NSPA Code of Ethics 09.indd

Model Code

of Ethics

for High School

Journalists

First Edition • 2009

National

Scholastic

Press

Association

Introduction

Scholastic journalism best serves learners and the school community when stu-

dents produce free and responsible news media by balancing rights and respon-

sibilities, applying ethical prudence and advancing the best interests of young

citizens and the school mission.

e focus of student journalists must always be aimed beyond their self-inter-

ests toward doing what is best for society. eir motivation should be driven by

service rather than ego gratiﬁcation.

Another challenge for beginning journalists involves their scope of awareness.

As they gain news media experience, their competence improves, their vision

broadens and they develop a more panoramic understanding of their craft —

including the ethics of journalism. As their insight expands, students become

more adept at avoiding errors, misjudgment and other deﬁciencies caused by

inexperience and an undeveloped ethical compass.

Developing a sense of ethics is essential for student journalists, who learn to

distinguish right from wrong and good from bad in their work. e power of

news media can be used in good or bad ways, and young journalists must be

nurtured to develop the self-discipline to choose what’s right and good — even

when the right choice may cost something in the short run.

e term ethics comes from the Greek word “ethos,” which means character. An

ethical person is a person of good character who strives to make “right” choices.

ose “right” choices are self-determined by each individual. Ultimately, ethics

is voluntary conduct that is self-enforced.

Although ethics is related to law, it diﬀers from law in that law is socially

determined and socially enforced. Law tells us what we can do; ethics, what

we should do. What is legal may not be what is ethical. Having the right to say

something doesn’t make it right to say it.

Ethical choices often are not easy. Dilemmas occur when two “right” moral

obligations conﬂict. For example, suppose a yearbook staﬀ member lies to the

editor about why she needs an extension on an important deadline. e editor

comes to you, the staﬀ member’s friend, seeking conﬁrmation of the excuse that

was given. Two moral virtues collide: loyalty to a friend and commitment to

truth. It is time to weigh your values.

News media policy manuals may provide consequences for staﬀ members who

ﬂagrantly violate the standards of ethical conduct, but a note of caution is in

order. People of good intentions can disagree about ethical standards—what

constitutes fair and balanced coverage, accuracy, invasion of privacy, truth and

other components of an ethical code. ose who

measure news media integrity must be careful not

to impose their interpretation of an ethical principle

as the one and only “right” interpretation.

In schools that practice democratic education, stu-

dents have choices. Some choices may lack ethical

integrity, betray the spirit of the First Amendment

and fall at the very far edge of a protected freedom.

In such a case, the temptation to narrow that

freedom may be great. But the temptation must be

resisted.

A line will always exist between behavior protected

by law and behavior that is not. If we reduce the

distance to that line each time free speech is chal-

lenged, our freedoms will perpetually erode.

e challenge for educators is to inspire students

to be intrinsically motivated to abide by the high-

est standards of ethical conduct. at goal is best

accomplished when school authorities focus more

on mentoring than on clout, more on collaboration

than on autocratic decision-making.

e NSPA Code of Ethics for High School Journal-

ists was created to help guide students in the direc-

tion of responsible journalism. is model code may

be adopted without change or modiﬁed to meet the

particular needs of a news staﬀ.

A code of ethics should be a primary reference

source for student journalists. It should be part of

the curriculum and readily available not only to

media staﬀs but also to those served by news media

and those who oversee production.

Reputable conduct by student journalists helps se-

cure the public trust and news media credibility. A

code of ethics serves as the foundation for free and

responsible student media.

Seven Key

ethicS PointS

1 Be

Responsible.

2 Be Fair.

3 Be Honest.

4 Be Accurate.

5 Be

Independent.

6 Minimize

Harm.

7 Be

Accountable.

1 Be Responsible.

(1.1) Understand that student journalists

are custodians, not owners, of their

news medium, and they have an in-

herent obligation in decision-making

to consider the heritage of their news

medium, the values of the school

community, the tenets of the school

mission, the pedagogic concerns of

school oﬃcials, and the wants and

best interests of readers/listeners/

viewers.

(1.2) Keep yourself, the reporter, out of

print. It’s not about you; it’s about the

readers/listeners/viewers you serve.

For the most part, student report-

ers and editors should not appear

in the media they represent unless

they are legitimate newsmakers. In

those cases, the particular student

journalists should have no inﬂuence

on the coverage, and any conﬂict of

interest should be disclosed.

(1.3) Strive for substantive stories that

produce insight, generate account-

ability and inspire reader interest and

engagement. Do not yield to those

who would suppress such insight or

resist accountability.

(1.4) Remember that protections of the

First Amendment were created to

serve not the press but rather the

people, and as a journalist guard the

people’s interests above all others.

(1.5) Know the legal rights of student jour-

nalists and balance those rights with

ethical responsibilities. Having the

emotions in check. Support team

eﬀort in gathering and reporting

news. Be loyal in protecting the best

interests of your news medium.

(1.12) Know when to show restraint in pur-

suing stories. For example, a sponta-

neous demonstration in the cafeteria

by three students protesting the in-

school suspension of a friend may

receive notoriety, but its news value

likely is insigniﬁcant. Furthermore,

coverage of the incident may bolster

the participants and embolden others

to disrupt the cafeteria too.

(1.13) Exemplify eﬀective leadership through

the power of performance rather than

the power of position. Express genu-

ine interest in every staﬀ member.

Be sensitive to other points of view.

Inspire teamwork and intrinsic mo-

tivation. Prioritize mentoring over

clout.

2 Be Fair.

(2.1) Begin the search for truth with a

neutral mind. Do not prejudge is-

sues or events; wait until the facts

and perspectives have been gathered

and weighed. Discover truth without

letting personal biases get in the way.

Teach people to live by truth by pre-

senting information objectively in a

context that reveals relevance and

signiﬁcance.

(2.2) Explore controversial issues dispas-

sionately and impartially. Don’t go

into a story with a personal agenda.

(2.3) Justify coverage decisions by showing

newsworthiness of story. Do not use

your position with the paper to inﬂate

your ego, favor friends, or advance

other personal agendas that are self-

serving. If you proﬁle an “athlete of

the week,” be ready to show the crite-

ria and objective process for selection.

If you are a yearbook staﬀer, avoid

a conﬂict of interest by working on

spreads where you are not tempted to

right to say something doesn’t make

it right to say it.

(1.6) Defend relentlessly the First Amend-

ment rights of students. Protect re-

lentlessly media advisers from re-

criminations brought about by their

advocacy of student rights.

(1.7) Demonstrate credibility and exemplify

trustworthiness, reliability, depend-

ability and integrity in and beyond

journalism work. Your personal at-

tributes aﬀect the integrity of the

news medium you work for.

(1.8) Be careful in covering stories about

wrongdoing not to perpetuate mis-

deeds. Printing a photograph of ma-

licious graﬃti expands the vandal’s

canvas.

(1.9) Do not allow vulgar or profane lan-

guage to overshadow the essence

of a story. If used, have compelling

purpose and rationale to justify the

audience’s need to read/hear vulgar or

profane words. Consider alternatives

to using profanity. For example, words

may be partially obscured or bleeped.

Do not use profanity in opinion ar-

ticles, such as editorials, columns and

letters to the editor.

(1.10) Maintain a commendable work

ethic—pursuing excellence, taking

initiative, keeping to task, meeting

deadlines and taking care of the work-

place and equipment. Inspire fellow

staﬀ members to do the same.

(1.11) Cultivate respect for your adviser,

fellow staﬀers, school oﬃcials and

others. Nurture an eﬀective working

relationship within the staﬀ. Keep

choose photos of yourself or of your

friends for publication.

(2.4) Pursue a panoramic vision of issues

and events to achieve balance and

fairness. You may not know what

the story really is until the story un-

folds as you research it and talk with

sources.

(2.5) Welcome diverse perspectives and

particularly rebuttals to editorial posi-

tions.

(2.6) Refrain from “getting in the last word”

by attaching an editor’s note to a letter

to the editor. In rare circumstances,

a clariﬁcation note may be justiﬁed.

(2.7) Take initiative to give subjects of al-

legations an opportunity to respond

in a timely manner. Make a serious

eﬀort to contact those subjects before

going with a story in order to allow

a response.

(2.8) Label or otherwise clearly identify

editorials, opinion columns and per-

sonal or institutional perspectives.

(2.9) Disclose any potential conﬂict of in-

terest by a journalist or news medium.

For example, conﬂicts of interests

could involve personal relationships

with news subjects or sources, as-

sociations with organizations, gifts

and “perks” and vested interests in

issues or events.

(2.10) Appreciate the fact that at any given

time a reporter sees only a part of

what can be seen. Don’t jump to con-

clusions.

3 Be Honest.

(3.1) Do not plagiarize. Plagiarism is de-

ﬁned as the word-for-word duplica-

tion of another person’s writing or

close summarization of the work of

another source without giving the

source credit. A comparable prohi-

bition applies to the use of graphics.

Information obtained from a pub-

lished work must be independently

NSPA Code of Ethics

for High School Journalists

veriﬁed before it can be reported as

a new, original story. is policy also

forbids lifting verbatim paragraphs

from a wire service without attribu-

tion or pointing out that wire stories

were used in compiling the story.

Material that is published on the In-

ternet should be treated in the same

way as if it were published in more

traditional broadcast media. Because

plagiarism can signiﬁcantly under-

mine the public trust of journalists

and journalism, editors should be

prepared to consider severe penalties

for documented cases of plagiarism,

including suspension or dismissal

from the staﬀ. Plagiarism is not only

unethical, it is illegal if the material

is copyright protected.

(3.2) Do not fabricate any aspect journalism

work without full disclosure. e use

of composite characters or imaginary

situations or characters will not be

allowed in news or feature stories. A

columnist may, occasionally, use such

an approach in developing a piece, but

it must be clear to the reader that the

person or situation is ﬁctional and

that the column is commentary and

not reporting. e growth of narra-

tive story development (storytelling

devices) means that reporters and

editors should be especially careful

to not mix fact and ﬁction, and not

embellish fact with ﬁctional details,

regardless of their signiﬁcance.

(3.3) Identify yourself as a reporter and

do not misrepresent yourself while

engaged in news media tasks. For

example, a source deserves to know

if he is engaged in casual conversation

with a student or more guarded con-

versation with a reporter. For another

example, don’t misrepresent yourself

by pretending to conduct an oﬃcial

survey for the school when in fact

you are conducting it for the student

newspaper.

Strive to record original action in

photos, and make sure readers are

aware if a photo is set up or posed.

(3.9) If using a recording device, get inter-

viewee’s permission or make it obvi-

ous with the placement of the device

that you intend to record. Know state

laws regarding the legality of secretly

recording private conversation.

(3.10) Do not be cavalier about truth. Truth

breeds trust — an essential compo-

nent of free and responsible media.

(3.11) Know “journalistic truth” must be

accurate, should promote under-

standing and should be fair and bal-

anced.

4 Be Accurate.

(4.1) Remember that accuracy is often