Abstract
Ethical decision-making in newsrooms is ideally done collaboratively and with the news organization’s mission at its center. The lived experience of journalists shows that this is not always the case. Ethical quandaries that involve bias and discrimination can force reporters and producers from diverse backgrounds to choose between trying to educate their bosses or allowing institutionalized biases to influence news decisions. In this chapter minoritized journalists—reporters, editors, producers, and managers who are people of color, are LGBTQ, or who practice a marginalized religion—discuss the ethical decisions that have shaped their careers in the United States. The dilemmas and decisions in these ethnographies make a clear case for continuous review and update of ethical policies and, in many cases, for equitable adherence to policies that aim to hold journalism to its own rules.
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Notes
- 1.
Boone, “One Week That Shook the World.”
- 2.
McBride, “Unarmed Black Man.”
- 3.
Ecarma, “George Floyd Protests Have Ignited a Media Reckoning.”
- 4.
Smith, “Newsrooms Are in Revolt.”
- 5.
Lowery, “A Reckoning Over Objectivity.”
- 6.
Mosley, “The Neutrality vs. Objectivity Game.”
- 7.
Wallace, The View from Somewhere.
- 8.
Mona Chalabi, “Decades of Failure.”
- 9.
Anonymous editor #1, survey response to the author, June 28, 2020.
- 10.
Anonymous reporter #5, survey response to the author, July 5, 2020.
- 11.
Anonymous editor #4, survey response to the author, July 6, 2020; for discussion of non-binary genders, see Bell & Keer, LGBTQ, in this volume.
- 12.
Anonymous reporter #7, in discussion with the author, July 9, 2020.
- 13.
Anonymous producer #1, survey response to the author, June 29, 2020.
- 14.
Anonymous former journalist #1 in discussion with the author, July 23, 2020.
- 15.
Anonymous reporter #3 in discussion with the author, June 29, 2020.
- 16.
Anonymous reporter #1, survey response to the author, June 26, 2020.
- 17.
Anonymous reporter #4, survey response to the author, July 2, 2020.
- 18.
“Resolutions Submitted.”
- 19.
Colford, “‘Illegal Immigrant’ No More.”
- 20.
Anonymous media executive #1, survey response to the author, July 7, 2020.
- 21.
Wallace, “Objectivity Is Dead.”
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Wallace, “I Was Fired.”
- 24.
Wallace, “View from Somewhere” podcast.
- 25.
Wallace, “View from Nowhere” podcast transcript.
- 26.
Anonymous reporter #2, survey response to the author, June 29, 2020.
- 27.
Anonymous reporter #6 in discussion with the author, July 5, 2020.
- 28.
Anonymous former newscaster #1, survey response to the author, July 6, 2020.
- 29.
Anonymous editor #5, in conversation with the author, July 28, 2020.
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Fletcher, P. (2021). Media Ethics and Marginalized Journalists. In: Ward, S.J.A. (eds) Handbook of Global Media Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32103-5_55
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