Ethics in the Media
Teleological ethics is concerned with more of the consequences of a person’s actions. These ethics look at Pragmatic, Utilitarian, and Social-Responsibility theories. The Pragmatic theory asks people to look at experiences they have had in order to determine what the consequences of a future action might entail. The Utilitarian theory deals with ethical actions help more people than they can hurt. The Social- Responsibility theory explains that by the positive effort of actions from humans, society will benefit from these good actions. When looking at Situation ethics, researchers gather as much data they can pertaining to a situation and then make a decision of the particular principle not solely on facts of a situation.
There are four quadrants that are called the Potter’s Box. Within this box, each quadrant poses a question and the categories of these questions help to explain the issues and lead to a justifiable result. When looking at Quadrant 1, the hard-core facts of the issues are found. This quadrant basically finds all of the background information that is key to having an ethical story to present. In quadrant 2, editors and reporters look to find the values that are beneath all of their available choices. In quadrant 3, the people who make decisions research for the moral principles that will honor and uphold the values that they have found in quadrant two. In quadrant 4, the decision makers look to the complexity of the issue, loyalty. They have to develop a hierarchy of loyalties, which means they must follow a code of ethics.
In the media, ethics and law are similar yet different at the same time. In most cases, the law would permit mass media practioner to do numerous activities, however the practioner would refuse to do many of these things. The ethics pertaining to an individual mass media practioners usually have more limits that the law. However, there are numerous occasions that a journalist may choose to break the law when it comes to the grounds of ethics. There is no accepted practice of media practices and ethics, just as there is no relation between ethics and the law. Take prudence for example, instead of applying the law, this is just applying wisdom in a practical situation. This simple application can often be a leveling factor in terms of moral questions in the media.
Often times in the media, information is misrepresented. In generalization, this means that the information gathered for a story had deception when either gathering the information or telling the information. This is where ethics tends to lapse, and journalists are often asked to give explanations as to why there was deception, however, these deceptions aren’t as debated as staging news, re-creations, reality programs, selective editing, and new journalism. Take Staging News for example; in order to attract increased positive viewers to particular clients, public relations people will organize media events. Most of the time these are irresistible to journalists and other media employees and employers. However, the ethical questions are more serious for journalists in particular as they claim their jobs is present accurate information as well as have a balanced amount of the day’s accounts. Unfortunately, publicists tend to be photogenic and very easy to cover.
All in all, the mass media should be concerned with ethics due to the powerful effects they have on society. However, answers to ethics do no come easily, especially in the media industry. Even though there are numerous philosophical principles that deal with ethics, in this day and age, the media walk a fine line of what is ethical and what is solid information important to members of society. Making moral decisions is considered to be common sense, and there is no substitute for our human reasoning and common sense.
