4 Codes of Ethics
It’s time for another hypothetical situation.
Study the following presentation slides by using the forward button or clicking on sections of the control bar.
The Foundation of Ethical Journalism
In this lesson, we’ll closely study the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.
In some professions, practitioners are required to pass extensive examinations or follow governmental regulations. For example, lawyers must pass a bar exam, and certified public accountants must pass exams and participate in continuing education programs.
U.S. journalists, however, are not required to pass exams to practice their profession. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech. If state governments required journalists to pass an exam for a reporting license, it could lead to public officials revoking licenses of journalists who provide unfavorable but accurate coverage of governmental affairs. This would be a violation of the journalists’ First Amendment rights.
Rights and Responsibilities
For ethical media professionals, First Amendment rights come with responsibilities. Listen to the following audio from Steven Holmes, who was a member of a New York Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of race relations. He also taught at the University of Arkansas for a semester as a visiting distinguished professor of ethics for the School of Journalism and Strategic Media.
Four Pillars
The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics contains four key principles:
- Seek Truth and Report It
- Minimize Harm
- Act Independently
- Be Accountable and Transparent
An important task for this lesson is to study the explanations for each principle on the SPJ website:
In the introduction, note that the code is intended to extend beyond newsroom journalists.
The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.
Revisiting Objectivity vs. Advocacy
The tension between objectivity vs. activism resurfaces when we look at the SPJ Code of Ethics. In an article for Harvard’s Neiman Lab, Mark Coddington and Seth Lewis summarized a University of Wisconsin research study about trust in journalism, including this observation:
For traditionally oriented journalists, trust is achieved by transmitting facts and helping people perform their democratic duties, without any particular public participation involved in that process. Fixing the trust problem, in this view, means doubling down on objectivity, transparency, and accuracy — but in a way that helps citizens to more readily recognize the value that such things provide.
Notice the emphasis on two principles in the SPJ Code of Ethics: transparency and accuracy. Similarly, Poynter’s Barbara Allen, writing for an audience of journalism educators, suggested that journalists can’t have it both ways with objectivity and activism:
Protester or journalist. Pick one. You cannot flip a switch minute-to-minute. You can go and observe what is happening and then get into active reporter mode, but ethical considerations related to conflict of interest prevent you from actively engaging in the protest (even to chant or sing).
Allen’s view follows the SPJ principle that journalists should act independently.
Transparency to Combat Effects of AI
Artificial intelligence has further decreased public trust and increased skepticism about journalistic objectivity. An Ars Technica essay suggested that due to AI fakes, we’ve entered an era of deep doubt.
“People can now more credibly claim that real events did not happen and suggest that documentary evidence was fabricated using AI tools,” author Benji Edwards wrote.
Amid a media landscape in which consumers constantly question journalists’ objectivity, transparency can be a useful antidote.
One U.S. columnist suggested that, to provide abundant transparency, “journalists should provide access to full versions of the audio and video that their stories are based on, and should allow people to examine original documents or data sets.”
Reporting Truth vs. Minimizing Harm
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Raquel Rutledge spent a semester as a visiting distinguished professor of ethics in journalism for the University of Arkansas School of Journalism and Strategic Media. In the following audio, Rutledge discussed a case involving two conflicting principles from the SPJ Code of Ethics – reporting truth vs. minimizing harm – especially when reporting may lead to unintended consequences.
For context, here is a brief video that summarized the project she discussed in the audio above:
• Electrical inspections of Milwaukee rental homes reveal dangerous risks – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If this case study seems intriguing, you can read an in-depth analysis of the reporting process:
• How they did it: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters show how low-income Black renters in the city face disproportionate electrical fire dangers. – The Journalist’s Resource
Truth and Harm in Entertainment
Even in the entertainment industry, we sometimes see ethical issues related to presenting truthful content and minimizing harm.
The 2026 FX series Love Story was a biographical drama loosely based on a book about the romantic relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.
Daryl Hannah, who dated John F Kennedy Jr. in the 1990s, strongly objected to the way she was portrayed in the FX series. Hannah wrote a New York Times guest essay in which she expressed her frustration.
The character ‘Daryl Hannah’ portrayed in the series is not even a remotely accurate representation of my life, my conduct or my relationship with John. The actions and behaviors attributed to me are untrue. I have never used cocaine in my life or hosted cocaine-fueled parties.
Even in the realm of entertainment that seems outside of news journalism, ethical concerns can arise about truth and potential harm. Hannah’s essay included the following two items:
- A dramatized portrayal can become, for millions of viewers, the definitive version of a real person’s life.
- In the weeks since the series aired, I have received many hostile and even threatening messages from viewers who seem to believe the portrayal is factual.
These kinds of ethical debates in history-based entertainment are not new. For example, many of Shakespeare’s history plays, especially Richard III, were highly entertaining to his audiences but not always historically accurate.
As a more recent example, the 2026 biographical film Michael, about pop singer Michael Jackson, emphasized Jackson’s musical legacy and avoided allegations of sexual abuse made against Jackson after 1988.
Writing for Wired, Jason Parham analyzed the online civil war about Michael and a battle over truth.
Parham suggested that movie producers likely did not include any of Jackson’s alleged misconduct because “the Jackson estate had approval over the use of his music, essentially granting it veto power over the film’s final cut.”
Truthful Reporting vs. Transparency
Undercover reporting provides another example when one SPJ principle can conflict with another, thus creating an ethical dilemma. In some instances, especially for investigative reporting, news journalists can feel stymied when they identify themselves as reporters. Sources may hide the truth or withhold information when they know they are speaking with a journalist. However, going undercover to better report the truth decreases transparency in the reporting process.
As an example, Shane Bauer used undercover reporting for a deep analysis of the private prison industry.
• My four months as a private prison guard – Mother Jones
His opening article includes the following rationale for undercover tactics:
As a journalist, it’s nearly impossible to get an unconstrained look inside our penal system. When prisons do let reporters in, it’s usually for carefully managed tours and monitored interviews with inmates. Private prisons are especially secretive. Their records often aren’t subject to public access laws; CCA has fought to defeat legislation that would make private prisons subject to the same disclosure rules as their public counterparts. And even if I could get uncensored information from private prison inmates, how would I verify their claims? I keep coming back to this question: Is there any other way to see what really happens inside a private prison?
Bauer determined that the need for truthful reporting outweighed ethical concerns with deceiving prison workers and inmates about his true identity.
For a less-intense example of undercover reporting, view the following example from NBC2 News in Florida:
To summarize, undercover journalists may deceive others about their identity to collect more in-depth information. Journalists who utilize undercover reporting tactics prioritize truthful reporting over transparency to their sources, even if it means not being entirely truthful about their own identity or motives during the reporting process.
Accountability: Occasionally Painful
For media professionals, accountability occasionally means acknowledging and correcting errors, rather than hiding or rationalizing them.
As a painful example from 2026, National Public Radio briefly published an erroneous story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito planned to retire. You can read NPR’s explanation of the mistake:
The explanation clearly acknowledged that “Alito is not retiring. The story was wrong.” It also said that the writer of the story had reached out to Alito with an apology.
Transparency and Sponsored Content
The SPJ Code of Ethics can apply to all media professionals, including those working in advertising and public relations. Let’s look at one particularly thorny issue, sponsored content, as an example.
Sponsored content, which is a form of native advertising, usually involves a company or organization providing promotional information to a news outlet. In some cases, a news organization’s writers develop sponsored content in conjunction with the external company or organization.
Instead of being presented visually as an advertisement, the information in sponsored content looks similar to other non-advertising content published by the news outlet. In smaller text or graphics, the content is often identified as “sponsored content” or given a similar label.
Below is a screenshot example of sponsored content that the University of Arkansas placed on the Inside Higher Education website.
You can read the following essay about ethical concerns with some sponsored content and other forms of native advertising:
• New forms of advertising raise questions about journalism integrity – The Conversation
The essay argued that “native ads are potentially deceptive to consumers, in their content, their presentation and how they are shared on social media.”
The essay included analysis of Washington Post content sponsored by cigarette-maker Philip Morris International. You can read this example to gain a better of understanding of sponsored content:
• Lost amid misinformation: Real people, real science, real progress – The Washington Post (sponsored by Philip Morris International)
Critics of the this sponsored content from Philip Morris International argued that the article attempted to discredit research on vaping products and other smoke-free alternatives in order to benefit the company’s sales.
To go a step further, a research summary from Truth Initiative, an advocacy organization that promotes “lives free from smoking, vaping and nicotine,” suggested that the tobacco industry uses native advertising to “promote its new products as ‘safer alternatives’ to smoking despite inconclusive evidence.”
As another example, the following article was published on the Kansas City Star website. It was clearly labeled as sponsored content but otherwise looked much like a news story. The ad appeal to “call today” or click on the consultation link for Rosehill Gardens did not appear until the end of the article.
If you’re interested in more collegiate examples, the Inside Higher Ed website includes a directory of all sponsored content, which helps provide transparency.
- Sponsored content – Inside Higher Ed.
And below is a print magazine example from Wired, using the label “branded content.” For emphasis and clarity in this illustration, the label for branded content is enlarged above the print page as it originally appeared in the magazine. Readers who do not see the small label may assume that the content was written and edited by journalists from Wired.
Media professionals must be especially careful to follow the SPJ Code of Ethics when considering the use of sponsored content in their publications, broadcasts or social media accounts. Here are a few sample questions to guide the decision-making process:
Seek Truth and Report It – Can the publisher or outlet verify that the reporting is truthful? Is this just a means for a company or organization to create advertising that looks like news?
Minimize Harm – If the sponsored content encourages the purchase of a product or service, will it mislead consumers and potentially cause harm?
Act Independently – Is the sponsored content labeled appropriately so that it does not blur the lines between news and advertising?
Be Accountable and Transparent – Is there an agreed-upon process for correcting any factual errors in the content before and after publication? Is it clear and transparent to the audience that, much like an advertisement, a company or organization has purchased space or time for the sponsored content?
Optional Deep Dive
Here’s a comedic but concerning intersection of sponsored content, TV journalism and an undercover operation. Talk-show host John Oliver revealed how some local outlets do not properly acknowledge sponsored content on news-related shows. To accomplish this objective, Oliver’s team created a pseudo-product and bought actual interview slots on some local shows to promote the product. The news stations that hosted interviews for this product were not aware of the ruse.
Oliver’s team was making a point that many casual television viewers do not know the extent to which their local news and talk shows are filled with sponsored advertising.
(Warning — as a whole, the linked video below contains some edgy language and imagery. The video link below skips forward to an explanation of the undercover scheme).
• Sponsored Content: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – HBO (YouTube video)
Closing Review
Write About It
Answer each of the following numbered items in approximately three or four sentences each.
1, 2, 3 and 4. Be sure you are thoroughly familiar with the four principles in the SPJ Code of Ethics. Also, be sure you are familiar with ethical concerns related to sponsored content as discussed in the chapter and explained in this analysis:
• New forms of advertising raise questions about journalism integrity – The Conversation
Then pick one example of sponsored content to analyze. You can use the Washington Post example from Philip Morris International, or (better yet) find your own example of sponsored content on a news website. Some starting links are shared below, but you are not limited to this list.
- Washington Post Creative Group (web page contains links to sponsored content)
- The Dallas Morning News (list of sponsored content)
- Sponsored Content – Inside Higher Ed. (list of sponsored content)
Cite the content title and sponsor in the opening, and include a web address if possible. Applying each of the four principles of the SPJ Code of Ethics, explain whether you think the sponsored story you analyze is professionally ethical.
Seek Truth and Report It – Can the publisher or outlet verify that the reporting is truthful? Is this just a means for a company or organization to create advertising that looks like news?
Minimize Harm – If the sponsored content encourages the purchase of a product or service, will it mislead consumers and potentially cause harm?
Act Independently – Is the sponsored content labeled appropriately so that it does not blur the lines between news and advertising?
Be Accountable and Transparent – Is it clear and transparent to the audience that, much like an advertisement, a company or organization has purchased space or time for the sponsored content?
Write approximately three or four sentences for each of the four SPJ principles applied to the sponsored content you have selected for analysis. For additional support, you can use the SPJ website explanations under each principle.
5. In the case example involving Daryl Hannah and the FX series Love Story, are you sympathetic to Hannah’s complaints? Even though the show can be described as a biographical drama and not a factual documentary, do you think the show’s producers ignored ethical principles?
6. Based on the audio from Steven Holmes and Raquel Rutledge, how would you describe the balance between rights and responsibilities for media professionals?
7. Review the opening hypothetical scenario about the father who ignored a yield sign, leading to a wreck. In your own words, briefly summarize the two SPJ principles that conflict in the photographer’s ethical dilemma. Explain which principle you believe has the stronger ethical position in this case.
