Media Ethics and Self-regulation

Book excerpt: The British press has been accused of drinking in the Last Chance Saloon. Now, with the coming of the new millennium, many fear that broadcasters are also getting a taste for the commercially-popular cocktail of sensation and intrusion that it sells. But does it have to be like that? Are journalists doomed to ignore stories about important public interest issues in favour of titillating tales that pander solely to the public's prurient curiosity? Are docusoaps and current affairs series based on questionable evidence replacing the award-winning documentary programmes of past years? Media Ethics and Self Regulation looks closely at the moral dilemmas facing journalists in their day-to-day working lives and examines the self-regulatory bodies that police the various codes of practice.