Doing What Is Right: Teaching Ethics in Journalism Programs

This article discusses a serious problem in the way ethics is taught in journalism and mass communication programs. The study is based, in part, on a survey of 359 students who have had varied exposure to university journalism programs. The survey consisted of 87 questions that provided information on the demographics of the participants as well as an opportunity to respond to a series of 25 hypothetical ethical dilemmas. Results indicate that although respondents found most of the hypothetical situations to be ethics violations, they often did not recognize the seriousness of the violations and did not know what to do when faced with those violations.