Ethics in Journalism: Black, White or Shades of Grey?

I sat in the uni library tonight with a stack of books in front of me and wondered where to even begin writing about ethics in journalism. 

The ethical implications involved in producing main stream media seem large enough to be almost overwhelming: plagiarism, cheque-book journalism, invasion of privacy, libel, confidentiality, celebrity. I decided that staring blankly at the books wasn't helping and it would be better to put them back on the shelf and start again. A book on multimedia journalism seemed a better bet, after all it's what I'm there for but that only complicated things further: problems with attributing social media, image manipulation, gaining permission to use material across various media platforms. Aghhh!

Of course, not having any experience in the industry leaves me feeling less than qualified to comment on the issue, especially when professionals with years of experience can't always agree on ethical points. In a hypothetical situation it's easy to say that you'd stand up and be counted, but if it came down to keeping or losing your hard-won, just finished three years at uni and now have to pay for it job, would you actually do it? 

Maybe if your editor wanted you to go out a rob a bank so you could write a story about what it's like, then the choice would be easy, but I can't honestly see that being a daily dilemma. I suspect the ethical problems are more pragmatic; I want 300 words about the car crash story by 5pm, make it so. Any ethical concerns are yours to deal with as long as you come back before 5pm with the required 300 words. 

 Various codes of conduct have been developed for journalists to follow and can help up to a point but, once again, nothing is ever straight forward. David Salter, in his book "The Media We Deserve" points out that the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance's Code of Ethics gives journalists leeway for all manner of interpretation. An industry built on words and the art of stringing them together is going to find plenty of interpretive scope in a code of conduct that uses "strive for", "guard against" and "do your utmost".

I guess that's the problem in making ethical decisions. Everyone has a different opinion, there's often no right or wrong answer, though I'm prepared to go out on a limb here and say that journalists shouldn't rob banks. Maybe the answer is to write every story with the thought that you may have to stand up someday, either in court, a disciplinary hearing or even in front of your mum, and defend your actions.