Theory-based journalists are critical and informed public communicators who practice their vital craft in full awareness of the impact of media and journalism on their community, their country, and their world.

You will understand the history of journalism and where it is leading. You will analyze journalism from the perspectives of the natural and social sciences, and the humanities, and apply such knowledge to issues of representation, race, gender, and international media. You will be able to question current practice and assumptions in journalism, and develop more globally responsible forms of public communication.

In ethics, you will engage the leading issues and evolving standards of today’s interactive, global news media. You will learn how to ethically analyze situations that you will face as a journalist, and you will construct own ethical framework.

You will acquire the research skills to investigate, contextualize, and communicate the most difficult issues in the world today, from genomics and climate change to the role of interactive media in shaping democracy. You will employ these skills and this knowledge to write a thesis project on ethics, the media or on a major issue in society. Your work and your ideas may be featured on web sites devoted to global journalism ethics and science journalism, or published in the mass media or academic journals.

UBC is an ideal place to pursue ethics theory and research. UBC is a large and leading research university with ground-breaking projects in science and the arts. The university is a leader in environmental and cultural studies and in the study of global issues and journalism. It is home to a center for applied ethics. Here, you can connect with world-famous experts and visionaries as you explore new ideas and apply those ideas to your journalism.

UBC Faculty with experience in theory-based journalism include:

• Mary Lynn Young, PhD,is an expert in the media coverage of crime, gender and media economics. She teaches in the Multiplatform Journalism course and Press and Society. Her recent journal article won the Rufus Z. Smith Award for the best article published in the American Review of Canadian Studies in 2006. The article, “Cross-Border Crime Stories: American Media, Canadian Law, and Murder in the Internet Age,” appeared in the autumn issue. She also runs the FeministMediaProject.com.
• Stephen Ward, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert in the history of journalism ethics, news objectivity, science journalism and global journalism ethics. He directs the school’s science journalism initiative, which improves science communication through research, education and public discussion. His The Invention of Journalism Ethics won the 2005-2006 Harold Adams Innis Prize for the best English-language scholarly book in the social sciences. He was a journalist for 13 years, which included assignments as a war correspondent and foreign reporter for The Canadian Press News Agency in Europe from 1990-1999. During this period, he covered conflicts in Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Northern Ireland.