Wisdom makes good journalists

Ethics and its essential twin subject epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge, are at the heart of good journalism writes Edward Spence. Socrates was probably the first investigative journalist. He is also one of the greatest philosophers as relevant and inspiring today as he was 2500 thousand years ago. According to the Oracle of Delphi he was also the wisest. Accused of “being irreverent to the gods and corrupting the youth of Athens” he told the court at his trial that like a “gadfly” his mission was to engage his fellow-citizens in debate on matters of virtue, truth and wisdom. He was sentenced to death by hemlock for his troubles. In his closing speech to the jurors he reprimands his fellow-citizens for caring more about money and reputation than about morality and knowledge: “… why do you care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth…? Are you not ashamed of this?” That would be a good question to ask the chief executives of News Corporations. Since Socrates, many good and worthy of the name journalists have followed in his footsteps. Some like legendary US journalist Edward R. Murrow who took on Joseph McCarthy and won at a time when all walked in fear of McCarthy, the respected Australian journalist Chris Masters who exposed wholesale police corruption in Queensland, and two women journalists, the Irish Veronica Guerin and the Russian Anna Politkovskaya, who like Socrates paid with their lives for informing the public. Recently, we have the Guardian journalists who exposed the News of the World corruption. These journalists, whether consciously or not, shared Socrates’ unshakeable conviction that truth is the bloodline of a free democracy. This highlights the important self-regulatory ethical role that the media itself provides. The News of the World scandal by extreme contrast has shown us that very bad things happen when journalists turn from seeking truth to engaging secretly in crime and corruption, putting profit above propriety. Rather than engaging in the dissemination of information that is the legitimate and expected role of the media, the News of the World engaged in stealing information from unsuspecting citizens. It was both illegal and unethical. Worse still, and this is when it becomes unconscionable, it was ethically corrupt. In an age where information is a valuable marketable commodity we need ethical journalism more than ever. We also need the inculcation of an ethical culture. And for that we need good educational programs for young journalists that crucially include ethics as an indispensable core subject. Ethics and its essential twin subject epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge, are at the heart of good journalism. The reason for this is quite simple. Since the primary role of journalism is the truthful, accurate, balanced, and fair dissemination of information for the public interest (the epistemology of information) then journalists are committed by virtue of that role to certain unavoidable ethical commitments such as truthfulness, honesty, trustworthiness, a sense of fairness and moderation, as well as a commitment to what best serves the public interest (the ethics of journalism). Public interest is not what is often confused as “interest to the public”. The latter merely feeds the unwholesome curiosity of readers who are more interested in gossip than worthwhile news. That as the News of the World case has shown undermines the public interest rather than promote it. If truth is the first victim of war, privacy is the collateral damage of the misuse of the term “public interest” by journalists. Even when it serves the public interest, the right of the public to be informed should be balanced with the right to privacy. The former does not automatically override the latter. The ethical education of journalists in tertiary institutions requires both the acquisition of ethical and epistemological knowledge for the proper dissemination of information wisely. It requires not only knowledge but also wisdom in the form of reflection, understanding and judgement in knowing when and how journalists are to apply that knowledge for both their professional and public good. Wisdom is essential because it provides practical “know-how” of how to act for the enhancement of both personal and social wellbeing. Wisdom is the lighthouse for a meaningful and well-lived life both offline and online, as we now live increasingly in the “infosphere”. That type of education requires more than just teaching journalism students to learn a few rules in professional codes of ethics and merely apply them to case studies. More than that, it requires an understanding of the concepts and principles that underlie those rules and codes – concepts such as “truth”, “public interest”, “information” and “privacy”, rather than the uncritical and unreflective application of those terms that often results in their misapplication. It also requires the ability to apply a conceptual framework that provides an explanation and justification of those concepts and principle; as well as the ability for empirical examination in identifying the relevant issues and the application of the concepts and principle for their evaluation. As Socrates would say, a lot of unethical activities are the product of ignorance rather than ignobility. Rules don’t work because often they seem imposed externally. They come across as punitive that can be easily broken if there’s nothing more fundamental to support them other than the fear of being caught. Principles and virtues by contrast are internally generated through the cultivation of reflective thinking that empowers rather than alienates. That is because the commitment to them emanates internally by the students themselves through their own rational reflective learning. As Aristotle rightly observed, thinking is our most basic and essential human attribute. And as the French 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal profoundly remarked “all our dignity consists in thought. It is on thought that we must depend for our recovery, not on space and time, which we could never fill. Let us then strive to think well; that is the basic principle of morality”. Ethics involves clear, rational, and reflective thinking – wise thinking. Good thinking also helps cultivate and civilize emotions – what David Hume, the 18th Scottish philosopher, called the moral sentiments. What is often missing in the education curriculum of ethics courses in journalism, apart from properly qualified academics in ethics and epistemology to teach them, is the learning of how to think clearly and conceptually. In the age of Google the skills of description have become nothing more than a “cutting and pasting exercise” of information gathering. It requires little if any reflective thinking and judgment of how to evaluate and apply information wisely for one’s personal, professional and public good. Wisdom should become the primary learning objective in education in the Humanities, and journalism specifically because it is wisdom that can equip future journalists to engage in ethical journalism. Not because they are told they have to but because they want to. Not as slaves of information but as masters and lovers of knowledge for the sake of truth, virtue and the public good for oneself and others. Perhaps, the News of the World debacle has been the wake-up call that journalism and journalism educators had to have. Let’s hope we learn from it. Dr Edward Spence is a Senior Research Fellow at the ARC Special Research Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. He teaches communication ethics and media ethics in the School of Communication and Creative Industries at Charles Sturt University. His co-authored book Media, Markets and Morals (Wiley-Blackwell 2011) was published recently.