Media Ethics Teaching in Century 21: Progress, Problems, and Challenges

Abstract

What is the status of media ethics as a specialty in the journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs of North American colleges and universi-ties at the turn of the century? This article is the fourth in a series in Journalism & • Mass Communication Educator that addresses major parts of that question—the current goals, con-tent, and key issues in media ethics in-struction. The article also reports on classroom practices and summarizes the research and creative activities of media ethics teachers, ^ More broadly, the series of articles has sought to serve as a continuing progress report on the academy's search for ways to develop applied ethics as a liberal arts compo-nent in the education of journalists and mass communicators. An important aspect of that effort is the status among JMC units of the separate course in me-dia ethics, A new measure introduced in the current survey compares the percep-tions that media ethics teachers and JMC administrators have of the stand-ing of media ethics instruction and re-search and of the relationship of that academic specialty to the practice of journalism. The proximate audience for this fotu-th article is the readers of/MCE and the more than 400 journalism educators who have participated in the National