JOURNALISM'S MORAL SENTIMENTS Negotiating between freedom and responsibility

Philosophers since Adam Smith and David Hume have theorized that emotions play a role in ethical decision making. The most recent findings in neuroscience suggest that moral action does not occur without a firm handshake with the emotions. This paper explores the connection between emotions, bounded rationality and professional ethical decision making, specifically journalistic negotiation between freedom and responsibility. Based on the findings of neuroscience and coupled with feminist ethics and the concept of proto-norms as outlined by Christians, journalists' moral sentiments regarding these core concepts are linked to the development of a moral imagination that seeks both professionally sound and morally creative alternatives to difficult ethical choices. A case study of one documentary film maker illustrates the theory.