Guides and Resources

The National NewsMedia Council does not impose its own code of practice. Instead, it expects members to adhere to their own or to generally-accepted journalistic  standards, practices, and ethics. We’ve compiled several resources from other organizations to help journalists navigate news media ethics and standard practices in their work. These resources may be of particular use for journalists covering difficult or sensitive topics.

  • Ethnic media and diversity style guide
    New Canadian Media: Ethnic Media & Diversity Style Guide

    Similar to the Canadian Press Style Guide, New Canadian Media's Ethnic Media Style Guide reflects the cultural diversity of Canada.

  • A journalist's guide to working with social sources
    A Journalist's Guide to Working with Social Sources

    Developed by Claire Wardle, co-founder of the Eyewitness Media Hub, and research director at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, this guide provides guidance to journalists on how to handle material uploaded to social media channels, such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Vine and Whatsapp, or streams appearing via Periscope or Facebook Live.

  • The Canadian association of Journalists Guidelines
    The Canadian Association of Journalists: Ethics Guidelines

    The CAJ's widely cited Ethics Guidelines are intended to help both seasoned professionals and new journalists to hold themselves accountable for professional work. This guide seeks to provide examples of the application of general ethical principles, and to help journalists apply those principles and their best judgment when faced with scenarios not covered here.

  • Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma: Reporting on Mental Health

    Produced by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, this guidebook provides journalists with best practices on how to handle a wide-array of often socially stigmatized subjects. Chapters in this guide include: how to report on addiction and mental health, reporting on suicide, covering Indigenous Peoples, and self-care strategies for journalists who have experienced traumatic events in the course of this day-to-day work.

  • Best Practices: Child welfare journalism

    Developed by the collaborative journalism project Spotlight: Child Welfare, this guide contains tips for journalists covering child welfare issues, including best practices for interviewing youth, parents and others who are directly affected by the child welfare system.

  • The Diversity Style Guide

    The Diversity Style Guide is an American resource to help journalists and other media professionals cover a complex, multicultural world with accuracy, authority and sensitivity. The guide contains more than 700 terms related to race/ethnicity, disability, immigration, sexuality and gender identity, drugs and alcohol, and geography.

  • Plagiarism and attribution

    The Online News Association, a non-profit organization made up of more 2,000 members. It is the world’s largest association of digital journalists.

  • Overdose crisis reporting style guide

    Journalists play a vital role in educating the public, politicians, and policymakers during emergencies threatening the public's health. This guide is an evidence-based resource to assist journalists in reporting responsibly, reliably, and accurately about the current drug crisis.

  • Journalists of Color Resource Guide

    This U.S. resource guide, created with support from The News Integrity Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, aims to support journalists of colo(u)r.

  • Helpful insights for journalists covering people with disabilities

    This resource offers journalists a guide about how properly tell stories about individuals living with disabilities.

  • Tips for journalists on covering trans and non-binary people

    This list presents journalists with important background on the use of pronouns, false balance, and trauma.

  • Guide to help journalists write about autism

    This guide, developed in the U.K., aims to help you write about autism and understand the needs of interviewees who have autism.

  • GLAAD media reference guide

    GLAAD's media reference guide is intended to be used by journalists reporting for mainstream media outlets who want to tell LGBTQ people's stories fairly and accurately.

  • Covering Indigenous issues

    These reporting guides, developed by the Native American Journalists Associations, offer helpful tips for journalists covering Indigenous issues and communities.

  • Responsible reporting in an age of information disorder

    These guides from First Draft cover the tricky ethical terrain that comes with reporting in a world of information disorder.

  • Objectively Engaged Journalism

    Media ethicist Stephen Ward offers a way to conduct responsible journalism in a world fraught with disinformation and extremism. He argues that journalists must not be partisan or neutral, but instead work to protect egalitarian democracy. (Book, April 2020)

  • Canadian Press Style Guide

    Whether you're in journalism, communications, publishing or public relations, ensure your writing is accurate and consistent by following the standards set out by Canada’s trusted news leader. The Canadian Press Stylebook, Caps and Spelling and Guide de rédaction are the bibles consulted by our journalists every day as they write the stories used by hundreds of newspapers, broadcasters and websites.

  • Canadian Drug Policy Coalition media guide

    The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is a partner project with the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction (CARMHA), a research centre based at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. This media guide is designed to help journalists who are reporting about drug policy and addiction.

  • Reporting in Indigenous Communities

    This comprehensive guide is designed to help journalists report about Aboriginal communities. Created by CBC reporter Duncan McCue, the project was created to address some of the challenges journalists face, and how the resource can help journalists and editors work together to overcome them.