For Final Day, the Ethics Class Created a Survey, Which We Sent to Alumni and 'Friends of the Class' Who Are in the Business

Since I am not a paying customer of Survey Monkey, only 10 questions are allowed per "page."

http://surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_Responses.aspx?sm=pE3mttJxzoCN0UDHt4jtoeUcHbGJa22ILnskEwTUTDs%3d

http://surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_Responses.aspx?sm=b5yatGGGjKkG8JsCckoxRlWi3MISWGP45H5kEiH7mAU%3d

http://surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_Responses.aspx?sm=hhZ0cWizjPWNJtRSB9iAE0rn7NaXVtGlsWrsUUfVuhE%3d

Full disclosure: The survey had too few people and those few from too great a variety of backgrounds to have “validity,” but some of the patterns in the answers are suggestive. I was interested that:

· so many people wouldn’t laugh at lame jokes in the service of a good interview – though one respondent when questioned more closely said she would “smile, of course”

· as I’ve always thought, “off the record” means different things to different people

· asking journalists what objectivity means is very nearly a party game

· some folk do feel that there are certain people and/or topics they would refuse to write about. I would have thought the more hateful the topic, the greater the challenge and, thus, the greater the appeal of the topic

· nobody respects sportswriting “the most”

· just how often does one have an ethical dilemma? Not that often…?

Now if we just had a bigger sample collected more “scientifically” – and if I were willing to pay Survey Monkey so that I could tease out correlations between (let us say) age and certain attitudes or current job category and certain attitudes – well, this would be more than cocktail chatter. But it is pretty good cocktail chatter.

Ethics class: You are cheeky monkeys, but I liked you very much. (Oh. I made the mistake of blind copying some of your sources and thus discovered I don’t have a full list of those I sent it to. Forward it to your “professional” sources if you wish.)

Those who filled out the surveys: I like you very much, too.