Читать книгу The Ethical Journalist - Gene Foreman - Страница 34

Values shape how a person will react when confronted with a choice. Josephson defines values as “core beliefs or desires that guide or motivate attitudes and actions.” ¹⁴ Our values, Josephson has written, “are what we prize and our value system is the order in which we prize them. Because it ranks our likes and dislikes, our value system determines how we will behave in certain situations. … The values we consistently rank higher than others are our core values, which define character and personality.” ¹⁵ These values may or may not be ethical values.

Ethical values directly relate to beliefs about what is right and proper: honesty, promise‐keeping, fairness, compassion, respect for the privacy of others.

Nonethical values relate not to moral duty but to desire: wealth, status, happiness. Josephson labels them nonethical (not unethical) because they are ethically neutral.

Pursuing nonethical values is not morally wrong so long as ethical values are not violated in the process. ¹⁶ Nonethical values that a journalist might hold include selling more newspapers, raising broadcast ratings, or increasing a website’s traffic count – values achieved mainly by getting interesting stories ahead of the competition. Those are worthy values, but the crucial question is how they are achieved.

The controversy over abortion, a historically divisive domestic issue in the United States, is illustrative here because it reflects the core values of people on both sides. To the abortion opponent, the core value is the sanctity of life, and that person believes life begins at conception. To the abortion‐rights advocate, the core value is the autonomy of the individual, and that person believes the state has no right to tell a woman what she must do with her body.