Ethnocultural Codes in Journalism Ethics: A Fuzzy Logic Analysis of Deontological and Teleological Reasoning Orientations:

Şevki Işıklı; Alaattin Aslan

doi:10.66815/ejecs/3161

Authors

Prof. Dr. Şevki Işıklı Florida Gulf Coast University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-9177
Dr Alaattin Aslan Marmara University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5053-9256

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.66815/ejecs/3161

Keywords:

Ethnocultural Codes, Journalistic Ethics, Ethical Reasoning, Deontology, Teleology, TJA Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities, Fuzzy Inference System

Abstract

This study proceeds from the premise that journalistic ethics, understood as ethnocultural codes, are more than behavioral guidelines; they are normative structures that institutionalize specific forms of ethical reasoning. The central hypothesis is that journalistic ethical norms do not operate within purely deontological or teleological categories but instead generate graded patterns of ethical reasoning that intersect at varying intensities. Accordingly, the ethical norms in the Turkish Journalists Association (TJA) Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities were coded using Large Language Models (LLMs) according to deontological and teleological criteria, with fuzzy membership degrees, and subsequently analyzed using a fuzzy inference system (FIS). The normalized intensity distribution indicates that the Declaration exhibits an ethical orientation of approximately 65% deontological and 35% teleological reasoning. These findings suggest that journalistic ethical codes constitute a hybrid reasoning continuum dominated by deontological principles while incorporating significant teleological considerations. High deontological reasoning intensity was observed in norms concerning accuracy, independence, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest, whereas teleological reasoning intensity was observed in norms concerning public interest, harm reduction, and contextual exceptions. Expert journalist codings, employed to validate the LLM outputs, confirmed the predominantly deontological character of the Declaration at the system level. The findings demonstrate that journalistic ethical codes are best understood as hybrid normative structures rather than mutually exclusive ethical categories. The study proposes an original methodological framework for the analytical modeling of journalism ethics, using an applied normative reasoning analysis that examines ethical reasoning through graded, comparable fuzzy patterns.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

👁 Abstract Views: 355📥 PDF Downloads: 85

Author Biographies

Prof. Dr. Şevki Işıklı, Florida Gulf Coast University

is Professor of Journalism at Marmara University, Faculty of Communication, and Visiting Scholar at Florida Gulf Coast University. His research focuses on media ethics, digital ethics, philosophy of communication, gender studies, philosophy of technology, and the philosophical implications of quantum information theory. He has authored numerous books and articles on communication ethics, information philosophy, and emerging technologies.

Dr Alaattin Aslan, Marmara University

holds a PhD in Journalism at Marmara University, Faculty of Communication. He conducts research in media ethics, journalism studies, digital communication, and communication technologies. His recent work focuses on journalism ethics, and the application of computational methods in communication research.

References

Adamopoulou, E. & Moussiades, L. (2020). An overview of Chatbot Technology. In I. Maglogiannis, I. Iliadis, & E. Pimenidis (Eds.) IFIP advances in information and communication technology (pp. 373–383). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49186-4_31 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49186-4_31

Alexander, L., & Moore, M. (2021). Deontological ethics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2021 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/ethics-deontological/

Aristotle. (2009). The Nicomachean ethics (D. Ross, Trans.; L. Brown, Ed.). Oxford University Press.

Aydin, F. (2014). The role of virtues in the pursiut of happiness in teleological ethics. Asian Journal of Instruction, 2(2), 52-59. https://doi.org/10.20897/apjes/16934 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20897/apjes/16934

Beauchamp, T. L. (2005). The nature of applied ethics. In R. G. Frey & C. H. Wellman (Eds.), A companion to applied ethics (pp. 1–16). Blackwell. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/9780470996621.ch1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996621.ch1

Bentham, J. (1789). An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. T. Payne and Son. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00077240

Bozalek, V., Shefer, T., & Romano, N. (2024). Wild Sea Swimming as a Slow Intimacy: Towards Reconfiguring Scholarship. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 8(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/14223 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/14223

Chew, R., Bollenbacher, J., Wenger, M., Speer, J., Kim, A. (2023). LLM-Assisted content analysis: Using large language models to support deductive coding. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.14924

Christians, C. G. (2019). Media ethics and global justice in the digital age. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316585382

Christians, C. G. (2013). Global ethics and the problem of relativism. In S. J. A. Ward (Ed.), Global media ethics: Problems and perspectives (pp. 272–294). Wiley-Blackwell.

Dale, R. (2021). GPT-3: What’s it good for? Natural Language Engineering, 27(1), 113–118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1351324920000601 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1351324920000601

Demir, V. (2006). Medya etiği [Media ethics]. İstanbul: Beta Yayınları.

Dittmer, J. (2013). Introduction to applied ethics. Bloomsbury Academic.

Donev, D. (2017). Determining media ethics in traditional media: Terminological issues. Synthesis Philosophica, 63(1), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.21464/sp32111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21464/sp32111

Floridi, L., Cowls, J., Beltrametti, M., Chatila, R., Chazerand, P., Dignum, V., Luetge, C., Madelin, R., Pagallo, U., Rossi, F., Schafer, B., Valcke, P., & Vayena, E. (2018). AI4People—An ethical framework for a good AI society: Opportunities, risks, principles, and recommendations. Minds and Machines, 28(4), 689–707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9482-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9482-5

Gillespie, T. (2018). Frontmatter. In Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media (pp. i-iv). Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300235029-fm DOI: https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300235029

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Harvard University Press.

Greene, J. D. (2007). Why are VMPFC patients more utilitarian? A dual-process theory of moral judgment explains. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(8), 323–324. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1364661307001544 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.06.004

Gunkel, D. J. (2024). Introduction to the ethics of artificial intelligence. In D. J. Gunkel (Ed.), Handbook on the ethics of Artificial Intelligence (pp. 1–12). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803926728.00005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803926728.00005

Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.814

Hursthouse, R., & Pettigrove, G. (2026). Virtue ethics. In E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Summer 2026 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.

IFJ-International Federation of Journalists. (2019). Global charter of ethics for journalists. https://www.ifj.org/who/rules-and-policy/global-charter-of-ethics-for-journalists

Işıklı, S., & Fazlıoğlu, E. F. (2024). Journalism between ethics, competence and ideology: An analysis on technical errors and ethical violations in suicide reporting. Maltepe Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi, 10(2), 104–133. https://izlik.org/ JA74AU86BT

Işıklı, S., & Üzer, B. (2023). Debates on media ethics: An analysis of the movie The Post in terms of media ethics criteria. AJIT-e: Academic Journal of Information Technology, 14(54), 249–273. https://doi.org/10.5824/ajite.2023.03.005.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.5824/ajite.2023.03.005.x

Jain, N., Adeyinka, S., Roseman, L., & Allsop, A. (2025). Multi-LLM thematic analysis with dual reliability metrics: Combining Cohen's Kappa and semantic similarity for qualitative research validation. arXiv.doi.org. https://doi.org/10.48550/ arXiv.2512.20352

Jobin, A., Ienca, M., & Vayena, E. (2019). The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(9), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Kant, I. (2002). Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals (A. W. Wood, Ed. & Trans.). Yale University Press. (Original work published 1785).

Kaplan, A., & Haenlein, M. (2020). Rulers of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence. Business Horizons, 63(1), 37–50. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.bushor.2019.09.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2019.09.003

Lund, B. D., Wang, T., Mannuru, N. R., Nie, B., Shimray, S., & Wang, Z. (2023). ChatGPT and a new academic reality: Artificial intelligence-written research papers and the ethics of large language models in scholarly publishing. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 74(5), 570–581. https://doi.org /10.1002/asi.24750 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24750

McIntyre, K., & Gyldensted, C. (2018). Constructive journalism: An introduction and practical guide for applying positive psychology techniques to news production. The Journal of Media Innovations, 4(2), 20–34. https://doi.org/10.5617/jomi.v4i2.2403 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5617/jomi.v4i2.2403

Mill, J. S. (2014). Utilitarianism. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139923927

Mittelstadt, B. D., Allo, P., Taddeo, M., Wachter, S., & Floridi, L. (2016). The ethics of algorithms: Mapping the debate. Big Data & Society, 3(2), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679679 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679679

Napoli, P. M. (2019). Social media and the public interest: Media regulation in the disinformation age. Columbia University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/napo18454

Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. University of California Press. https://becomingpoor.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2019/06/noddings.pdf DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520957343

Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state, and utopia. Basic Books Inc. http://reparti.free.fr/nozick1974.pdf

Parfenova, A., Morozov, E., & Petrov, I. (2025). Semantic alignment in LLM-based content analysis: Human vs. machine text understandings. Digital Journalism, 13(4), 612–633. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.00046

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). The thinker’s guide to understanding the foundations of ethical reasoning (2nd ed.). Foundation for Critical Thinking. https://home. miracosta.edu/rfrench/documents/ethical_reasoningdc.pdf

Pieper, A. (2012). Etiğe giriş [Introduction to ethics]. (G. Sezer, Trans.). Ayrıntı Yayınları.

Rao, A., Khandelwal, A., Tanmay, K., Agarwal, U., & Choudhury, M. (2023). Ethical reasoning over moral alignment: A case and framework for in-context ethical policies in LLMs. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.07251 DOI: https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2023.findings-emnlp.892

Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org /10.2307/j.ctvjf9z6v DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674042605

Raza, F. A., Singh, A. D., Kovilpillai, J. J. S., Hamdan, A., & Rajaratnam, V. (2025). Safeguarding integrity in AI-enhanced education: Stakeholder perspectives on accuracy, validity, and ethics in ASEAN. European Journal of STEM Education, 10(1), Article 22. https://doi.org/10.20897/ejsteme/17307 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20897/ejsteme/17307

Ross, W. D. (1930). The right and the good. Clarendon Press. https://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/readings/ross.pdf

Rousi, R., & Vakkuri, V. (2023). Introduction to ethics in the age of digital communication [Preprint]. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.14421

Shams, S. (2026). Discomfort as a Methodological Condition: When Reflexivity Is Not Enough in Ethnography. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 10(3), 249-268. https://doi.org/10.66815/ajqr/18539 DOI: https://doi.org/10.66815/ajqr/18539

Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2023). Consequentialism. in E. N. Zalta & U. Nodelman (Eds.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Winter 2023 ed.). Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2023/entries/consequentialism/

Suksakul, P., Kittichaikoonkij, N., Polthai, N., & Pyae, A. (2026). Exploring human-in-the-loop themes in AI application development: An empirical thematic analysis. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.05510

Tractenberg, R. E., & Thornton, S. (2024). Facilitating the integration of ethical reasoning into quantitative courses: Stakeholder analysis, ethical practice standards, and case studies. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.01973

UNESCO. (2021). Recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137

Ward, S. J. A. (2019). Ethical journalism in an age in a populist age: The democratically engaged journalist. Rowman & Littlefield.

Ward, S. J. A. (2020). Ethics and the media: An introduction (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108779340 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108779340

Weber, N., & Locke, B. (2022). Ethics of open data. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.10402

Wilkins, L., & Brennen, B. (2004). Conflicted interests, contested terrain: Journalism ethics codes then and now. Journalism Studies, 5(3), 297–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 1461670042000246061 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670042000246061

World Health Organization. (2017). Preventing suicide: A resource for media professionals. WHO. https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/506ebe99-82a2-4f8d-80bd-b418a1ac8bb9/content

Wulfemeyer, K. T. (1990). Defining ethics in electronic journalism: Perceptions of news directors. Journalism Quarterly, 67(4), 984–991. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776 9909006700454 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909006700454

Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. PublicAffairs.