Media Ethics Teaching in Century 21: Progress, Problems, and Challenges
Edmund B. Lambeth, Clifford G. Christians, Kenneth Fleming, and Seow Ting Lee

What is the status of media ethics as a specialty in the journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs of North American colleges and universities at the turn of the century?

This article is the fourth in a series in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator that addresses major parts of that question—the current goals, content, and key issues in media ethics instruction. The article also reports on classroom practices and summarizes the research and creative activities of media ethics teachers.1 More broadly, the series of articles has sought to serve as a continuing progress report on the academy’s search for ways to develop applied ethics as a liberal arts component in the education of journalists and mass communicators. An important aspect of that effort is the status among JMC units of the separate course in media ethics.