media ethics essay

Webster's New World Pocket Dictionary defines ethics as moral standards” and as a system of morals.” Webster's then defines moral as, of or dealing with right or wrong.” Similarly, media ethics are moral standards that are applied to the media. An example of this is the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics(1), a standardized list of items that members of the SPJ use as a guide in their strides to be effective journalists. In a similar manner, media professionals sometimes use their code of ethics as a device to shield themselves from attacks that are often led by individuals from the public who are dissatisfied with the journalist's work. Just as codes of ethics are utilized in various ways, the definition of media ethics is multifaceted. There is no single, ruling definition of media ethics. Instead, the concept of media ethics exists in many forms that are all based on a similar premise of acting as a blueprint from which media personnel can base their practices and their decisions. Ethics are not absolute rules, and individuals who work with codes of ethics are not legally bound to them. But, a media worker may be held professionally responsible for their actions if they are in conflict with their profession's code of ethics. For example, if a journalist was to include racist remarks in their newspaper story about an Asians American politician, that journalist would not likely be arrested, but they would certainly be fired from their job. Even though ethics are not as absolute as laws, individuals can still be held accountable both socially and professionally, if they intentionally or carelessly break the code of ethics that they work from. Ethics vary from individual to individual in the same way that they vary from organization to organization. In Webster's definition of ethics as a system of morals,” it is important to recognize that the.
Impact Factor:1.088 | Ranking:Communication 29 out of 76 Source:2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015) This item requires a subscription to European Journal of Communication. References Articles: Review Essay: Current Trends in Media Ethics European Journal of Communication December 1995 10: 545-558, doi:10.1177/0267323195010004008 Full Text (PDF) References To view this item, select one of the options below: Pay per Article - You may purchase this article for US.00. You must download your purchase, which is yours to keep, within 24 hours. Regain Access - You can regain access to a recent Pay per Article purchase if your access period has not yet expired. Sign in via OpenAthens : If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. Contact your library for more details. List of OpenAthens registered sites, including contact details. Login via your institution : You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password. Click here to subscribe to the print and/or online journal. Click here to recommend to your library.
The purpose of the media has become an ongoing question since the large amount of conflicts between the consumer and media. Why is the original purpose of the media so damn hard to figure out? It is time to confront this issue instead of blowing it off by saying, We can never change the media, so why bother? What kind of chickenshit statement is that?! If there are so many people with so much power, surely one of them realizes the downward spiral of the ethics of the media. I feel my sole purpose of this paper is to tell everyone my ideas and viewpoints on censoring the media. Ooooooo, censor. What a bad word that is when used in the same sentence with media. So many people believe censorship is a bad thing, but there is no other solution in stopping the bad press. When I sit back and look at the stories about stories that are bad and offending to someone, I realize something needs to be done. The media is out of control. True, there are many informing and needed stories, but, my god, how many times a day to we need to hear and read about how much money O.J. Simpson has to pay the family of Ronald Goldman? We, as consumers, need to sit back and ask ourselves, What was the point of hearing or reading that story? Back to the censor issue. I, as an aspiring journalist, do not believe in total and complete censorship of the media, but also, as an aspiring journalist, I am embarrassed of some of the stories that are run, for instance, when the crime scene photos of Jon-Benet Ramsey were run in Globe magazine. Was there not anyone, an editor, a writer, or even a custodian at Globe who thought, Uh, oh. These photos may get us into some trouble. Was there not a single sole who had enough ethics to try and stop these pictures from being printed? This is where censorship comes in. If I could do anything in the world, I would first, stop world hunger, and second set up som.
Open Competition The Pursuit of Privacy and Common Good: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Big Data Mining for Socio-Economic Development • Debashis ‘Deb’ Aikat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper delineates the theory and practice of ethical big data mining for socio-economic development in four parts. This paper also features a list of additional reading and big data terms with concise definitions explicating their relevance to big data mining for socio-economic development. The Ethical Roots of the Public Forum: Pragmatism, Expressive Freedom, and Grenville Clark • David S. Allen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • The public forum has been connected to the functioning of democracy, expressive freedom, and the media’s role in society. While the public forum’s legal contours have been examined, the ethical foundation of the public forum has not. Relying on archival research, this paper argues that ideas about the public forum can be traced to the pragmatism of Grenville Clark, who influenced judicial opinions through his work on the American Bar Association’s Bill of Rights Committee. Comparing the Ethics of citizen photojournalists and professional photojournalists: A coorientational study • Tara Buehner, University of South Carolina; Ana Keshelashvili • In the digital news environment, amateur images — citizen photojournalism —  appear next to professional photojournalists’ photos, contributing to a probable tension and sense of professional threat among professional photojournalists. Using the coorientation approach, this study explores the ethical values of citizen photojournalists and professional photojournalists, the extent to which they agree about these values, how accurate they are in assessing each others’ values, and how congruent they perceive they are with each other. Journalists’ Social Capital and Moral Development •.
INTRODUCTION Digital technologies raise a host of thorny and troubling ethical challenges for journalists and media practitioners, whether professional or citizen.  Following is a sampling of some of the issues digital technologies raise for students, scholars and practitioners of media. Plagiarism has become an often-accepted practice and international cultural norm due at least in part to the ease and temptation of copying online sources. Digitally altering images or video is common in advertising and sometimes in news. Is it ever really okay from an ethics point of view? Using anonymous sources is frequently an accepted practice in journalism.  When is it okay, if ever? Omnidirectional imaging is more than science fiction.  Is it the all-seeing Panopticon ? WikiLeaks and the transparency of public records have changed how the public understands government, the military and big business around the world.  Is this a threat to national security or an ethical dilemma for journalists who write stories based on the data these records contain? Artificial intelligence and computerized newswriting are commercial realities.  Do they pass the Turing Test (a definition of human-level intelligence)?  What about a test of ethics? Social media, Web-cams and privacy are part of citizens' daily lives.  Can society protect civility in the digital, networked age? Conducting interviews via e-mail is increasingly easy and common practice in journalism, but does it cross a line ethically for journalists?  What if the source asks the reporter to e-mail any quotes for pre-publication review just for the sake of accuracy ?  Defining Media Ethics Let’s proceed by defining what we mean by ethics, in particular media ethics.  Theorists often define ethics in terms of a set of principles of right, or moral, conduct.1   Some ask whether ethics are situational or absolute.2  Are there ethical.
Introduction Every day in every career or job, decisions have to be made. However, it is really hard to differentiate ethical and unethical decisions. At times, decisions even have to be made in the heat of the moment. So how does one ensure that the ethical choice is made? Media professionals do not differ much from other professionals in this regard. Professions such as lawyers and possibly doctors are also faced with ethical and unethical decisions to be made. Therefore, codes of conduct for these professions have to be made in order for the people involved to be able to make the right decision at the right time. However, unlike media professionals, violating these codes will often get the other professionals barred from practice or even have their licenses revoked. Media professionals on the other hand, have no professional review boards to revoke or to even grant these licenses. Although the performance codes for media are not as strict as other industries, they still exist. And here we are today to discuss, or rather to present, these ethical principles. The Print Media The first set of ethics was set by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in 1923, one year after founding the organization. They adopted the Canons of Journalism without any pressure from the government or the public. There were seven canons, namely; responsibility, freedom of the press, independence, accuracy, impartiality, fair play and decency. The canons are mostly prescriptive rather than proscriptive, in the sense that it tells the media what to do, rather than to tell them what to avoid. A brief description of each cannon: (1) Responsibility - The right of a newspaper to attract and hold readers is restricted by nothing but considerations of public welfare. The newspaper makes use of the share of public attention it gains which serves to determine its sense of responsibility.