If you haven’t already noticed, I like talking about ethics — in writing, but also during Stute meetings. Mostly because in my time as a member of The Stute, we haven’t talked much about ethics at all, and I feel like 80% of the times we mess up are because of ethical situations we weren’t prepared for.
This week I wrote an ethics pledge (heavily based on the ethics pledge for students from New York University’s Journalism Institute) that is required for all members of The Stute to sign after a certain number of contributions. Part of the pledge is also attending an ethics seminar that talks about ethical case studies we’ve had to deal with as well as basic practices. Obviously, guest authors who write Op-Eds or members who write one article and stop there won’t have to go through the seminar and sign the pledge — this is for members who plan to contribute consistently and are doing just that.
The pledge is the following:
As a student journalist for The Stute at Stevens Institute of Technology, your mission is to serve the public by seeking out and reporting the facts as accurately as possible.
By signing this ethics pledge, you agree to maintain the highest standards of honesty and foster ethical behavior at all times. Anyone who fails to uphold these ethical standards has committed a serious violation of this agreement. Penalties can range from limited ability to contribute content to the paper, the loss of member status in The Stute and all abilities to contribute, or other consequences based on decisions made by the Executive Board.
Examples of penalties can include (but are not limited to):
Plagiarism: Attempting to pass off someone else’s words or ideas as your own without proper attribution or acknowledgment. Examples: Copying in whole or in part a published piece or another member’s work, borrowing language or concepts, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, or failing to attribute information.Fabrication: Making up information, faking anecdotes or sources, falsifying quotes, creating fictitious sources, citing non-existent articles, or fudging data.
Unprofessional behavior: Disrespecting sources, fellow members and students, or readers in any way that produces harm or an unhealthy work environment.
Now, this pledge may seem silly. And if I’m honest, it kind of is. As long as I have been a member of The Stute nobody (to my knowledge) has ever plagiarized, fabricated data, or acted in a way that was toxic for the group. And honestly, I don’t expect anyone to anytime soon.
This pledge is more about principle; it’s something concrete that defines members of The Stute. Because the pledge is accompanied by an ethics seminar, it’s not something arbitrary that anybody can sign and forget about. This pledge is making the discussion of ethics more regular in our organization, which is important. Even if the big, scary claim that “anyone who fails to uphold these ethical standards … [can lose] member status in The Stute” probably won’t ever need to be exercised, the idea that we value ethics and professional behavior in our organization is what I’m taking away from this initiative.
The Stute Editorial is an Opinion column written by the current Editor in Chief of The Stute to address and explain editorial decision making, discuss news and media issues, and develop a sense of trust and transparency between readers and members of The Stute.
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