Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Journalistic Ethics
Teaching staff
By e-mail at wmramirez@uic.es
By appointment: ask for one personally on by e-mail.
Introduction
Journalistic Deontology is a compulsory subject of 6 ECTS taught in the second semester of the second year of the Degree in Journalism. The main objective of this course is to study the different components that affect ethical decisions made by journalism professionals.
Pre-course requirements
None.
Objectives
This subject's goal is the study of the basic issues for the proper realization of journalism according to the good practices of journalism. This course focuses on the different ethical and deontological concepts themselves in journalism as well as the application of these concepts in the daily work performed by the information professional.
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 01 CG - Capacity for self-evaluation and professional order
- 02 CG - The ability to learn and act an autonomously and responsibly
- 05 CG - The ability to develop an ethical attitude
- 08 CG - The ability to reflect and memorize.
Learning outcomes of the subject
The students will:
- Gain insight into various ethical schools of thought and be better prepared to autonomously and responsibly address the ethical dilemmas that their profession will inevitably present.
- Understand the moral processes inherent in individuals, social groups, and society at large. They will also be better equipped to handle situations in their professional work where the human factor predominates.
- In addition to acquiring knowledge and skills, they will learn useful protocols for working in the field of communication, which is heavily influenced by economic and business dynamics and requirements.
- Embrace knowledge and attention to audiences as fundamental aspects of their professional perspective.
Furthermore, the students will:
- Develop the ability to observe reality through journalistic criteria.
- Be well-versed in various ethical schools of thought and better prepared to autonomously and responsibly confront the ethical challenges posed by the practice of journalism.
- Acquire knowledge of the components that shape journalistic organizations, as well as their economic structure.
Syllabus
Introduction to Ethics.
Lesson 1. What is ethics
Lesson 2. The Good
Lesson 3. The Ends
Lesson 4. Freedom
Lesson 5. Virtues
Lesson 6. Practical Virtues
Lesson 7. Justice
Teaching and learning activities
In person
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | ECTS CREDITS |
| Practical workshop. A highly practical working activity, where students can acquire skills that are practical or also theoretical (intellectual skills, logical skills, critical skills, intellectual learning skills, study skills, quoting skills, etc). | 2 |
| Lectures. In lectures, lecturers/professors not only transmit content or knowledge, but also, and above all else, attitudes, motivation, skills and values, etc. They also ensure that participants can express their opinions and arguments to the other students. | 4 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
During the course students will turn in about 5 workshops whose papers will constitute one grade. ("workshops" part) **students must take part in every single workshop session in order to turn in the paper to be evaluated** (they may exceptionally miss one single day during the entire course).
At the end of the course, they will take a final exam of all the theoretical content of the course, which will constitute another grade. ("theoretical" part)
The exam will constitue 60% of the final grade, and the workshop average the remaining 40%.
If a student failed the workshop's average during the course, they can take a "practical part" of the final exam as well to make up for it.
Students must have at least a 5 in each part in order to pass the course (or else, the highest total grade achievable will be 4.75)
The evaluation criteria for the second sitting is the same as for the first sitting. To pass the second call students will be evaluated again ONLY of the parts they have failed.
Note on academic honesty: All work you submit for this course must be entirely your own. The words or ideas of others must not in your written work without giving proper acknowledgement. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in any form. In the event that the professor detects plagiarized work or a student copying during an exam, they will notify the Faculty Board, which will take the relevant measures. That will include automatically obtaining a grade of 0.0 for that subject, moving directly to the next exam.
Bibliography and resources
See each lesson in the course's intranet.