There's More to Ethics than Justice and Harm: Teaching a Broader Understanding of Journalism Ethics

Most applied ethics training in journalism in the West follows Enlightenment-era, reason-based ethical principles: Justice is intrinsically better than injustice (Kant), and the best choice is achieving the best outcome for all concerned (Mill). Recent scholarship in ethics suggests that ethics is much broader than this. This article examines a set of news stories to see whether journalism ethics can usefully be analyzed using more than the justice and harm principles. The answer is yes. This has implications for journalism ethics both in the Enlightenment-based West and in parts of the world where ethics is not dominated by reason.