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Topics in Media Law and Ethics: Ethics and Media Work
JAMS 840
Fall 2015
Wednesdays, 5:30-8:10 p.m.
David S. Allen
581 Bolton
(DRAFT)
David S. Allen
576 Bolton Hall
Phone: The department no longer provides office phones for faculty. The best way to
reach me is via email. However, in an emergency you can leave a message for me in the
main office, 414-229-4436.
Email: dsallen@uwm.edu
Office hours:
Course Description and Objectives
People who work in media industries are living through interesting and stressful
times. As these industries struggle to adapt to a changing technological, economic, and
cultural environment, media workers are faced with new ethical challenges. What role
does the audience play in the creation of media content? What constitutes an acceptable
use of someone else’s work? What constitutes “good work” within an area of work?
How much transparency is required in the production of media works and when is
transparency not required? Is the demographic division of society to make marketing
more efficient an ethical practice within a democratic society?
These and many other questions are at the foundation of this seminar. It seeks to
help students recognize, understand and study ethical problems that citizens face in the
manufacture and creation of content in a wide range of industries. This seminar will
introduce students to ethical theory, but it does not ask students to become philosophers.
Instead, theory is used as an entrée into the much larger ethical discourse that is
embedded in the everyday practices of media workers. In short, this seminar attempts to
uncover and understand how ethical dilemmas are dealt with and resolved in the lived
world. The examination of how workers deal with ethical questions requires not only a
grasp of ethical theory, but also an understanding of the social and cultural environments
in which workers live. Students will be asked to identify a particular ethical dilemma
faced by workers in one segment of the media (journalism, advertising/public relations,
music, blogging, texting, television, gaming, etc.), write an extensive literature review
that identifies suitable research questions, conduct in-depth, qualitative interviews with
workers, and interpret that data to better understand how workers deal with ethical
dilemmas.
By the end of the semester, students should:
1) Be able to demonstrate the ability to apply theory as a way of helping them identify
and study ethical dilemmas in media work.
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2) Understand, gather and analyze data from in-depth, qualitative interviews.
3) Construct a research paper that makes connections between original research and
existing literature, and directly answers established research questions.
Readings
There are three required books for the course. They are:
Ettema, James S., and Theodore L. Glasser. Custodians of Conscience: Investigative
Journalism and Public Virtue. New York: Columbia University Press (1998),
978-0-31-10675, $29.50.
James, Carrie. Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press (2014) 978-0-262-02806-6, $20.00.
Rubin, Herbert J., and Irene S. Rubin. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing
Data, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications (2012), 978-1-4129-78378, $46.50.
Sandel, Michael J. Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? New York: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux (2009), 978-0-374-18065-2, $10.
In addition, the following articles are available in the content section of this
course’s Desire 2 Learn (D2L) site:
Abbott, Andrew. “The Claim of Jurisdiction.” Chap. in The System of Professions: An
Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
(1988): pp. 59-85
Allen, David S. “Jürgen Habermas and the Search for Democratic Principles.” Chap. in
Moral Engagement in Public Life: Theorists for Contemporary Ethics. Sharon L.
Bracci and Clifford G. Christians, eds. New York: Peter Lang (2002): pp. 97-122.
Aufderheide, Patricia, and Peter Jaszi. “Copyright, Free Speech, and the Public’s Right
to Know: How Journalists Think about Fair Use.” Center for Social Media
(2012), available at http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use/relatedmaterials/documents/copyright-free-speech-and-publics-right-know-howjournalists-th
Biocca, Frank. “Opposing Conceptions of the Audience: The Active and Passive
Hemispheres of Mass Communication.” Communication Yearbook, 11 (1988):
pp. 51-80.
Boczkowski, Pablo. “Monitoring and Imitation in News Production.” Chap. in News At
Work: Imitation in an Age of Abundance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
(2010): pp. 58-82.
Cooper, Martha, and Carole Blair. “Foucault’s Ethics.” Chap. in Moral Engagement in
Public Life: Theorists for Contemporary Ethics. Sharon L. Bracci and Clifford G.
Christians, eds. New York: Peter Lang (2002): pp. 257-276.
Deuze, Mark. “Media Professions in a Digital Age,” chap. in Mediawork, Cambridge,
UK: Polity Press (2007): pp. 84-112
Drumwright, Minette E., and Patrick E. Murphy. “How Advertising Practitioners View
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Ethics: Moral Muteness, Moral Myopia, and Moral Imagination,” Journal of
Advertising, 33 (Summer 2004): pp. 7-24.
Fischman, Wendy, Becca Solomon, Deborah Greenspan, and Howard Gardner. “From
Cocoon to Chaos in Journalism.” Chap. in Making Good: How Young People
Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
(2004): pp. 24-58.
Fishman, Mark. “Exposure to the Newsworld.” Chap. in Manufacturing the News.
Austin: University of Texas Press (1980): 27-53.
Gans, Herbert J. “Journalists and Audiences,” Chap. in Deciding What’s News. New
York: Vintage Books (1980): pp. 229-248.
Geertz, Clifford. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.” Chap.
in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books
(1973): pp. 3-30.
Greider, William. “Angle of Vision.” Chap. in Who will tell the People: The betrayal of
American democracy. New York: Simon & Schuster (1992): pp. 287-306.
Johnston, Kim Amanda, and James L. Everett. “Employee perceptions of reputation: An
ethnographic study.” Public Relations Review, 38 (2012): 541-554.
Napoli, Philip M. “Contextualizing Audience Evolution.” Chap. in Audience Evolution:
New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences. New York:
Columbia University Press (2011): 25-53.
Paterson, Chris, and Anna Zoellner. “The efficacy of professional experience in the
ethnographic investigation of production.” Journal of Media Practice, 11 (2010):
pp. 97-109.
Plaisance, Patrick Lee, and Joan A. Deppa. “Perceptions and Manifestations of
Autonomy, Transparency and Harm Among Newspaper Journalists.” Journalism
& Communication Monographs, 10 (Winter 2009): 327-386.
Robinson, Sue. “Journalism as Process: The Organizational Implications of Participatory
Online News,” Journalism & Communication Monographs, 13, 3 (Autumn 2011):
pp. 139-210.
Papers and Presentations
Each student is required to complete three related writing assignments during the
semester. I believe it is best to view the writing of research papers as a process and the
assignments are an attempt to assist students in that process. In other words, during the
semester students will be writing different pieces of their final research paper, which
should allow them to put the pieces together at the end of the semester for a complete
paper. Please note that due dates are tentative and might change as the semester’s work
proceeds. While more information will be distributed during the semester, they are
briefly described below:
Project proposal paper: Due on Wednesday, Oct. 5, this short paper should
describe your proposed research project for the semester. It should describe not only
what research questions will guide your study, but also where and how students will
gather information (including information about potential research sites). We will spend
time in and out of class prior to this due date discussing your potential research projects.
It is worth 25 points.
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Literature review: Due on Wednesday, Oct. 26, this paper, which should be
“around” 10 pages, will review literature that is pertinent to your research project. The
paper should clearly explain previous research, explain why that literature is important to
the project, and close with research questions that the project will attempt to address. It is
worth 100 points.
Final research paper: The final research paper will include the literature review
that you completed earlier in the semester as well as data derived from in-depth,
qualitative interviews with media workers. The final paper should be “around” 20 pages
and will include evidence to answer the research questions. Students are required to
generate transcripts from interviews and make them available to other members of the
class. The final paper, worth 200 points, will be due Dec. 16.
In addition to those writing projects, students will also be graded on a number of
other activities during the semester. In preparation for conducting longer interviews with
media workers, students will be asked to conduct a short, practice interview with a
colleague or friend early in the semester. Students will be asked to transcribe these
interviews and share them with the class. The class will then use these interviews to gain
practice analyzing data. This practice interview will be due Wednesday, Sept. 28, and is
worth 50 points.
Students are also required to make a presentation to the class during the final
weeks of the semester, worth 25 points. The presentation should discuss the project’s
findings and its significance.
While we will spend much more time in class discussing potential projects, it is
important to note that projects can address a wide range of topics revolving around the
idea of the ethics of media work. At the very least, however, your research must be built
on evidence gathered through interviews and/or observation of media workers. Please be
aware that this will require work outside of the classroom. It is vital that you identify
potential research projects as early as possible since obtaining access and cooperation is
not always possible.
Students are allowed to work in groups. For example, several students might
decide to study how television news workers decide when it is necessary to label video as
“file footage” and when it is not. Students could interview workers at different television
stations. A student would be required to complete his or her own research paper, but
each student can use data gathered by other students in his or her paper. This requires
that students be willing to share their research findings.
Discussions and Participation
Generally, we will try to concentrate on one topic per class meeting. (See the
attached schedule.) It may be necessary to adjust the schedule as the semester
progresses. It is assumed that students will have read the assigned readings prior to class
meetings. Students will be responsible for information contained in the readings and
class discussions.
One of the goals of this class is to move the discussion of ethics and media work
from the abstract to the practical. For us to achieve that goal, class discussion is
essential. That means I expect more from you than questions, although questions are
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welcome at anytime. I want your opinions, your ideas, and your comments. I expect you
to bring possible discussion topics to class.
Points will be awarded for class participation. Points will be awarded based on
your willingness to attend and participate in discussions. In addition, each student will be
asked to lead one class discussion during the semester, which will require each student to
develop several research questions. I realize that not all people feel comfortable
expressing their opinions in front of groups. One of my goals is to help you overcome
that discomfort by creating an atmosphere conducive to discourse. If, however, for some
reason you do not believe you can participate in class discussions, please see me during
the first week of class.
Some of the subjects that we will be discussing are likely to generate strong
feelings for some members of the class. I strive to be open to divergent ideas and
comments, and I expect all members of the class to be similarly receptive. This does not
mean you must agree, only that you treat people with respect and civility.
Academic Misconduct
It is essential that all work you submit for this class be your own and/or contains
proper attribution. UWM’s academic misconduct policy is as follows: “The university
has a responsibility to promote academic honesty and integrity and to develop procedures
to deal effectively with instances of academic dishonesty. Students are responsible for
the honest completion and representation of their work, for the appropriate citation of
sources, and for respect of others’ academic endeavors.”
I will refer cases of academic misconduct to the Graduate School with a
recommendation for disciplinary action. A more detailed description of Student
Academic Disciplinary Procedures can be found in Regents Policy, UWS Chapter 14 and
UWM Faculty Document #1686. Please do not let this happen. If you have questions
about this policy, please contact me.
Special Accommodations
Students who need special accommodations are encouraged to talk with me as
soon as possible. They should also contact the Student Accessibility Center. More
information is available at this link: http://www4.uwm.edu/sac/
Points
Points will be awarded based on the following:
Practice interview/
Transcript
Project proposal:
Literature review:
Final paper:
Final presentation:
Participation:
50 points
50 points
100 points
200 points
25 points
25 points
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Total
450 points
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Class Schedule
Day
Topic
Readings
9-2
Introduction
No assigned readings
9-7
Introduction to Ethical
Theory
Sandel
9-14
Ethical Theory (cont.)
Allen; Cooper and Blair; Fischman, et. al
9-21
Qualitative Interviewing
Geertz; Rubin and Rubin, chaps. 1-4;
Paterson and Zoellner
9-28
Qualitative Interviewing
Rubin and Rubin, chaps. 5-12
Practice interview/transcripts due
10-5
Media Work and the Ethics
of Professionalization
Abbott; Deuze; Greider; Drumwright and
Murphy
Project Proposal due
10-12
Ethics and the Audience
Gans; Biocca; Napoli
10-19
Media Work and
Decisionmaking
Ettema and Glasser
10-26
The Ethics of Process and
Routine
Robinson; Boczkowski; Fishman
Literature Review due
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Class Schedule
Day
Topic
Readings
11-2
Ethics and New Media
James
11-9
Ethics and Legal
Constraints on Media
Work
Aufderheide and Jaszi
11-16
Media Work and
Perceptions of Values and
Culture
Plaisance and Deppa; Johnston and Everett
11-23
Thanksgiving (no class)
11-30
Class Presentations
No required readings
12-7
Class Presentations
No required readings
Final papers due Wednesday, Dec. 16