Ethics Gaps and Ethics Gains: Differences and Similarities in Mass Communication Students' Perceptions of Plagiarism and Fabrication

Abstract

Survey data on journalism students' perceptions of plagiarism and fabrication indicate an ethics gap in which students interested in journalistic areas (newspaper, magazine, broadcast, photojournalism, and online) are more concerned about journalistic ethics than students interested in nonjournalistic areas (public relations, advertising, graphic design, others). Students interested in journalistic areas also suggested harsher penalties for plagiarism and fabrication. Further analyses, however, found that the ethics gain among nonjournalistic students increased to a nearly equivalent amount as journalistic students over the course of their respective university educations and training experiences, including student media work and internships. While ethics gaps do exist between journalistic and nonjournalistic students, ethics gains by all students from across levels of concern and severities of penalties indicate that students' ethical beliefs are malleable and show considerable growth during university education.