David Baines, Darren Kelsey







Journalism education after Leveson: Ethics start where regulation ends

Theory and practice in journalism education are not separate, binary entities; they are interlinked, interrelated and interdependent. This paper argues that a crisis of trust in British journalism, which led to the 2012 Leveson Report, highlights the need for an ethical and practical turning point in British journalism education. By considering more nuanced, active, informed notions and understandings of ideology and political economy we argue that incorporating critical frameworks into journalistic education provides the reflexive, philosophical and theoretical tools necessary for developing future journalism education, post-Leveson. In conclusion, we propose that attention to Aristotle's concept of phronesis - usually translated as 'practical wisdom' - has much to inspire journalism educators, encouraging a 'culture of informed dialogic engagement', which offers the promise of eroding the often prevailing 'cult of the leader'.

Keywords:


References

  1. Aldridge, Meryl (1998) The tentative hell-raisers: Identity and mythology in contemporary UK press journalism, Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 20 pp 109-127
  2. Blair, Tony (2011) Tony Blair speaks on globalisation and religion at national university of Singapore. Available online at http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/news/2011/03/25, accessed on 3 December 2012
  3. Chippindale, Peter and Horrie, Chris (1992) Stick it up your punter! The rise and fall of the Sun, London, Mandarin
  4. Clegg, Stewart (2012) Strategy, Organizations and Society. Talk delivered to the Strategy Organisations and Society Summit at Newcastle University Business School, 31 May 2012 (unpublished)
  5. Davies, Nick (2008) Flat earth news, London, Random House
  6. Fairclough, Norman (2000) New Labour, new language? London, Routledge
  7. Fowler, Roger (1991) Language in the news, Discourse and ideology in the press, London, Routledge
  8. Frost, Chris (2011) Journalism ethics and regulation, London, Pearson, third edition
  9. Glasser, Theodore L and Ettema, James S (2008) Ethics and eloquence in journalism, Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, No 4 pp 512-534
  10. Habermas, Jürgen (1976) What does a crisis mean today? Legitimation problems in late capitalism (trans. McCarthy, Thomas), London, Heinemann.
  11. Harcup, Tony (2007) The ethical journalist, London, Sage
  12. Kant, Immanuel (2002 [1785]) Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals (trans. Wood, Alan W.), New Haven, Yale University Press
  13. Keeble, Richard (2009) Ethics for journalists, London, Routledge, second edition
  14. Keeble, Richard and Mair, John (2012a) The phone hacking scandal: Journalism on trial, Bury St Edmunds, Abramis
  15. Keeble, Richard and Mair, John (2012b) The phone hacking scandal: Journalism on trial, Bury St Edmunds, Abramis, second edition
  16. Kovach, Bill and Rosenstiel, Tom (2003) The elements of journalism: What journalists should know and the public expect, London, Guardian/Atlantic Books
  17. McLellan, David (1995) Ideology, Bristol, A.. W. Arrowsmith
  18. O'Connor, James (1973) The fiscal crisis of the state, New York, St Martin's Press
  19. Quinn, Aaron (2007) Moral virtues for journalists, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Vol. 22, Nos 2 and 3 pp 168-186
  20. Ross, William David (1925) Aristotle's Ethica Nicomachea, Oxford, Oxford University Press
  21. Schechter, Danny. (2009) Credit crisis: How did we miss it?, British Journalism Review, Vol. 20, No. 1 pp 19-26
  22. Schumpeter (columnist: pseudonym) (2010) A post-crisis case study: The new dean of Harvard Business School promises 'radical innovation', Economist, 29 July. Available online at http://www.economist.com/node/16691433?story_id=16691433, accessed on 22 October 2012
  23. Thomas, Richard (2006) What price privacy now? The first six months progress in halting the unlawful trade in confidential personal information, London, Stationery Office. December
  24. Turville, William (2012) The accused, UK Press Gazette, October pp 28-30. Available online at http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/accused-least-46-journalists-arrested-uk-police-last-16-months, accessed on 23 October 2012
  25. Watson, Tom and Hickman, Martin (2012) Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation and the corruption of Britain, London, Pearson
  26. Weinhold, Wendy (2008) Newspaper negotiations, Journalism Practice, Vol. 2, No 3 pp 476-486

Note on the contributor

David Baines is a lecturer in journalism at Newcastle University. His research focuses on the changing nature of journalism and journalism work; hyper-local journalism and community sustainability and widening diversity in the news industry. He has published in Journalism Practice; Local Economy; The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy and most recently jointly guest edited a special double edition of Ethical Space on widening diversity: Race Matters. He spent 28 years in daily newspaper journalism before joining the academy in 2007. Email: David.Baines@newcastle.ac.uk.

Darren Kelsey is a lecturer in journalism at Newcastle University and has a PhD from the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. His research interests are in the fields of journalism studies and critical discourse studies. He is interested in the relationship between media and politics and particularly the role of journalism and language in society. His research and teaching combines theoretical approaches from media and cultural studies with those of journalism and critical discourse analysis. He has taught on the following areas: Journalism; Public Affairs; Political Communication; Media Theory; History of Mass Communication; Research Methods; Popular Culture; and War, Politics and Propaganda. Email: Darren.kelsey@newcastle.ac.uk.