Media, 'madness' and ethical journalism

Abstract

This article analyses the way newspapers and journalists sometimes fail to acknowledge and resolve some of the contentious ethical dilemmas associated with reporting news. Its focus is on not exploiting and vilifying the vulnerable, especially people with mental illness, through sensationalism and inaccurate and imprecise use of medical terminology such as "psycho," "schizo" or "lunatic. " Because ethics is central to our understanding of professionalism, this article uses professions and professionalism as benchmarks against which to analyse and critique how journalists and newspapers define and report news. Sometimes journalists fail the test of good ethical practice in terms of negative. outdated and inaccurate expressions they use in the news stories they report. Likewise, regulators of news industry standards appear not to recognise and sanction such reporting. The apparent inability to resolve these ethical dilemmas creates a context conducive to tolerance for, if not acceptance of unethical news reporting.