Designing Strategies for Commitment to Journalistic Professional Ethics

A senior-level treatment of journalistic ethics, focused on what changes outcomes.

📍 Istanbul🗓️ 5 training days📚 4 modules🎓 Accredited certificate
5intensive training days
4scientific modules
8training sessions
32detailed points

Course Overview

Silence during a crisis involving journalistic ethics is itself a statement. Journalists covering the communications and media practice discipline are working to a deadline you do not control. The method assumes participants will be challenged on their handling of this area of communications and media practice and prepares them for it. The material serves both public bodies and commercial organisations dealing with journalistic ethics. Participants take away a working set of documents supporting the practice within communications and media practice, ready to be adapted internally. It treats the communications and media practice discipline as an operating discipline and equips participants to run it as one. Comparative studies of journalistic ethics across sectors find the same handful of failure points recurring. The difficulty is not agreeing that this aspect of communications and media practice matters — it is deciding what to stop doing to make room for it. The course ends by identifying what the participant will stop doing to make the practice within communications and media practice sustainable.

Expected Learning Outcomes

01

Design a practical operating method for journalistic ethics that fits the organisation's size and maturity.

02

Prepare the apology or acknowledgement for journalistic ethics that is credible.

03

Translate policy on journalistic ethics into procedures that hold up under day-to-day pressure.

04

Align communication on journalistic ethics with legal and regulatory constraints.

05

Manage communication with regulators and officials about journalistic ethics.

06

Recognise early indicators that journalistic ethics is drifting away from its intended design.

07

Build community and stakeholder engagement around journalistic ethics.

Who Should Attend

01

Department heads accountable for the results of journalistic ethics.

02

Public relations and communications managers responsible for journalistic ethics.

03

Government relations and public affairs officers covering journalistic ethics.

04

Anyone whose accountability for journalistic ethics exceeds their current formal training in it.

05

Community relations staff engaging stakeholders about journalistic ethics.

06

Investor relations officers communicating journalistic ethics to markets.

Course Modules

01

Journalistic ethics: recovery and rebuilding credibility

2 sessions · 8 points

Session 1Testing journalistic ethics before relying on it

  • Prepare the summary of journalistic ethics that senior management will read.
  • Draft the minimum viable communications plan for journalistic ethics.
  • Review whether coverage of journalistic ethics changed anything that matters.
  • Set the review interval for journalistic ethics and who attends.

Session 2Coordinating journalistic ethics across markets and languages

  • Build a stakeholder map for journalistic ethics and the message each needs.
  • Configure monitoring that flags coverage of journalistic ethics within the hour.
  • Localise messaging on journalistic ethics without fragmenting it.
  • Set out the decisions in journalistic ethics that require sign-off and by whom.
02

Journalistic ethics: media relations and the working journalist

2 sessions · 8 points

Session 1The paperwork for journalistic ethics that is actually needed

  • Agree what will be standardised in journalistic ethics and what will not.
  • Name a single owner for each element of journalistic ethics.
  • Confirm that those complying with journalistic ethics understand why it exists.
  • Establish the boundary of journalistic ethics and record what sits outside it.

Session 2Rebuilding trust after journalistic ethics

  • Draft materials on journalistic ethics that need no rewriting to be published.
  • Collect evidence on the present handling of journalistic ethics before proposing changes.
  • Define what success in communicating journalistic ethics looks like, numerically.
  • Identify where judgement in journalistic ethics is legitimate and where it is not.
03

Journalistic ethics: materials a journalist can actually use

2 sessions · 8 points

Session 1Closing out journalistic ethics and capturing what was learned

  • Close out actions on journalistic ethics rather than leaving them open indefinitely.
  • Agree the indicators that will show whether journalistic ethics is improving.
  • Archive every statement issued on journalistic ethics with date and approver.
  • Rehearse the hostile interview on journalistic ethics with a real challenger.

Session 2Telling staff about journalistic ethics before the press does

  • Identify the data already collected that bears on journalistic ethics.
  • Plan the recovery sequence after a reputational event involving journalistic ethics.
  • Agree who signs off statements on journalistic ethics outside working hours.
  • Name the crisis roles for journalistic ethics and confirm authority to speak.
04

Journalistic ethics: monitoring, sentiment and early warning

2 sessions · 8 points

Session 1Monitoring journalistic ethics in time to act

  • Check communication on journalistic ethics against legal and regulatory constraint.
  • Identify the journalists who actually cover journalistic ethics and what they need.
  • Distinguish symptoms from causes when journalistic ethics underperforms.
  • Compare the cost of journalistic ethics with the cost of its absence.

Session 2Answering the hostile question about journalistic ethics

  • Prepare the holding statement for journalistic ethics in advance.
  • Write the three key messages on journalistic ethics and test them against hard questions.
  • Prepare the acknowledgement for journalistic ethics that does not evade responsibility.
  • Check that journalistic ethics still works when volumes rise unexpectedly.

Choose the package that suits you

Silver Package

At least 3 people

USD1,250
  • Workshop or Program Participation
  • Airport Transfers
  • Customized Badge
  • Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
  • Supervision & Secretarial Services
  • Accredited Certificate of Participation
  • Complete Training Kit
  • Coffee Break
  • Closing Ceremony

Gold Package

At least 3 people

USD1,850
  • 5-night stay in a 5-star hotel
  • Workshop or Program Participation
  • Airport Transfers
  • Customized Badge
  • Expert Mentorship (Private Sessions)
  • Supervision & Secretarial Services
  • Accredited Certificate of Participation
  • Complete Training Kit
  • Coffee Break
  • Closing Ceremony

Complete your registration

We will contact you within one business day to confirm.