A survey of the attitudes of advertising educators toward the teaching of advertising ethics in schools and departments of journalism

Scope of study. Focusing on advertising educators in journalism/communication departments of colleges and universities in the United States, this study primarily gathered their attitudes toward the teaching of advertising ethics. Also, the educators were asked to estimate how much time they devoted to teaching advertising ethics in required and elective advertising courses. The study hypothesized that programs accredited by the Accrediting Council of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication would have more extensive instruction than non-accredited programs. The study also hypothesized that differences in educators' backgrounds and self-perceptions would influence attitudes and practices in regard to the teaching of advertising ethics. Data were collected by a mail survey of one representative educator from each of 90 institutions of higher education which offer majors in advertising. Seventy-two educators responded.;Findings and conclusions. Overall, the educators place a high value on teaching advertising ethics, although approximately three-fourths of the respondents said they devote 10 percent or less of the coursework in advertising courses to advertising ethics. Also, the educators ranked the advertising ethics course last when given eight typical advertising courses and asked to prioritize them. Through t-tests and chi-square analyses, no significant differences were found when backgrounds of the educators were compared to their attitudes toward advertising ethics and advertising ethics education. Also, there was little difference between accredited and non-accredited programs in extent of advertising ethics instruction (with one exception) or in respondent attitudes toward the teaching of advertising ethics.