Abstract

This dissertation is a study in contrasts between the philosophical tradition that has historically guided modern journalism, that is, the libertarian tradition, and a more virtue-centered approach, here exemplified in the work of Canadian contemporary philosopher Charles Taylor. Libertarian journalism privileges freedom of the press , and the rights of journalists and to a lesser extent the rights of those whom they would serve. Taylor emphasizes the nature of one's character as essential to moral action, and the bonds of community as the foundation for moral demands. ;Thus, this dissertation provides an outline of an alternate framework from which journalists may think about moral dilemmas and explores the present reasoning process of professional journalists and journalism students. Taylor's notions of strong evaluation and practical reason provide the foundation of a virtue-based approach to journalistic moral decisions. According to Taylor, people do weigh comparative goods and make judgments about the worthiness of actions and values or lack thereof. Furthermore, determining the good has a basis in reason. ;A study of the journalists and students uses face-to-face interviews with two- and three-person groups reacting to a series of moral scenarios and subsequent probes. Both a content analysis and a discourse analysis of the transcripts provide conclusions about moral reasoning among journalists. The content analysis demonstrates that both journalists and students preponderantly use procedural or liberal-based language to describe their moral reasoning but professional journalists even more so. Reliance on journalistic conventions supplies most of that language. The discourse analysis also indicates that journalists and students alike discussed their moral decisions based on procedural language but were somewhat uncomfortable at times with the perceived tension between the demands of their profession and their humanity. Students tended to be more hesitant, to raise more virtue-based issues, and to offer more virtue-based responses. ;The results are consistent with an assumption that moral decisions in journalism are in part learned reactions rather than intuitive ones, thus opening an opportunity for an alternative framework, such as one based on Taylor's work, to be viable