A study was undertaken to investigate the attitudes of journalism students towards journalistic ethics. The 52 respondents completed a questionnaire at the beginning and end of a senior-level journalistic ethics course; the questionnaire contained 49 opinion statements reflecting diverse ethical behavior of journalists. Factor analysis revealed three distinct information processing styles: type one, dominated by precourse responses; type two, dominated by the instructor as a marker variable and by postcourse responses; and type three, dominated by precourse responses. Results indicated that type two students who had completed the course showed much more support of statements expressing journalistic independence, calling for regular self-evaluation of performance, and advocating freedom from outside controls. These students altered previous attitudes that had favored peer group enforcement of ethical standards and came to oppose penalties for violation of ethical codes. They also modified a previously strong antipathy toward yielding to advertiser pressure in killing a story, and came to disagree less strongly with the statement that codes of ethics create a "police state" in the newsroom. (Author/DF)