Code of Ethics
The principles of truth and honesty are recognized as fundamental to a community of teachers and scholars. The School of Mass Communication expects that both faculty and students will follow these principles and, in so doing, protect the validity of the university's grades. Instructors will exercise care in the planning and supervision of academic work so that honest effort will be positively encouraged.
All academic work will be done by the student to whom it is assigned without unauthorized data or help of any kind. A student who supplies another with such data or help is considered deserving of the same sanctions as the recipient. Specifically, cheating, plagiarism, and misrepresentation are prohibited.
Plagiarism is defined by Alexander Lindley as “the false assumption of authorship: the wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind, and presenting it as one’s own” (Plagiarism and Originality). “Plagiarism may take the form of repeating another’s sentences as your own, adopting a particularly apt phrase as your own, paraphrasing someone else’s argument as your own, or even presenting someone else’s line of thinking in the development of a thesis as though it were your own.” (MLA Handbook, 1985).
In those instances in which a student’s sense of honesty may fail him or her, the university provides sanctions. Every student should be aware of the regulations governing integrity of scholarship and grades.
Communication Professions
Truth and honesty are not only academic concerns, to be practiced in the university but left on campus when you graduate. They are at the very foundation of the communication professions for which you are preparing. All of the communicaton professions demand that their practitioners hold and practice those basic values. Consider these examples (and please follow the links).
The first ethical principle in the statement of “Advertising Ethics and Principles” of the American Advertising Federation speaks to the importance of truth:
Advertising shall tell the truth, and shall reveal significant facts, the omission of which would mislead the public.
The AAF’s other principles reinforce the importance of truth and honesty in all aspects of advertising.
The Public Relations Society of America, likewise, has a “Member Statement of Professional Values,” which “provide the foundation for the Member Code of Ethics and set the industry standard for the professional practice of public relations.” Among those values is honesty:
We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in communicating with the public.
In its “Code of Ethics,” the Society of Professional Journalists holds that “Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility,” and the code’s first section is introduced with these words:
Seek Truth and Report It
Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Of plagiarism, the code the journalist members of the organization adopted for themselves states simply:
Never plagiarize.
The preamble to the ethics code of the National Press Photographers Association, similarly, speaks to the importance of truth and honesty in the work of photojournalists: “Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are manipulated.” How do photojournalists do good and avoid doing harm? Sixteen standards spell out clearly how they are to carry out their work honestly, truthfully and accurately. The first sums them all:
Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
Communication Students
In taking your Mass Communication courses, you are seeking to become skilled in the work of advertising, public relations, journalism or photojournalism. After reading those professional codes, however, it should be obvious to you that it will not be enough to know how to carry out an advertising or public relations campaign, how to write a news story or take a technically fine photograph. Your fellow professionals will expect you have those skills. But they will also expect you to hold and practice ethical standards grounded in truth and honesty. It is crucially important, then, that in your preparation to become a Mass Communication professional you learn not just how to do the work, but how to do it ethically.