Media ethics
Applying theory to practice
Media ethics
• This branch of media studies concerns itself
with what media practitioners and regulators
(and still others in some cases) should do
– What is right and what is wrong?
• Compare to empirical social science that
attempts to identify what media are doing
– Behavior
– Effects
Moral decisions
• Decisions made by managers, practitioners,
regulators, etc. in their professional/occupational
roles all are inflected with moral choice
– Most are made without much awareness of ethical
implications
• Issues are ‘settled’
• Some decisions lead to self-analysis
– Journalists are more likely than advertisers, fiction
producers to evaluate the ethical dimensions of
stories, etc.
Moral/ethical theory
•
•
•
•
•
Utilitarian v. deontological ethics
Rights v. duties
Process v. consequentialist ethics
Individual v. collective
Universal v. professional/role-playing
Theory and common practice
• The most common approach to ethics in
media is based on a utilitarian/rational selfinterest model
– Produce the highest ratio of ‘pleasure’ to ‘pain’
– Market economics is thought to be most effective
economic system for furthering this end
– “The public’s right to know”
Christians
• Christians argues for a duties-based ethic for
media professionals
• Potter Box for application in particular cases
– How does Christians argue for his view—what
does he see as the main problems behind
utilitarian/individualistic ethics?
– What new problems are generated?
– What previous problems remain?
Practical application
• In all events/actions there are multiple factors
and applicable theories, implications, etc.
– Makes the computation of total good produced,
etc. pretty much impossible
• In the absence of careful critical thought it is
easy for practitioners to justify their actions
based on at least some related moral theory
or ethical principle
– “Give the public what it wants”
Examples
• Objective news reporting
– Probably the most common ethic stated in your
short responses
• Violence and sex in TV programming
• Universal service for the Internet
Figure 8.2 Equality as a media performance principle, together with related concepts
McQuail's Mass CommunicationTheory
Figure 8.3 Component criteria of objectivity (Westerstahl, 1983)
McQuail's Mass
CommunicationTheory
Figure 8.5 Two accountability models compared
McQuail's Mass
CommunicationTheory
Figure 8.6 Lines of accountability between media and external agents in relation to publication
McQuail's Mass
CommunicationTheory
“Potter Box”