Syllabus

Perspectives on Journalism Ethics (JRNL 6202)

Syllabus and Online Reading List
Spring 2017
Wednesdays, 5:30 to 8:40 p.m.

Skip to the week-by-week schedule.

Dan Kennedy
139 Holmes Hall
Office phone: (617) 373-5187
Cell phone: (978) 314-4721
Email: dan {dot} kennedy {at} northeastern {dot} edu (best way to reach me)
Class website: jrnl6202spring2017.wordpress.com
Office hours: Tuesdays from 1:30 to 3 p.m.; Wednesdays from 3 to 4:30 p.m.; and by appointment

Overview

Ethics are the beating heart of good journalism. It’s not enough for us to be entertaining storytellers. We must also strive to be accurate and truthful (almost but not quite the same thing), fair, thorough and independent. In this course we will examine various codes of conduct, consider issues such as fabrication and plagiarism, and broaden our view beyond basic ethics by looking at how to interact with our audience, how to navigate the perilous shores of aggregation, and how media ownership trends affect our ability to do our job.

Requirements for this class

You will read three books during the semester. None is a textbook; all are well-written and absorbing. I think you will enjoy them and learn a lot from them. You should be able to find or order these wherever books are sold or through Amazon (the Kindle version is fine). You may be able to find them in your local library as well.

  • Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, “The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect” (make sure you get the third edition)
  • Janet Malcolm, “The Journalist and the Murderer”
  • Anthony Lewis, “Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment”

In addition, you need to keep up with the news on a daily basis. As a journalism student in the Boston area, you should already be a paid subscriber to The Boston Globe; if you are not, you’ll find that a digital subscription is inexpensive and well worth it. You should read a good national newspaper as well. I am requiring you to sign up for a free digital subscription to The Washington Post, one of our great national newspapers. Be sure to use your .edu email address. Instructions are online here.

You’ll also find links to articles, video and audio here in the syllabus. I will post additional links on the class blog as topics for discussion come up. You will need to keep up with what is on the blog on a daily basis. You can sign up for email delivery, read it through an RSS aggregator such as Feedly or simply make a note to check it at the same time every day — especially on the mornings of class days.

Finally, I’ve posted a number of links to journalism- and ethics-related websites in the blogroll. You should familiarize yourself with them so that you understand what they have to offer.

School of Journalism attendance policy

The School of Journalism requires that you attend at least 80 percent of all scheduled class meetings. If you miss 20 percent or more of scheduled classes for any reason, you will automatically fail. Every absence will have some effect on my assessment of your class participation, which will be factored into your final grade.

We are meeting only 14 times, and we’ll be doing a lot in each class. Please strive for 100 percent attendance.

University statement regarding academic honesty

Northeastern University is committed to the principles of intellectual honesty and integrity. All members of the Northeastern community are expected to maintain complete honesty in all academic work, presenting only that which is their own work in tests and all other assignments. If you have any questions regarding proper attribution of the work of others, please contact me prior to submitting the work for evaluation.

A personal note: The two capital offenses of journalism are fabrication and plagiarism. Commit either of these and you can expect to receive an “F” for the course, with possible referral to OSCCR. My presumption is that you are honest. But as Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.”

And here is my attribution: Parts of this syllabus are based on Journalism Ethics and Issues syllabusi prepared by other instructors.

Assignments, deadlines and grades

All assignments must be submitted as Microsoft Word files via email. Assignments will be explained in greater detail once the semester is under way.

  • Feb. 1, 10 a.m. Book review, “The Elements of Journalism” (15 percent)
  • Feb. 22, 10 a.m. Book review, “The Journalist and the Murderer” (15 percent)
  • March 22, 10 a.m. Book review, “Freedom for the Thought That We Hate” (15 percent)
  • April 24, 10 a.m. Final project (45 percent)
  • Class presentation (10 percent)
  • Class participation, including attendance (10 percent)

Please note that this is a journalism class, and one of the things we do is spell proper names correctly. Any graded assignment with a misspelled proper name will be marked down. Don’t let this happen to you!

A word about deadlines. If an assignment is due on a Wednesday at 10 a.m., you will lose a third of a grade for each day that it is late. In other words, a B would become a B-minus until Thursday at 10 a.m., after which it would become a C-plus until Friday at 10 a.m., etc. The only exception to this policy is if you have a really good excuse such as an illness serious enough to prevent you from working. I expect to be informed before the deadline, and depending on the circumstances, I may ask for documentation.

Special accommodations

If you have physical, psychiatric or learning disabilities that may require accommodations for this course, please meet with me after class or during conference hours to discuss what adaptations might be helpful to you. The Disability Resource Center, 20 Dodge Hall (x2675), can provide you with information and assistance. The university requires that you provide documentation of your disability to the DRC.

Course evaluations

We take course evaluations very seriously. You will be strongly encouraged to participate in the evaluation process toward the end of the semester.

Semester schedule

The schedule and readings for Ethics and Issues are meant to be flexible in order to accommodate guest speakers and big news stories. We will stick to the following as closely as possible, especially with regard to assignments and deadlines. Changes, updates and additional readings will be posted on the class website.

Week 1: Jan. 11

  • Topic: Class overview. We will discuss our expectations for this semester.
  • Media links: We will watch in class Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron’s 2015 Hays-Press Enterprise lecture at the University of California at Riverside.
  • Assignment: Before our next class the following Wednesday, please post some comments in our private Facebook group regarding your own views on Baron’s speech. What impressed you the most? Did you disagree with him on anything? Were there any topics you think Baron should have addressed but didn’t? We’ll discuss your thoughts next Wednesday.

Week 2: Jan. 18

  • Topic: What are the qualities of good journalism?
  • Student presentation: Near the beginning of every class, we will hear from a student who presents a topic related to journalism ethics based on the week’s news. This week we’ll have our first presentation, and those will continue for the rest of the semester.
  • Media links: At this point you should be well along in reading “The Elements of Journalism.” We will spend some time talking about them. I will be looking to you for some specific examples of stories that meet the standard of good, ethical journalism and stories that do not. You will have begun reading The Washington Post (as well as consuming other news sources), so that should help you with our discussion.
  • Assignment: Before class next Wednesday, please write a comment on Facebook regarding what additional element you would add to “The Elements of Journalism.” Explain your reasoning. The 10 that Kovach and Rosenstiel have come up with are pretty comprehensive, but strive to think of something that is clearly different from theirs.

Week 3: Jan. 25

  • Topic: We will examine several journalistic codes of ethics and discuss how they have evolved over time.
  • Media links: Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics; SPJ Ethics Committee Position Papers; Radio Television Digital News Association Code of Ethics (follow the link and read the proposed revision, too); the Online News Association’s “Build Your Own Ethics Code” project.
  • Assignment: Review of “The Elements of Journalism,” to be emailed to me by 10 a.m. on Feb. 1. Please write 500 to 800 words, which is somewhere in the range of a short to medium-length op-ed piece. In your review you should summarize what you think are the key points in the book, tell us what you agree with, what you disagree with and what you think Kovach and Rosenstiel left out.

Week 4: Feb. 1

Week 5: Feb. 8

Week 6: Feb. 15

Week 7: Feb. 22

Week 8: March 1

SPRING BREAK

Week 9: March 15

  • Topic: The First Amendment and why it matters.
  • Media links: We will survey some of the great First Amendment cases of the 20th century and how they expanded our understanding of a free press in a free society.
  • Assignment: Review of “Freedom for the Thought That We Hate,” to be emailed to me by 10 a.m. on March 22. Details to come. Please write 500 to 800 words.

Week 10: March 22

Week 11: March 29

Week 12: April 5

Week 13: April 12

Week 14: April 19

  • Topic: Wrapping up.
  • Assignment: Your final project will be due by email at 10 a.m. on Monday, April 24. I would like to meet with each of you one-on-one for a few minutes during our last class meeting in order to discuss your progress.

Finals week

  • We will not have a final exam. We may have some sort of get-together during the first part of finals week, so please stay tuned.