Does class matter? The effect of social class on journalists' ethical decision making

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 86, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 654-672

  Correa, Teresa ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CLASS; DECISION MAKING; ETHICS; MORALITY; PSYCHOLOGY;

EID: 73849143949     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900908600312     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. Social theorists have offered different approaches to the concept of social class. Marx in "Wage Labour and Capital, " Selected Works, ed. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1849/1968) argued that class is determined by people's relation to the production process;
2. Weber, as cited in Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedwick, Key Concepts in Cultural Theory (London: Routledge, 1999), incorporated the concepts of "status" and "social prestige": people's speech, schooling and leisure habits define their class. Antonio Gramsci in Selection from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (New York, International Publishers, 1987) added the concept of hegemony; class is related to power and dominance over ideas, institutions, and values.
3. Herbert J. Gans, Deciding What's News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time (New York: Vintage, 1979), 62.
4. Don Heider, Class and News (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004);
5. Don Heider and Koji Fuse, "Class and Local TV News, " in Class and News, ed. Don Heider (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004), 87-107.
6. See, e.g., Martin Gilens, "Poor People in the News: Images from the Journalistic Subconscious, " in Class and News, ed. Don Heider (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), 44-60;
7. Maria Elizabeth Grabe, "Tabloid and Traditional Television News Magazine Crime Stories: Crime Lessons and Reaffirmation of Social Class Distinctions, " Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73 (winter 1996):926-46.
8. See, e.g., Robert A. Hackett and Scott Uzelman, "Tracing Corporate Influences on Press Content: A Summary of Recent Newswatch Canada Research, " Journalism Studies 4 (August 2003):331-46;
9. Don Heider, "Black, Brown and Poor: Who You Don't See on Local TV News and Why, " in Brown and Black Communication: Latino and African-American Conflict and Convergence in Mass Media, ed. Diana I. Rios and A. N. Mohamed (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 81-92;
10. Heider and Fuse, "Class and Local TV News."
11. Pamela J. Shoemaker and Stephen D. Reese, Mediating the Message: Theories of Influence on Mass Media Content (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1996).
12. For example, reporters routinely rely on official-and elite-sources to save time and gain power within the news organization, as Gans (Deciding What's News), and Gaye Tuchman, Making News: A Study on the Construction of Reality (New York: Free Press, 1978) have asserted. From an organizational and extramedia perspective, Heider and Fuse ("Class and Local TV News") argue that because news media rely on advertisers, they target and represent people with disposable income because that niche is financially valuable.
13. See, e.g., Gilens, "Poor People in the News."
14. Heider, Class and News.
15. Gans, Deciding What's News.
16. James R. Rest, "Background: Theory and Research, " in Moral Development in the Professions, ed. James R. Rest and Darcia Narváez (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994):1-26.
17. Shoemaker and Reese, Mediating the Message.
18. Mahzarin R. Banaji and Roy Bashkar, "Implicit Stereotypes and Memory: The Bounded Rationality of Social Beliefs, " in Memory, Brain and Belief, ed. Daniel L. Schacter and Elaine Scarry (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000):139-75;
19. Patricia G. Devine, "Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components, " Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56 (1, 1989):5-18.
20. Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999);
21. Gilens, "Poor People in the News";
22. Heider, "Black, Brown, and Poor."
23. Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfa Rev.
24. David De Ferranti, Guillermo E. Perry, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, and Michael Walton, Inequality in Latin America: Breaking with History? (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2004).
25. De Ferranti et al., Inequality in Latin America.
26. Karin D. Karlekar, Freedom of the Press 2005: A Global Survey of Media Independence (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).
27. David H. Weaver, "Who Are Journalists?" in Making Journalists, ed. Hugo De Burgh (London: Routledge, 2005).
28. Fundación Para la Superación de la Pobreza and Fundación Future [Foundation to Overcome Poverty and Future Foundation], Los Periodistas Hablan De Pobreza: Primera Encuesta Naciona [Journalists Talk about Poverty: First National Survey] (Santiago, Chile: Hogar de Cristo, Facultad de Comunicación y Letras, Universidad Diego Portales, Fundación para la Superación de la Pobreza, 2006).
29. Fundación Para la Superación de la Pobreza and Institu to de la Comunicación e Imagen [Foundation to Overcome Poverty and Communication and Image Institute], University of Chile, La Pobreza En Pauta: Un Estudio En Prensa Escrita National y Regional [Poverty in the Agenda: A Study about National and Regional Print Press], (Santiago, Chile: Hogar de Cristo, Facultad de Comunicación y Letras, Universidad Diego Portales, Fundación para la Superación de la Pobreza, 2006).
30. Fundación Para la Superación de la Pobreza, Universidad Diego Portales and Hogar de Cristo [Foundation to Overcome Poverty, Diego Portales University, and Foundation Hogar de Cristo], La Pobreza es Noticia: Un Estudio Sobre los Noticieros Centrales de la Televisión Chilena [Poverty is News: A Study about Main TV Newscasts of Chilean Television], (Santiago, Chile, 2006);
31. Ricardo Leiva, Reinas del Desierto [Queens of Desert], (Santiago, Chile: Planeta, 2005)
32. Susan T. Fiske and Shelley E. Taylor, Social Cognition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991).
33. Fiske and Taylor, Social Cognition.
34. Based on the definitions of Banaji and Bashkar, "Implicit Stereotypes and Memory, " stereotype refers to the cognitive element or belief about a social group (e.g., politicians are crooks) and prejudice involves the attitudes toward that group (e.g., I dislike politicians).
35. Banaji and Bashkar, "Implicit Stereotypes and Memory";
36. David Hamilton, "Cognitive Biases in the Perception of Social Groups, " in Cognition and Social Behavior, ed. John S. Carroll and John W. Payne (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1975).
37. Hamilton, "Cognitive Biases."
38. Judith D. R. Porter, Black Child, White Child: The Development of Racial Attitudes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).
39. Banaji and Bashkar, "Implicit Stereotypes and Memory";
40. Devine, "Stereotypes and Prejudices."
41. Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner, "The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior, " in Psychology of Intergroup Relations, ed. Stephen Worchel and William G. Austin (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1986), 7-24.
42. Tajfel and Turner, "The Social Identity Theory."
43. Susan T. Fiske, Amy J. C. Cuddy, Peter Glick, and Jun. Xu, "A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype Content: Competence and Warmth Respectively Follow from Perceived Status and Competition, " Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (6, 2002):878-902.
44. Lawrence Kohlberg, Essays on Moral Development: The Psychology of Moral Development: The Nature and Validity of Moral Stages, vol. 2 (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1984).
45. Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child, trans. M. Gabain (New York: Free Press, 1932/1965).
46. Rest, "Background."
47. James Rest, Darcia Narváez, Muriel J. Bebeau, and Stephen J. Thoma, Postconventional Moral Thinking: A Neo-Kohlbergian Approach (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999).
48. Rest et al., Postconventional Moral Thinking.
49. Rest, "Background."
50. The DIT has been applied in different countries, including Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chile.
51. See Rest, "Background";
52. Maria Alicia Halcartegaray and Bernardita Grove, "Evaluación del Instrumento D. I. T para la Medición del Juicio Moral de James Rest" ["Evaluation of the D. I. T Instrument to Measure James Rest's Moral Judgment"], Revista Análisis del Comportamiento [Behavior Analysis Journal] 4 (1, 1989):20-30.
53. Tom Westbrook, "The Cognitive Moral Development of Journalists: Distribution and Implications for News Production" (Ph. D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1994);
54. Lee Wilkins and Renita Coleman, The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason about Ethics (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005).
55. David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The Global Journalist: News People Around the World (Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1998);
56. David Weaver, "Who are Journalists?" in Making Journalists, ed. Hugo De Burgh (London: Routledge, 2005).
57. David H. Weaver and G. ClevelandWilhoit, The American Journalist in the 1990s: U. S. News People at the End of an Era (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996).
58. Scott R. Maier, "Do Trade Publications Affect Ethical Sensitivity in Newsrooms?" Newspaper Research Journal 21 (winter 2000):41-49.
59. Renita Coleman, "Race and Ethical Reasoning: The Importance of Race to Journalistic Decision Making, " Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 80 (summer 2003):295-310.
60. Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo, Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986).
61. Renita Coleman, "The Effects of Visuals on Ethical Reasoning: What's a Photograph Worth to Journalists Making Moral Decisions?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 83 (winter 2006):835-50.
62. Darrel D. Muehling, Russell N. Laczniak, and Jeffrey J. Stoltman, "The Moderating Effects of Ad Message Involvement: A Reassessment, " Journal of Advertising 20 (June 1991):29-38.
63. Coleman, "The Effects of Visuals"; Charles Salmon, "Perspectives on Involvement in Consumer and Communication Research, " in Progress in Communication Sciences, ed. Brenda Dervin and Melvin J. Voigt, vol. 2 (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1986):243-69;
64. Judith Zaichkowsky, "Measuring the Involvement Construct, " Journal of Consumer Research 12 (December 1985):341-52.
65. Petty and Cacioppo, Communication and Persuasion.
66. Coleman, "The Effects of Visuals."
67. Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo, "The Effects of Involvement on Responses to Argument Quantity and Quality: Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion, " Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 46 (1, 1984):69-81.
68. Jonathan Cohen, "Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the Identification of Audiences with Media Characters, " Mass Communication & Society 4 (summer 2001):245-64.
69. Cohen, "Defining Identification"; Dolf Zillman, "Affect from Bearing Witness to the Emotions of Other, " in Responding to the Screen: Reception and Reaction Processes, ed. Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillman (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991), 135-67.
70. Cohen, "Defining Identification. "
71. To be confident about translation accuracy, a back translation was conducted.
72. Renita Coleman, "The Effects of Visuals on Ethical Reasoning: What's a Picture Worth to Journalists Making Ethical Choices?" (Ph. D. diss., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001);
73. Coleman, "Race and Ethical Reasoning";
74. Coleman, "The Effects of Visuals."
75. Halcartegaray and Grove, "Evaluación del Instrumento DIT."
76. David Bravo, Claudia Sanhueza, and Sergio Urzúa, "An Experimental Study About Labor Market and Discrimination in Chile: Gender, Social Class, and Neighborhood" (paper presented at the annual convention of the Sociedad de Economía de Chile [Chilean Economic Society], La Serena, Chile, September 2006).
77. Bravo, Sanhueza and Urzúa, "An Experimental Study."
78. The scenarios were created to fit a Chilean context. For example, the concepts "private clinic vs. public hospital" refer to the Chilean health system, which is based on the British health system, where public and private systems coexist. There are some occupations such as street vendor or parking lot attendant that belong to the informal labor market, and are very common in Latin American countries.
79. The DIT showed adequate levels of validity and reliability when applied in a Chilean educational setting, Halcartegaray and Grove, " Evaluación del Instrumento DIT."
80. Weaver, "Who Are Journalists?"
81. In an open-ended interview, the journalists were asked to choose what kind of stories could happen either in lower and middle-upper classes in Chile. They were also asked to choose a true ethical dilemma, that is, a story with no clear-cut answer. They were given different options: (1) use of anonymous sources; (2) decide whether to publish the story after the main subject allowed herself to be cited but then a family member asked not to run it; (3) decide whether to publish the story after the main subject allowed herself to be cited but then changed her mind and asked the journalist not to publish the story. The four interviewees unanimously agreed that the third option was the most compelling ethical dilemma.
82. The professional journalists have worked in magazines, print newspapers, newspapers' Web sites, TV stations, and a radio station. The journalism students with newsroom experience had worked in newspapers, newspapers' Web sites, magazines, TV, and radio stations.
83. Only the variables that measure respondent's age and time working in the media showed a slight positive skew (1.3 and 1.8, respectively). However, they were not transformed to ease the interpretations of the results.
84. The correlation between the psychological predictors did not indicate extremely high multicollinearity. The variables are considered multicollinear if their correlation is greater than 0.80 or less than-0.80.
85. Petty and Cacioppo, Communication and Persuasion.
86. Banaji and Bashkar, "Implicit Stereotypes and Memory";
87. Devine, "Stereotypes and Prejudices."
88. The mean of mental elaboration for lower class was 4.79 (sd = 1.39) and for middle-upper classes was 5.0 (sd = 1.23), t (61) = -1.69, p =.048. The mean of identification for lower class was 3.9 (sd = 1.34) while for middle-upper was 4.2 (sd = 1.13), t (61) = -2.13, p =.018. For involvement, the differences followed the same trend, although it didn't reach statistical significance, t (60) =-1.58, p =.059.
89. Coleman, "The Effects of Visuals."
90. Tajfel and Turner, "The Social Identity Theory."
91. Petty and Cacioppo, Communication and Persuasion.
92. Michael D. Basil, "The Use of Student Samples in Communication Research." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 40 (summer 1996):431.
93. The mean ethical score of those who have not worked in the media was 3.67 (sd= 1.65) and the mean ethical score of those who had newsroom experience was 3.66 (sd = 2.01), t (90) =.04, p =.97.
94. Rest, "Background."
95. Weaver and Wilhoit, The Global Journalist;
96. Weaver, "Who Are Journalists?"
97. Banaji and Bashkar, "Implicit Stereotypes and Memory";
98. Devine, "Stereotypes and Prejudices.