JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS 
Journalists can apply for online course: Journalism Ethics for a Digital Age
Journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean can apply for the online course, “Journalism Ethics for a Digital Age” offered in English by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, from Feb. 27 to March 20, 2011. The four-week course, conducted by Professor Edward Wasserman, is for reporters and editors from Latin America and the Caribbean who speak, write, and read English at the intermediate level.
The course (view information sheet here) is designed to help journalists deal with ethical issues that arise in the daily pursuit of journalism. It offers an introduction to the major moral and philosophical themes and serves as a practical guide for solving some of the complex problems that journalists face using real-world cases and models.
“Even though journalists of different countries work under very different conditions of professional culture, state regulation, business basics, and public expectation, it’s remarkable how similar the ethical problems they encounter are,” Wasserman explains. “Conflict of interest, privacy, fairness, employer pressure — these are practically universal to newsrooms throughout the hemisphere.”
The course will also examine problems that arise in the new media environment. “Conflict of interest is emerging as a signature problem in the New Media age, with more and more of the people who practice journalism doing it as one of several things they must do in order to earn a living,” Wasserman says. “That opens the way for unacknowledged loyalties to develop that can lead journalists to tilt their work in ways that ill-serve the public. Greater vigilance and candor are essential for dealing with this.”
The course is conducted entirely online. It is divided into weekly modules that contain audiovisual presentations, documents and online resources. Weekly exercises, online discussions and forums and additional assignments are also part of the course activities. Students work at their own pace, according to their own schedule, but are expected to complete weekly assignments.
If accepted and selected into the course, participants will be asked to pay an administrative fee of US$50 before the course starts. This fee covers a nominal portion of the operating costs of the Knight Center’s distance education program. Those who complete the course satisfactorily will receive a certificate of participation from the Knight Center.
Edward Wasserman is a Knight Chair and ethics professor at Washington and Lee University of Lexington, Va. His specialties include technological changes, media control, plagiarism, source confidentiality, and conflicts of interest. Rachel Barrera, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin in instructional technology, will serve as the teaching assistant for the course.
Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. (Austin, Texas, time) on Feb. 13, 2011. To apply, please visit:http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/webform/application-journalism-ethics-digital-age-course-0.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin was launched in 2002 by Professor Rosental Calmon Alves. Thanks to generous grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the center has assisted thousands of journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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