Lessons Learned: A Lawsuit's Impact on journalistic behavior

摘要

Forty-two journalists who had been sued for invasion of privacy were asked to describe the impact of the lawsuits on their professional lives. Findings indicate that most of the journalists felt changed by the experience-despite nearly all of them prevailing in formal legal proceedings. The changes they described were categorized as "defensive" (adjusting routines to minimize the likelihood of a similar suit) far more often than "instructive" (changing fundamental journalistic practice), and there was little evidence of achilling effect from the suits, but the journalists clearly felt some degree of sting from the litigation.