Persuasion and
Ethics
in the Media Age
Learning Objectives
After reading the chapter, you should be able to:
1. Understand the importance of studying ethics and
persuasion
2. Identify specific ethical challenges of the media
age
3. Describe various approaches to ethical decision
making
4. Assess the openness of a culture to persuasion by
using the theory of universal pragmatics
5. Recognize the importance of codes of ethics in
several persuasive contexts
Key Terms
 Ethics
 Speech act
 Coercion
 Discourse
 Violence
 Ideal speech situation
 Digital divide
 Puffery
 Code of ethics
 Organization
Ethics
 The study of right or good conduct as it affects the
individual (character) and society (Limburg, 1994)
 Ethical judgments focus on degrees of rightness and
wrongness, virtue and vice, and obligation in human
behavior (Johannesen et al., 2008)
 The study of how we should act when faced with
equally compelling choices
Ethics and Persuasion
It is important to discuss ethics and persuasion together
because:
1. Persuaders impact others by attempting to make
others accept new ideas or change their behavior
2. Persuasion involves the conscious choice of ends
and means
 Coercion – use of force to compel an audience
member to do what a persuader desires – denies
choice to persuader or audience
 Violence – use of physical action to force compliance
3. Persuasive behavior can be judged by standards of
right and wrong – book’s discussion is guided by the
value of choice
Ethical Challenges of the Media
Age
 Deception – audience not provided with information
to make a choice
 Example: atypical results used to sell weight-loss
program
 Access – greater access to communication
technology increases awareness of possible choices
 Digital divide – unequal access to communication
resources such as telephones, computers, and
Internet
Ethical Challenges of the Media
Age
 Oppression – advertising that makes products/ideas
valuable also makes other products/ideas less
valuable
 Ads tell us who we are and who we should be
 To establish need for product, advertisers subtly
convince audience that they are inferior without it
 Advertising messages oppress through implied social
exclusion of have-nots
 Privacy – persuaders responsible for protecting
information gained through audience analysis
 Ethically questionable to use highly sensitive personal
information to create ingratiating persuasive message
Ethical Challenges of the Media
Age
 Conflict of interest – persuaders may have vested
interest in creating a convincing but misleading
persuasive message
 Media audience is not always aware of persuader’s
role
 Example: doctors paid by pharmaceutical firm to test
drug gave “expert” opinions without disclosing bias
created by financial compensation
 Persuaders may not be impartial advocates
Approaches to Ethical Decision
Making
Universal Ethics
Situational Ethics
 Immanuel Kant – ethical
 John Stuart Mill – principle of
standards are categorical
imperatives, are universal
and do not vary with person,
situation or context
 Use of rigid universal ethical
standards not readily
accepted in today’s world
 Freedom of speech is one
ethical standard universally
recognized today
utility suggests that what is
ethical is what produces
greatest public good
 Ethical standards may vary
depending on situation
Richard Johannesen
Three standards to make ethical decisions:
1. Political perspective
 Assess degree that behavior reflects culture’s political
system
 Reason and logic are fundamental tenets
 Unrestricted debate and discussion
 Press has freedom to question leaders and decisions
2. Human-Nature Perspective
 Communication should reflect importance of reasoning,
symbol use, and value judgments
 Persuasion that dehumanizes an individual is unethical
Richard Johannesen
3. Dialogical perspectives
 Ethical human communication should reflect values of
a dialogue, not a monologue
 Dialogue encourages member and persuader to make
a choice
Making Ethical Judgments
 Decisions are seldom clear-cut
 Made on cultural, organizational, and personal levels
 Persuaders sometimes make ethical judgments on
their own without resorting to public debate
 Organizations of persuaders often adopt codes of
ethics for members and public
 Public discussion can influence outcome of an
ethical question
Persuasion and the Public
Sphere
 Jürgen Habermas – theorizes all members of society
could openly and rationally discuss important issues
 Society is a mix of three interests:
Work produces goods or services
2. Interaction – use of language and other symbols to
achieve social cooperation
3. Power – ability to be free from domination
1.


Ideally, society is a mix of all three interests
Critical of dominance of capitalistic interests –
inhibits audience ability to choose
Persuasion and the Public
Sphere
 Habermas’s theory of universal pragmatics describes
competent use of communication to achieve
emancipation from technical interests
 Speech acts – statements accomplishing something
Speech act
Definition
Evaluation
standard
Constative
Assert truth or falsity
Truthfulness
Regulative
Use to influence
Appropriateness
Avowal
Express internal state
Sincerity
Persuasion and the Public
Sphere
 Habermas advocates that discourse serves to
question statements of a source
 Theoretic discourse – resolves constantives: search




for arguments to support a statement concerning truth
Practical discourse – resolves regulatives: used when
appropriateness is questioned
Metatheoretical discourse – used to determine what
constitutes good evidence or reasonable standards
Metaethical discourse – argues about the nature of
knowledge itself
Sincerity (avowals) not resolved through discourse
Persuasion and the Public
Sphere
 Habermas: to achieve a vibrant public sphere,
communication must meet the 3 standards of the
ideal speech situation, free from controlling interests
 Freedom of speech for all
 All individuals have equal access to speak
 Social norms and obligations are equally distributed
Visual Images and Ethics
 Use of images by persuaders has raised ethical
concerns
 Digital technology allows images to be easily
manipulated
 Examples:
 COVERGIRL digitally enhanced Taylor Swift’s eyelashes
for a mascara ad
 H&M used virtual models made to look real to
advertise clothing
Political Persuasion
 Political consultants must decide whether to work for




someone with whom they do not agree
Campaign laws are ambiguous
No real penalties for lying during a campaign
Many election laws are ambiguous, such as current
laws regarding “soft money”
Political consultants have no accountability to voters
Advertising
 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ultimate
enforcement authority concerning unethical
advertising
 Celebrities who endorse a product or service must
use what they are selling
 Anonymous actors not obligated to be product users
Advertising
 Puffery – use of a persuasive claim that actually has
no substantive meaning
 FTC cannot take action against puffery because
claims do not mean anything
 Advertising creates images of an ideal life that many
will never achieve
 Few legal requirements for ethical advertising:
1.
2.
3.
Ad cannot be deceptive
Objective claims must be supported by competent studies
Advertisers responsible for reasonable implications of
consumer ads
Organizational Advocacy
 Organization – a group of people in which activities
are coordinated to achieve individual and collective
goals
 Organizational persuaders challenged by combining
loyalty to the organization with truthfulness to
audience
 Organizational persuaders challenged whether to be
forthright about client identity
Journalism




Enormous power to influence audience beliefs
Journalists must exercise careful ethical judgment
Sources checked for credibility
Immediacy of Internet news forces quick decisions,
increases possibility of misinformation
 Some online news sites have lower editorial
standards
 Profit motive of news organizations raises ethical
issues
 NCA Credo is designed to instruct educators,
practitioners, and the general public about ethical
communication
Five Guiding Principles
 Baker and Martinson (2001) developed concise,
easily remembers standards – TARES
1. Truthfulness of the message
2. Authenticity of persuader
3. Respect for audience
4. Equity of persuasive appeal
5. Social responsibility for common good
Ethics and Audience
Members
Ethical responsibilities of audience:
 Be informed – consult several news sources,
investigate product values
 Keep an open mind – pay attention to all sides of an
issue to make a sound decision
 Be critical – question logic and reasoning of
persuasive messages
 Express ethical judgments – keep ethical standards
in mind when encountering persuasive messages,
and articulate ethical judgments in discussions about
persuasion