Campaigns and Conscience: The Ethics of Political Journalism

by Philip Seib

Seib examines the ethical issues underlying the volatile relationship between journalists and politicians. It provides an inside look at how reporters and candidates do their jobs. From the screening process news organizations use to decide which candidates to cover, to the truth-testing of political ads, to the controversies surrounding election night projections, this work articulates crucial ethical questions and helps readers in their search for answers. As a political communications text, Campaigns and Conscience looks at the many facets of political what reporters need to know before covering a campaign; how to approach the character issue; how to keep up with the frantic pace of a campaign; why campaign ads should be covered as news; the allure and dangers of polls, projections, and endorsements; and the responsibility of the press to cover one of the most powerful quasi-political institutions--the press itself.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Philip Seib is a Professor of Journalism and Public Diplomacy and Professor of International Relations.

Seib's research interests include the effects of news coverage on foreign policy, particularly conflict and terrorism issues. He is author or editor of numerous books, including Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy; The Global Journalist: News and Conscience in a World of Conflict; Broadcasts from the Blitz: How Edward R. Murrow Helped Lead America into War; Beyond the Front Lines: How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War; New Media and the Middle East (2007); The Al Jazeera Effect (2008); Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting U.S. Foreign Policy (2009); and Real-Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era (2012). Seib is also the editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication, co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy and co-editor of the journal Media, War and Conflict, published by Sage.

Prior to joining the USC faculty in 2007, Seib was a professor at Marquette University and before that at Southern Methodist University.

[source: http://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/comm... ]

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, somewhat dated read - but the anecdotes are enlightening and Seib ruminates in a thoughtful, progressive manner on a difficult subject that has gotten even more complicated since this publication with the advent of internet journalism and the further failure of the newspaper business.