Public Perceptions of Journalists' Ethical Motivations

Abstract

Telephone surveys of 376 residents and 60 daily journalists in the same Midwestern county revealed starkly different conceptions of journalistic ethics. Members of the public seemed to believe that journalists' ethics are guided primarily by their occupational norms and competitive pressures, whereas the journalists themselves cited organizational policies, the relevant law, and their own individual reasoning as the primary influences on their ethical decision making. Journalists and public respondents showed surprisingly high agreement, however, on the unacceptability of specific, ethically controversial actions.