UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism institutes Honor Pledge

[Josh Wolf]

Hey everyone, my j-school started printing press passes for its students this year, but in order to obtain a press pass students are required to sign a new pledge that the faculty crafted over the summer. I'm curious what this journalism community thinks of introducing such a pledge and requiring students to sign it in order to receive a school press pass. Personally, I'm less than comfortable with the idea of requiring students sign a pledge to receive their press pass, and am particularly hesitant about the last two affirmations included in the pledge below. I think #3 is unrealistic, and that the fourth closes the door to those stories that can only be obtained by intentionally not disclosing yourself as a journalist. But I'm really curious what other journalists and educators think about the initiative.

***

Student Honor Pledge

The purpose of journalism is to seek truth and report it to the public. As a student at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, I acknowledge that my work may appear publicly in a wide variety of media formats and outlets, including the School's local news sites. I will strive to practice the craft at its highest standards, and specifically pledge the following in my reporting:

I will not fabricate

I will not plagiarize

I will maintain my independence from political and commercial influence

I will not represent myself other than as a journalist

***

Josh

[john hamer]

Josh, et al. --

Have your students take the "TAO of Journalism" pledge at
www.taoofjournalism.org.

Then put the TAO seal on your paper/website. David Cohn of Spot.us
has done it (www.spot.us/about).

Some college and high-school newspapers here in Washington state plan
to do it, as well. Just TAO it!

John

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[Barry Parr]

Free of political influence? What does that even mean? Commercial influence is easier to understand, but generally a pledge of transparency, such as in TAO, makes more sense for a host of reasons.

I'm less concerned about #4. I think people you talk to should know when you're planning to write about them. But there will be rare cases where it doesn't necessarily make sense, and I'd be more comfortable if the principle where more flexible.

bp

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[Josh]

Barry,

I agree that the TAO pledge is a more sensible alternative to what the
J-school has put forward.

In regards to #3, I think being independent of commercial influence is
even harder to really understand. If you write about what your
audience wants to read, is that not subjecting to the commercial
influence of more eyeballs on more ads? And while I wish it weren't
true, every commercial we see runs the risk of influencing our
perspective on that product. Then again, I guess being independent of
political influence is just as hard to grok.

#4 only poses a problem in that I feel it should say "misrepresent"
instead of represent as all of us obviously have many more identities
than simply journalists. It should also have a safety valve of some
sort for situations in which it is necessary and ethically sound to do
so, such as Charlie LeDuff's New York Times story about his experience
in meat-packing plant, or UC Berkeley Dean Neil Henry's work at the
Washington Post. As I understand it, almost all of the reporters
working in Burma are doing so as "tourists."

Clearly there is a place in responsible journalism for the occasional
undercover work, and creating a pledge that calls on students to
refrain from such activities with no exemptions seems a bit
perplexing.

On Sep 9, 10:35 am, Barry Parr <ba...@parr.org> wrote:
> Free of political influence? What does that even mean? Commercial influence
> is easier to understand, but generally a pledge of transparency, such as in
> TAO, makes more sense for a host of reasons.
>
> I'm less concerned about #4. I think people you talk to should know when
> you're planning to write about them. But there will be rare cases where it
> doesn't necessarily make sense, and I'd be more comfortable if the principle
> where more flexible.
>
> bp
>
> --
> Barry Parr
>

> http://coastsider.comhttp://mediasavvy.comhttp://twitter.com/barryparr

> > jtmlist+u...@googlegroups.com<jtmlist%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com >
> > .