Pronouncements and Denunciations: An Analysis of State Press Association Ethics Codes from the 1920S

Abstract

In light of the Associated Press Managing Editor's recent revision of its ethics code, the time seems right to examine journalism's original ethics codes, created in the 1920s, to discover what virtues and practices the codes' creators presented as indust y standards. Four situational concerns -the rise of press agents, the fallout from World War 1 propaganda, sensationalism's resurgence, and editorial independencecontributed to a noticeable decline of the public's trust in the press. As a result, the codes consistently emphasized the watchdog ideal, public service, truthfulness, and honesty in advertising.The Associated Press Managing Editors' recent revision of its code of ethics demonstrates that both issues and ethical concerns change over time. Press members today face a host of new ethical issues, including digital alteration of photography, naming victims of AIDS or rape, journalists' involvement in community activism, and changes in advertising via newspapers' introduction of sections devoted completely toward specific advertising topics.'From the outset, ethics codes have been more than philosophical statements of virtuous practices. They provide situational guidelines as well. Editors recognize that new reporters do not enter newsrooms with an understanding of news ethics. Ethics must be taught: often through compiling lists of norms considered ethical. This duality of purpose helps explain why ethics codes are often ignored within a few years of adoption -situational concerns can become outdated quickly.In light of the recent APME revision, the time seems right to examine journalism's ethics codes from the 1920s -the first period of mass creation of codes -to discover what virtues and practices the codes' creators presented as the press's publicly-touted standards. In the process of doing so, the research reveals that four situational concerns -the rise of public relations practitioners, the fallout from World War I propaganda, the resurgence of sensationalism, and editorial independence -were also crucial ethical issues among press members following World War I. Some metropolitan newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune and New York Herald Tribune, also created codes for staff members during the 1920s. Yet, state press association codes are worth examining because they are not the products of merely one newspaper or publisher. Instead, they are May M . Cronin is an assistant professor and lames B. McPherson is a doctoral candidate at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, Washington State WMC Q u a w r y Vol. 72, No. 4 winter 1995 University,

“Journalism Is a Loose-Jointed Thing”: A Content Analysis of Editor & Publisher's Discussion of Journalistic Conduct Prior to the Canons of Journalism, 1901–1922

“…In addition, Brown (1974) observed that the Canons were an "example of implicit self-analysis" (p. 31). Similarly, in their study of state press association ethics codes from the 1920s, Cronin and McPherson (1995) found that those state codes reflected several concerns among journalists. They included the increasing number of public relations practitioners, the revival of sensationalism, and the independence of newspapers from political and business interests.…”

Defying transparency: Ghostwriting from the Jazz Age to social media

“…Increased pay was offered as one solution by the ASNE (ASNE Editors, 1927: 99–101), though we have no evidence that publishers followed through on this solution, and Walsh himself continued his profitable business for another decade. In fact, a major critique of this practice during Walsh’s time was not only the ghostwritten origin of the articles but rather that newspapers were surrendering their independence by yielding editorial space to promotional copy that was produced by non-staff members (Cronin and McPherson, 1995).…”

First impressions: US media portrayals of public relations in the 1920s

“…Such professional introspection had been evident for 20 years previously in the pages of the journalism profession's trade publication, Editor and Publisher, which raised concerns about press accuracy as well as propaganda (Rodgers, 2007). State press association codes of ethics in the 1920s specifically singled out the increase in the number of public relations practitioners as a concern (Cronin and McPherson, 1995). Perhaps because of this concern, two national journalism codes of ethics emerged in the 1920s.…”