Communication Ethics - complete summary of the two lectures
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Course
Communication Ethics
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
These notes include all important information provided during the lectures. Here you have all the theories and material for the group assignment but also for your own individual assignment. I didn't do any extra reading to pass this class, and with my group we managed to get 8.4/10 thanks to these ...
What is ethics?
➢ Gouvernance: the systems that are in place to make sure that media professionals
act ethically
➢ “Morality” refers to the moral action itself
➢ Ethics (or moral philosophy) is the study of right and wrong.
○ “Ethics begins when elements of a moral system conflict.” D. Elliott. → if we
talk about ethics, we are always talking about conflicts
■ Lead to tragic choices
○ Ethical reasoning is a rational justification for our actions when simultaneously
held values come into conflict (Plaisance)
➢ Plato:
○ The humankind is good in nature so be true to yourself and you will do good
things
○ Nature reflects the goodness that is in our world, the goodness in question is
an absolute truth
○ Epistemology is the search for this absolute truth, we feel it and see it but we
don’t really know it 100%
○ If we talk about ethical dilemmas, we shouldn’t talk only about good vs evil but
also take into account the norms: norms translate epistemology.
○ Ethics: ethical consideration, in which values come into conflict with each
other and a tragic choice has to be made
➢ The power principle: if you have power over a situation, even a minuscule amount
of power, then you are ethically responsible and when you have no power at all you
are not ethically responsible.
➢ Personal responsibility: who are the people who make ethical decisions
➢ The bearing witness principle: if evil things are happening, everyone has to bear
witness. You witness something and do not interfere.
➢ Normative approach:
○ Approach with a value judgement:
■ What is good and what isn’t?
■ Prescriptive: tell others what a good behaviour is
➢ Descriptive approach:
○ not to judge, but to consider:
■ describing and understanding what the actual moral behaviour is
■ The scientist as an observer
➢ The media authority: takes a normative approach → everything that is in the media
(PR, advertising, lobbying…) is judged by it. Formal self-regulation by the industry.
○ We expect everyone to uphold the rules of media authority (punishments: a
fine -not obligated to pay-, being exposed on some website for breaking the
rules)
Consequentialism: holds that the consequences of one’s conduct are the ultimate basis for
any judgement about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct → a morally right act is one
that will produce a good outcome or consequence
➢ First developed by Socrates:
○ Self-knowledge as a condition for a good and successful life
, ○ Bad actions arise from ignorance: if you knew the outcome of your action
which turned out to be evil, you wouldn’t have done it because nobody is
deliberately malicious.
➢ Thomas Hobbes:
○ Assumes an ‘imaginary natural state’:
■ Everyone is free
■ There are no laws
■ People enrich themselves via violence
■ A war of ‘everyone against everyone’
■ Everyone lives in fear as a result
○ To avoid this natural state, Hobbes says we made a social contract w/ each
other
■ This self-destructive natural state can be ended by man’s pursuit of
self-preservation, through norms and laws.
■ The simultaneous transfer of the means of violence to a superior
power through the use of a social contract: the sovereign (like the
police, the military, politicians etc).
■ Ethics help us to survive, to get along with each other in this world that
is in its core not organised at all.
■ The importance of ethics is not the conclusion but the train of thought
➢ Utilitarianism: holds that the best action is the one that maximises utility → the
greatest good for the greatest number, what is best for society as a whole
○ Jeremy Bentham is the founder of utilitarianism
○ Hedonistic calculus: the positive outcomes must outweigh the negative ones
■ An action that produces more pleasure than pain is morally right
○ Mill: we should not only consider the quantity of pleasure, but also the quality
■ Doesn’t believe in hedonistic calculus, argues that some forms of
happiness are more worthy than others
■ “People are free to make their own choices as long as they don’t harm
others”
○ Utility = happiness, absence of pain.
○ The best choice = maximising utility and minimising pain.
➢ Critic of utilitarianism:
○ Developed by John Rawls
■ there are two principles of justice
■ The liberty principle: basic freedoms and equal rights for everyone
■ The difference principle: societal inequalities can be justified when
beneficial for society as a whole
■ Utilitarianism: best for the greatest amount of people VS critic thereof:
best for ALL
■ The veil of ignorance → we come to the fairest decision if we use all
our knowledge about the world and our rational thinking skills, all while
ignoring who we are as a person. Example: how would we divide
ressources if we forget who we are and put ourselves in the shoes of
the least well-of?
○ Developed by Thomas Jefferson
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