Learning Ethics Of Journalism
On the Job
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The funds will enhance the ethics component of the Snowden
internship program, which offers paid summer internships
at Oregon newspapers to journalism majors from colleges
and universities throughout Oregon. During their internships,
the students read and discuss ethics case studies selected
by journalism faculty members. The internship program
was started in 1998 with gifts from the family of the
late Charles Snowden, a former editor at The Oregon Journal
and The Oregonian.
The ethics component, originally funded in part by a grant
from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation,
was developed by journalism faculty members in 2005. It
offers students an introduction to the ethical decisions
they will make as journalists by using online training
modules that include case studies, background information,
and work sheets.
“Clearly, ethics is a fundamental component of the
job of all journalists,” says Erb, a partner in
the San Francisco law firm Ropes & Gray, where he
specializes in corporate law. “I think ethics is
a difficult subject to teach in a classroom setting. The
Snowden Internship Program gives journalism students the
opportunity to address and discuss real world ethical
issues with professional journalists as part of their
internship experience.”
