Journalism Ethics

When it comes to being a print journalist, what are the tools of trade? I don’t think there is a quintessential list, but a few tangible items immediately hit the list; the Associated Press Stylebook, a dictionary and thesaurus. Some intangible skills might be reasoning skills, outlining skills, effective writing, strong researching ability and mastery of the written language. I guess that leaves one question, where does journalist ethics hit the list? In an article by Clint Brewer he states “Ethical journalism is not dead. It just requires one to know where to look — whether it’s on the Internet, the newsstand or the airwaves.” Which kind of begs the question, when did it die? Clearly, journalism ethics is not dead, but it may not have transferred very well into the Web. So, how does the journalism industry gauge whether the Web-acclimated reader likes the ethical standards of reporting used on Web versus what they might read in a newspaper? With print industry scrambling to get readers back, can newspapers force Web reporters to up the ante up and abide by this mysterious code of ethics?