarding what is “right” are strictly “relative” to one’s own personal values rather than any broader moral principles. The other, closely related to the first, is the sophistication and scope of our understanding of the concept of justice. Our moral development, Kohlberg argues, can be assessed as existing in one of six stages. Based on Kohlberg’s theory, researchers have refined and widely used a survey instrument that measures one’s moral reasoning skills based on these two factors. By assessing the frequency with which respondents draw on higher-order justifications when presented with a moral dilemma, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) has enabled researchers to assess the moral-reasoning skills of various populations such as professional groups. Media researchers Lee Wilkins and Renita Coleman pioneered the application of the DIT to journalists and other media workers, concluding that, because journalists routinely encountered ethical questions in the course of their work, their moral reasoning skills were relatively high compared with workers in other professions.

Another moral psychology instrument that has proven useful in journalism ethics research is the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) developed by Donelson Forsyth. Because people’s responses to ethical dilemmas are influenced by their worldviews, understanding the basic elements of their outlooks can illuminate the thrust of their ethical judgements. Two such basic elements are key to individuals’ “ethical ideologies.” One is how idealistic they are—that is, to what extent are they optimistic about the actions of others, and to what extent are they concerned about minimizing harm or are more accepting of harmful effects if positive consequences are believed to outweigh them. Another basic element is how relativistic they are—whether they tend to make judgements based primarily on their own interests and perceptions of “rightness” that are relative to their own standing or views, or whether they tend to draw on broader, universal principles to decide what’s ethically justifiable. Using some key items from the Forsyth instrument, the “Worlds of Journalism” project found that most journalists in the 20 countries surveyed tend to embrace universal principles that should be followed regardless of situation and context. They also agreed on the importance of avoiding questionable methods of reporting, even if this means not getting the story. Much less approval—although the extent of it varied between countries—could be found regarding how much personal latitude journalists should have in solving these problems. This desire for flexibility reflects the longstanding tension in ethics between desirable ends and questionable means, as discussed. Many journalists think that in certain situations, some harm to others would be justified if the result supports a greater public good. News workers in Western countries are more likely to disapprove of a contextual and situational ethics. This attitude, however, also exists in non-Western contexts, though less strongly. Chinese, Pakistani, and Russian journalists, on the other hand, tend to be most open to situational ethical practices. Consistent with this result, interviewees in Western contexts showed little support for the idea that journalists should be allowed to set their own individual ethical standards. Similarities between journalists from Western countries also exist with regard to idealism. Although journalists in all countries agreed on the view that questionable methods of reporting should be avoided, those working in Western contexts appreciate this idea more than their colleagues in a developmental and transitional environment. Regarding the acceptance of harmful consequences of reporting for the sake of a greater public good, journalists in most Western countries—but also their colleagues in Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, and Uganda—tend to keep all options on the table. Journalists in Bulgaria, Chile, China, Egypt, Romania, and Russia, on the other hand, exhibit a greater willingness to accept harmful consequences in the course of newsgathering and reporting.

In a study of journalism “exemplars” in the United States—reporters and editors widely respected for their accomplishments and ethical leadership—media ethicist Patrick Plaisance used both the Defining Issues Test and the Ethics Position Questionnaire, along with several other moral psychology instruments. Regarding the journalism exemplars’ moral reasoning, Plaisance found their DIT scores were indeed higher than that of journalists on average. Regarding the EPQ, the journalism exemplars uniformly rejected relativistic thinking as well. There was also a negative relationship between the journalism exemplars’ DIT scores and their degree of idealistic thinking. That is, the higher the exemplars score on the Defining Issues Test, the less they appear to embrace idealistic thinking. This may first appear counterintuitive; it might stand to reason that people with higher DIT scores, associated as they are with greater application of universal principles in moral judgements, also would be rather idealistic in their outlooks. However, it is important to remember that all of the exemplars scored low in relativistic thinking; so the issue is not that the exemplars would be more or less Machiavellian depending on their DIT scores, but to what degree their belief in universal moral standards, and perhaps primarily their concern for harming others, could be applied rigidly or not. The negative correlation with moral-reasoning scores, then, arguably reinforces the suggestion of comparatively greater moral development in that exemplars with the higher DIT scores exhibit a greater ability to adapt their principles to best fit the often complex range of contingencies in which they find themselves having to work. In other words, they are too wise to believe they can insist on a rigid application of moral rules that can fit all circumstances and have become more adept at making the kind of carefully considered, fine-grained distinctions frequently found among moral exemplars of all walks of life.

Other Resources

African Media Initiative of the Ethical Journalism Network .

Center for International Media Ethics .

Ethical Journalism Network corruption report .

European Federation of Journalists .

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Society for Professional Journalists Code of Ethics .

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What does a journalist do?

Would you make a good journalist? Take our career test and find your match with over 800 careers.

What is a Journalist?

A journalist investigates, gathers, and reports news and information to the public through various media outlets, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online platforms. Journalists inform the public about current events, issues, and developments, serving as watchdogs of government and institutions and facilitating democratic discourse.

Journalism encompasses a wide range of roles and specialties, including reporters, correspondents, editors, photojournalists, and investigative journalists, each with their own responsibilities and areas of expertise. Journalists may cover local, national, or international news, politics, business, sports, entertainment, culture, science, health, or other topics, depending on their beat or assignment. With the rise of digital media and social networking, journalists also engage in multimedia storytelling, data journalism, and audience engagement strategies to reach and connect with diverse audiences in an ever-evolving media landscape.

What does a Journalist do?

Duties and Responsibilities The duties and responsibilities of a journalist encompass a wide range of tasks aimed at gathering, analyzing, and disseminating news and information to the public. Here are some key responsibilities:

• Research and Investigation: Journalists are responsible for researching and investigating news stories, events, and issues to uncover facts, gather evidence, and verify information. This may involve conducting interviews with sources, reviewing documents, observing events firsthand, and consulting experts or witnesses.
• Reporting and Writing: Journalists write news articles, reports, features, or opinion pieces based on their research and investigation. They use clear, concise, and compelling language to communicate information accurately and effectively to their audience. Journalists must adhere to ethical standards and journalistic principles such as accuracy, fairness, objectivity, and balance in their reporting.
• Interviewing: Journalists conduct interviews with sources, including officials, experts, witnesses, and individuals involved in news stories, to gather quotes, insights, and perspectives. They must ask probing questions, listen attentively, and record or transcribe interviews accurately to ensure the integrity and credibility of their reporting.
• Fact-Checking and Verification: Journalists are responsible for fact-checking and verifying the accuracy of information before publishing or broadcasting news stories. This involves corroborating information from multiple sources, cross-referencing data and statistics, and confirming details with reliable sources to avoid spreading misinformation or falsehoods.
• Ethical Considerations: Journalists must adhere to ethical guidelines and professional standards in their reporting, including principles of fairness, impartiality, transparency, and accountability. They must avoid conflicts of interest, disclose sources, and respect the privacy and dignity of individuals involved in news stories.
• Adaptation to New Technologies: With the evolving landscape of digital media and technology, journalists must adapt to new tools, platforms, and storytelling formats to engage and inform their audience effectively. This may involve multimedia storytelling, data journalism, social media reporting, or audience interaction strategies.

Types of Journalists Journalism is a vast field that encompasses a range of different roles and specializations. Here are some common types of journalists and their typical duties:

• Broadcast Journalist: Broadcast journalists work for radio or television stations, and they report the news on air. They may also conduct interviews, write scripts, and edit video footage.
• Business Journalist: Business journalists cover news stories related to the economy, finance, and business. They may report on corporate earnings, stock market trends, or government policies that impact businesses.
• Correspondent : Correspondents work for a particular media organization and are assigned to cover a specific beat, topic, or geographic area. They are often based in foreign countries and are responsible for reporting on local events, politics, and other news of interest to their home audience.
• Editor : Editors are essential members of the journalism profession, responsible for refining and shaping the content produced by journalists. They ensure that articles meet editorial standards, are accurate, engaging, and adhere to the publication's style and guidelines.
• Entertainment Journalist: Entertainment journalists cover news stories related to the entertainment industry, such as movies, television shows, and music. They may conduct interviews with celebrities, review films or albums, and report on entertainment events.
• Feature Writer: Feature writers specialize in writing in-depth stories that go beyond the headlines. They may report on human interest stories, cultural trends, or lifestyle topics.
• Investigative Journalist: Investigative journalists specialize in uncovering news stories that involve wrongdoing or criminal activities. They often spend months or even years researching and gathering evidence before publishing their findings.
• Multimedia Journalist: Multimedia journalists use a combination of audio, video, and written content to tell stories across various platforms. They may work for newspapers, magazines, or websites.
• News Reporter : News reporters are journalists who gather, investigate, and report news stories to the public. They may work for media outlets such as newspapers, TV or radio stations, online news platforms, or news agencies.
• Photojournalist : Photojournalists photograph, edit, and display images in order to tell a visual story. They are journalistic professionals that are skilled at interpreting and communicating an event through photographs.
• Political Journalist: Political journalists cover news stories related to politics and government. They may report on political campaigns, elections, or legislative activity.
• Science Journalist: Science journalists report on scientific research and discoveries. They may write articles, produce videos, or create multimedia content to explain complex scientific concepts to a broader audience.
• Sports Journalist: Sports journalists report on athletic events, teams, and athletes. They may write articles, conduct interviews, and report on live events.

Are you suited to be a journalist?

Journalists have distinct personalities . They tend to be artistic individuals, which means they’re creative, intuitive, sensitive, articulate, and expressive. They are unstructured, original, nonconforming, and innovative. Some of them are also enterprising, meaning they’re adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic.

Does this sound like you? Take our free career test to find out if journalist is one of your top career matches.

What is the workplace of a Journalist like?

The workplace of a journalist can vary widely depending on the type of media organization they work for and their specific role within the industry. Journalists may work in traditional newsrooms for newspapers, magazines, television stations, or radio stations, where they collaborate with editors, reporters, photographers, and producers to cover news stories, events, and issues. These newsrooms are often fast-paced environments where journalists must work under tight deadlines to research, write, and produce stories for publication or broadcast.

With the rise of digital media and online journalism, many journalists work remotely or in non-traditional settings such as coworking spaces, home offices, or coffee shops. Digital journalists may write articles, produce multimedia content, or engage with audiences through social media platforms and online communities. They may collaborate with remote teams or freelance contributors from around the world to produce content for websites, blogs, podcasts, or digital news platforms.

Journalists may also find themselves working in the field, covering breaking news, events, or investigative stories on location. This could involve reporting from the scene of a natural disaster, attending press conferences, conducting interviews with sources, or documenting events as they unfold. Field reporters must be adaptable, resourceful, and able to work in challenging or unpredictable environments while adhering to professional standards and safety protocols.

Frequently Asked Questions

Writing and journalism related careers and degrees.

Writing Careers

• Academic Writer
• Content Writer
• Fiction Writer
• Food Critic
• Ghostwriter
• Grant Writer
• Music Critic
• Nonfiction Writer
• Screenwriter
• Speechwriter
• Sports Writer
• Technical Writer
• Television Writer
• Travel Writer

Journalism Careers

• Correspondent
• News Anchor
• News Reporter
• Photojournalist
• Broadcast Journalism
• Children's Literature
• Creative Writing
• Screenwriting
• Songwriting
• Technical Writing

Continue reading

Journalist vs News Reporter

The terms "journalist" and "news reporter" are often used interchangeably, but they encompass slightly different roles within the field of journalism.

A journalist is a broad term that refers to anyone who works in the field of journalism, which encompasses various roles such as reporting, writing, editing, researching, and producing news and information for the public. Journalists may work in traditional newsrooms, digital media outlets, broadcast networks, or freelance capacities. They are responsible for gathering, analyzing, and disseminating news stories, events, and issues to the public through various media platforms, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online channels.

A news reporter is a specific type of journalist whose primary role is to report news stories, events, and developments to the public through written articles, broadcast segments, or multimedia content. News reporters gather information through research, interviews, observation, and investigation, and then write or present stories that inform, educate, or engage audiences. They may cover a wide range of topics, including local news, national politics, international affairs, sports, entertainment, business, or human interest stories, depending on their beat or assignment. While all news reporters are journalists, not all journalists may identify primarily as news reporters, as they may have other roles within the field of journalism such as editors, columnists, photojournalists, or multimedia producers.

Pros and Cons of Being a Journalist

Being a journalist comes with its own set of advantages and challenges. Here are some pros and cons of pursuing a career in journalism:

• Impactful Work: Journalists have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact by informing the public, raising awareness about important issues, holding powerful institutions accountable, and giving voice to marginalized communities. They play a crucial role in fostering transparency, accountability, and democracy.
• Variety of Work: Journalism offers a diverse range of topics and beats to cover, allowing journalists to explore their interests and develop expertise in various areas such as politics, sports, entertainment, science, technology, or human interest stories. Every day presents new challenges and opportunities for learning and growth.
• Flexibility and Independence: Depending on their role and employer, journalists may enjoy flexibility in their work schedule and location. Freelance journalists, in particular, have the freedom to choose their assignments, work from home or remotely, and set their own hours. This flexibility allows for a better work-life balance and autonomy in pursuing stories.
• Networking and Professional Development: Journalism provides opportunities for networking with other professionals in the industry, including reporters, editors, photographers, and media executives. Journalists may attend press conferences, industry events, and networking mixers to build relationships, exchange ideas, and advance their careers. Additionally, journalists have access to ongoing professional development opportunities to enhance their skills and stay current in a rapidly changing media landscape.
• High Pressure and Stress: Journalism can be a high-pressure and stressful profession, particularly for reporters covering breaking news, investigative stories, or sensitive topics. Tight deadlines, unpredictable events, and the need to produce accurate and compelling stories under pressure can lead to burnout and emotional strain.
• Low Pay and Job Insecurity: Entry-level journalism jobs often come with relatively low pay, especially for reporters working at small or local news organizations. Additionally, the journalism industry has faced economic challenges in recent years, leading to layoffs, budget cuts, and job instability in some areas of the field. Freelance journalists may also struggle with irregular income and lack of benefits.
• Ethical Dilemmas: Journalists must navigate ethical considerations and dilemmas in their work, including issues related to objectivity, bias, conflicts of interest, privacy, and sensationalism. Balancing the need to report the truth with respect for individuals' privacy and dignity can be challenging, especially in cases involving sensitive or controversial topics.
• Public Scrutiny and Criticism: Journalists often face public scrutiny, criticism, and even threats for their reporting, particularly when covering divisive or polarizing issues. Social media and online platforms have amplified the voices of critics and made journalists more vulnerable to harassment, trolling, and attacks on their credibility and integrity.

Mastering Library Research: A Journalist’s Essential Resource

• Published: December 12, 2023
• By: Yellowbrick

In the ever-evolving world of journalism, where information is readily available at our fingertips, it is easy to overlook the importance of thorough library research. While the internet has undoubtedly revolutionized the way we access information, the value of traditional library resources cannot be overstated.

As a journalist, honing your library research skills can greatly enhance the depth and accuracy of your reporting, enabling you to uncover unique perspectives and untapped sources.

1. Understanding the Role of Library Research

Library research plays a vital role in journalism by providing journalists with access to a wide range of credible and reliable sources. While the internet offers a wealth of information, it is also ripe with misinformation and bias. Libraries, on the other hand, serve as bastions of verified knowledge, housing meticulously curated collections that can be instrumental in fact-checking and ensuring the accuracy of journalistic content.

2. Navigating Library Catalogs and Databases

One of the first steps in conducting library research is learning how to navigate library catalogs and databases effectively. Librarians play a crucial role in assisting journalists in this process, offering guidance on advanced search techniques and helping them uncover relevant resources efficiently. Mastering the art of navigating these resources not only saves time but also allows journalists to unearth hidden gems that might otherwise go unnoticed in the vast sea of information.

3. Tapping into Specialized Libraries and Archives

While public libraries are excellent resources for general information, journalists should not overlook the wealth of insights offered by specialized libraries and archives. These repositories delve deep into specific subjects, providing journalists with unparalleled access to niche knowledge. Whether exploring rare manuscripts or historical artifacts, tapping into these specialized collections can add layers of richness and authenticity to journalistic endeavors.

4. Leveraging Librarians’ Expertise

Librarians are not just keepers of books; they are highly trained information professionals ready to support journalists in their quest for accurate and reliable information. Building a collaborative relationship with librarians allows journalists to tap into a wealth of knowledge. Librarians can offer insights into research methodologies, suggest relevant sources, and provide valuable context, ultimately contributing to the depth and credibility of journalistic work.

5. Staying Up-to-Date with Current News and Events

While library research often involves delving into historical archives and academic journals, it is equally important for journalists to stay abreast of current news and events. Libraries actively update their collections to reflect the ever-changing landscape, ensuring that journalists have access to the latest information. This blend of historical context with real-time updates enhances the relevance and comprehensiveness of journalistic pieces, providing a well-rounded perspective to readers.

6. Developing Critical Evaluation Skills

In an era of rampant misinformation, developing critical evaluation skills is crucial for journalists relying on library research. The ability to discern the reliability and relevance of sources ensures that journalists produce accurate and trustworthy content. By honing these skills, journalists become adept at navigating the vast landscape of information, distinguishing between credible data and misleading narratives, and ultimately upholding the integrity of their reporting.

7. Incorporating Library Research into Modern Journalism

In conclusion, library research remains an indispensable tool for journalists in the digital age. While the internet provides quick access to information, the depth, breadth, and credibility offered by libraries contribute significantly to the journalistic process. Embracing both traditional and modern research methods positions journalists to deliver well-rounded, thoroughly researched stories that stand the test of time in an ever-evolving media landscape.

Key Takeaways:

• Library research is crucial for journalists as it provides access to credible and reliable sources, ensuring accurate and unbiased reporting.
• Navigating library catalogs and databases allows journalists to refine their searches and expand the scope of their research.
• Specialized libraries and archives offer unique resources and expertise in niche topics, enhancing the depth of reporting.
• Librarians are invaluable resources who can guide journalists in their research process and provide advanced research techniques.
• Staying up-to-date with current news and events is essential for providing timely and relevant reporting.
• Developing critical evaluation skills helps journalists discern accurate and reliable sources amidst rampant misinformation.
• Incorporating library research into modern journalism enhances the quality of reporting and uncovers unique perspectives.

To further enhance your library research skills and stay ahead in the field of journalism, consider enrolling in the NYU | Modern Journalism online course and certificate program offered by Yellowbrick. This comprehensive program will provide you with the knowledge and practical skills needed to excel in the ever-evolving world of journalism. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to take your journalism career to new heights.

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The Morning

Our journalism.

Joe Kahn, The Times’s executive editor, reflects on some of our most probing recent work.

By Joseph Kahn

Executive editor of The New York Times

When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, it ignited not only one of the worst conflicts in recent Middle East history, but also an ideological firestorm around the world. Some viewed the war through the prism of the Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took an estimated 240 hostages. On the other side, Israel’s retaliatory bombing and occupation of Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, galvanized a global movement against the actions of the Jewish state.

The intensity of the conflict and the emotions it set off has made this an especially challenging war to cover. Our commitment is to provide probing, independent journalism about the biggest stories, however strong the partisan feelings about them may be. This has been the most divisive story I’ve experienced in my more than three decades in journalism.

So it was especially gratifying that our team of reporters, photographers and video journalists on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their coverage of the war. We had earlier won similar honors from the George Polk Awards and the Overseas Press Club, which are among the most prestigious prizes in journalism.

Our team is living through this conflict as well as covering it. Some of those reporting on it are Muslim, others Jewish. Some speak Arabic, others Hebrew. Some know people killed or captured on Oct. 7. Others were born and raised in Gaza, with relatives killed and scattered by the bombardment. We worked together to use our best visual storytelling tools to capture the horrors Hamas inflicted on Israel and the devastating toll of Israel’s assault on Gaza . We also revealed astounding Israeli intelligence failures and deadly miscalculations that allowed the Oct. 7 attack to happen.

This is what we really mean when we talk about independent journalism: Coverage that commands attention, whatever your background, experience or perspective.

Prize-winning work

I wanted to use today’s Morning newsletter to highlight not only our coverage of this war, but also some other recent Times journalism that has received recognition. The Pulitzer juries awarded The Times with two other prizes, for investigative reporting and feature writing. We had six finalists as well, showcasing the breadth and depth of the journalism we bring to you every day.

No series we published last year had more impact than Hannah Dreier’s “Alone and Exploited .” Hannah won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for her unflinching look into how child migrants are being exploited for their labor in all 50 states, often working illegally for big name brands. She spent two years reporting the series and worked with a team to assemble a definitive database of child labor injuries and deaths that we made easily accessible to the public.

Our third winner was a story that appeared in our Sunday Magazine called “The Mother Who Changed.” The writer, Katie Engelhart, tells the story of Diane Norelius, a woman with dementia whose daughters worried the man she fell in love with was exploiting her disease and her money. The piece, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, explores how we respect the desires of people when they experience cognitive decline. Katie navigates the many perspectives with empathy and nuance and skillfully guides readers through the ethical and medical complications.

Our six Pulitzer finalists ranged from the revelatory work on the mysterious symptoms experienced by U.S. soldiers sustained from firing their own weapons to the stories of migrants who journey through the dangerous Darién Gap . Photos of youth in Africa and inside Vladimir Putin’s Russia were finalists in feature photography. An intriguing story on the popularity of the game Dungeons & Dragons among inmates on death row and a deep look at decades of wrongdoing by a Mississippi sheriff’s department were also cited.

And in audio, we are thrilled that a series from Serial Productions, “The Retrievals,” won a Peabody Award. “The Retrievals” told the story of the Yale Fertility Center nurse who replaced painkilling solution for saline, and the women who had their procedures without this medication.

If you haven’t already, I urge you to take time to experience this journalism. I am deeply proud of this prizewinning work, and of the journalism we produce every day.

I also want to say thank you. We are able to do this work because of our subscribers. These prizes are yours to celebrate, too.

THE LATEST NEWS

Israel-hamas war.

About 300,000 people have fled Rafah, in southern Gaza, over the past week, the U.N. said. International officials have expressed alarm, saying there is nowhere safe for Gazans to go.

The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of Jabaliya , in northern Gaza, as it increased its attacks there. The military said that Hamas was trying to reassemble in the area.

For Israeli and Western officials, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, has emerged as an adversary and a deft political operator in cease-fire negotiations .

Republicans accused President Biden of criticizing Israel more harshly than Hamas, Politico noted. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho said Biden was “ attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally.”

More International News

Elon Musk has fostered relationships with right-wing heads of state — including Javier Milei of Argentina — to push his own politics and expand his business empire .

Flash floods in Afghanistan have killed more than 300 people in one province and destroyed thousands of homes, U.N. officials said.

Switzerland won Eurovision , its first victory since Celine Dion represented the country in 1988.

Donald Trump used an accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his Chicago tower and may owe more than $100 million, according to an I.R.S. inquiry uncovered by The Times and ProPublica.

Senator Robert Menendez will go on trial in Manhattan tomorrow. He is charged with taking part in an elaborate bribery scheme. Here is what to know .

Other Big Stories

Over the weekend, residents in several European countries and parts of the U.S. reported unusual sightings of the northern lights. See photos .

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, concerns are growing that the World Anti-Doping Agency is failing at its mission to keep sports free of illegal drugs.

THE SUNDAY DEBATE

Does the U.S. decision to pause some weapons shipments betray Israel?

Yes. The U.S. claims “ironclad” support of Israel, but it halted certain weapons shipments to the country over concerns about an invasion of Rafah. “Denying it U.S. arms is an invitation to its enemies to take advantage, in hostage talks and on the battlefield,” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board writes .

No. The pause won’t affect the billions of dollars Congress has allocated to military aid for Israel, making it “the equivalent of giving somebody hundreds of dollars on a daily basis and then making a show of withholding 5 cents,” Al Jazeera’s Belén Fernández writes .

FROM OPINION

“ Our closeness was measured in tosses ”: Learning how to play catch with her son taught Jessica Shattuck how to let him go as he got older.

Here are columns by Ross Douthat on the morality of the war in Gaza and Zeynep Tufekci on protest crackdowns .

MOTHER’S DAY

For Mother’s Day, Catherine Pearson collected stories from Times readers about the mother figures in their lives — grandmothers and aunts, teachers and neighbors, and, of course, moms.

Genevieve Geer wrote about Mrs. Dunn, her friend’s mother, who “taught me that when you can’t get in through the front door, there is always a side door, or a window, to slip into the places you wanted to go.”

Judith Shapiro wrote about Ruth, her childhood nanny, who “let me stay up late on Sunday nights, curled up next to her in an overstuffed chair, watching our favorite television shows.”

Marjorie George wrote about Miss Jordan, her fifth-grade teacher, who “was a powerful example of what a Black woman could be.”

You can read many more stories in Catherine’s article, “An Ode to Those Who Mother Us.”

MORNING READS

A farewell: By the end of this year, only two Chuck E. Cheese locations will have the chain’s hallmark animatronic band .

Vows: The Broadway actress Lindsay Mendez got married on her day off . Jonathan Groff officiated, and Daniel Radcliffe was the ring bearer.

Lives Lived: Mary Wells Lawrence was the first woman to own and run a major national advertising agency. Her company, Wells Rich Greene, was best known for the “I ♥ NY” campaign. She died at 95 .

THE INTERVIEW

By Lulu Garcia-Navarro

This week’s subject for The Interview is the author, comedian and influential radio host Charlamagne Tha God. We talked about what he makes of polls showing the Democrats losing Black voter support, his personal politics and why he’s not endorsing anyone in the presidential election.

A lot has been made of polls showing Black support for the Democrats cratering. I’m wondering what you’re thinking as more and more of these polls keep showing the same thing.

I think you might see a slight uptick in Black people voting for Trump this year, but I think it’s overstated. I think the biggest thing that people are gonna have to fight against this year is the couch. And the couch is voter apathy. This is probably the most — and what I’m about to say is going to sound so cliché — this is probably the most consequential election of my lifetime. I’m not gonna say of all time. But it’s hard to get people to believe that, because we say that about every presidential election, because every Republican candidate has been demonized. So now that you really do have the wolf out there, you look like the party who cried wolf because you put everything on the same scale.

The thing that I’m hearing you say is that you believe that Trump is the wolf at the door, that democracy is under threat. And I’ve also heard you say, “I will not endorse President Biden and Kamala Harris.”

’Cause I just feel like I’ve been burned with that before. You put your name on the line, you endorse somebody, you tell your audience, This is who you should go out there and vote for, and your audience goes and does it. And then when they don’t see these things that they thought were going to get pushed through, they don’t understand civics. All they know is Charlamagne told me to vote for this person because this was gonna happen, and this didn’t happen.

Read more of the interview here .

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

Click here to read this week’s magazine.

‘Photographic justice’: A new book from Corky Lee captures celebration and struggle over decades of Asian American life .

Our editors’ picks: “Reboot,” a satire of modern media and pop culture about a former child star, and five other books .

Times best sellers: Erik Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest” depicts the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War. It is a No. 1 debut on the hardcover nonfiction list this week.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Make your own hot honey .

Try these mascaras .

THE WEEK AHEAD

What to watch for.

Today is Mother’s Day.

Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia hold presidential primaries on Tuesday.

The man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, in their home is expected to be sentenced on Friday.

In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter , Mia Leimkuhler sings the praises of tofu cream — a pourable sauce made from blended tofu, miso and garlic. Use it to make creamy vegan tofu noodles, a dish that takes just 20 minutes and will win over everyone, vegan or not.

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangram was adjacency .

Can you put eight historical events — including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the rule of Catherine the Great and the Rubik’s Cube — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz .

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku , Connections and Strands .

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox . Reach our team at [email protected] .

Joseph Kahn is the executive editor of The New York Times. He oversees all aspects of The Times’s global newsroom and news report. More about Joseph Kahn