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Dissertation Information for Susan Keith

NAME:
- Susan Keith

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Journalism and Mass Communication

SCHOOL:
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (USA) (2003)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Ethics and newspapers' final gatekeepers: Work conditions and copy editors' role conceptions

Abstract: This dissertation examines whether newspaper copy editors, long known as the last line of defense against errors, also see themselves as the final newsroom guardians of journalistic ethics. Data were gathered through a national survey sent to 803 copy desk workers at 105 U.S. daily English-language newspapers with average weekday circulations greater than 25,000. Information from 470 usable mail and Internet responses from 100 newspapers indicates that copy desk workers have generally well-formed notions about which controversial editing behaviors are ethical and unethical. In addition, responses offered support for the notion that copy desk workers are at least as ethically sensitive as other types of newspaper journalists whose ethics have been more frequently considered. Newspapers, however, may not make good use of this ethics resource. For example, although almost all respondents thought that seeking to identify and eliminate potential ethics-related problems in stories should be an integral part of their jobs, only 40 percent said that it always was. Respondents were more likely to see looking for errors or legal problems as an integral part of their job than they were to see looking for potential ethics-related problems as a key role. Such conflict between copy editors' perceptions about their ideal and real ethics roles was correlated with a lack of job satisfaction on several measures, while attention to ethics on the job was correlated with job satisfaction. Respondents were significantly more likely to perceive that upholding ethics standards was part of copy editors' jobs if they also thought that copy desks in their newsroom were at least as powerful as other departments and that copy editors were accorded respect.

MPACT Scores for Susan Keith

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-05-19 11:07:11

Advisors and Advisees Graph