UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Patrick Plaisance, the Don W. Davis Professor in Ethics at Penn State, was selected to serve on the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Ethics Committee and help review and possibly revise the SPJ Code of Ethics, the nation’s most-cited journalism ethics code, through an effort that coincides with the code’s 100th anniversary in 2026.
As part of what will be a transparent, year-long process, the ethics committee will review the ethics code and then present its recommendations to SPJ’s board. If the board approves any proposed changes, the society’s members would also vote on them.
Plaisance will serve on the 16-member committee along with ethics education leaders and respected journalists from around the country. Plaisance is a noted media ethics researcher, author of a media ethics textbook and past editor of the Journal of Media Ethics.
Plaisance also is an affiliate faculty member with the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State and serves as ombudsperson for the Fox Graduate School at Penn State. He spent 15 years as a working journalist in New Jersey, south Florida and Virginia before earning a certificate in university teaching and his doctorate in mass communications from Syracuse University.
He taught at Syracuse and Colorado State before joining the Penn State faculty in 2017.
The committee is attempting to revise the SPJ Code of Ethics for the sixth time since 1926, when the society first adopted the now-defunct American Society of News Editors’ Code of Ethics. SPJ revised its code in 1973, 1984, 1987, 1996 and 2014. The committee aims to update the code’s interactive online version as well. It will include new links to resources offering supplementary guidance and ethics case studies.
Dan Axelrod and Chris Roberts, former reporters with a combined 32 years of experience teaching media ethics at the college level, will serve as the ethics committee’s chairman and vice chairman, respectively.
“Some believe ‘media ethics’ are oxymoronic in an instant information age in which powerful sociopolitical, technological and financial forces too often obscure the truth,” Axelrod said. “But ethical journalism remains a requisite for a free, self-governing citizenry.”
“For five generations, the SPJ Code has been the starting place for young adults seeking journalism careers to learn the minimum standards and aspirational expectations for journalism, and for the public to know what to expect from its journalists,” Roberts said. “As technology and society change with each generation, SPJ takes a fresh look at its code to ensure its values reflect the fundamental principles of ethical journalism.”
SPJ champions journalists by recognizing outstanding achievement, fighting to protect press freedom, promoting high ethical standards and educating new generations of emerging professionals.