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Summary Notes for Media Law and Ethics
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Notes from lectures and some of the readings for this course
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Notes for Media Law and EthicsReadings + Lectures
Merril - Theoretical foundations for Media
Ethics
Ethical concern: starting point
Sense of right conduct must be
o Developed
o Thought about
o Reasoned through
o Cared deeply about
o "nutured"
Ethics is at a personal level
Theoretical basis for ethical codes - Ethical absolutism
Rule based ethics
Many of maxims found in codes of ethics seem to reflect a proclivity for this
formalistic absolutism
Two main ethical emphases:
In both cases the media person is concerned with ethics and wants to do the right or
best thing
They are not mutually exclusive
Social or communitarian ethics
o The mass communicator can be concerned mainly with taking ethical cues
from society, colleagues and from the community
o Relies on group-driven ethics
o Stressed other-directed ethical action
o However is does not ignore individuality
Personal or individual ethics
o They can emphasize personal ethical development and put community
priorities second
o Relies on personally determined ethics
o Stressed inner-directed ethical action
o However does not discourage cooperative or social concerns
Communitarians Libertarians
Groupists Individualists
Egalitarians Enlightenment liberals
altruists Existentialists
Traits Traits
Restrained freedom Maximum freedom
Civic transformation Self-transformation
Normative ethics codes Personal ethical codes
Selflessness Self-concern
Cooperation Self-enhancement
Social influence on policy Personal influence
Bonding/conformity Autonomy/diversity
Group-progress Competition/meritocracy
, "other-directed" "inter-directed" diverse worldviews
Like minded worldview Total spectrum news
Positive, cohesive news Social information
Social guidance Universal competition
Universal solidarity Disagreement on ethics
Agreement on common ethics Relative-situation ethics
Universal-legalistic ethics Anti-media professionalization
Media professionalism
Exemplars Exemplars
Confucius Aristotle
Plato Locke
Marx Jaspers
Jonas Jefferson
Christians Madison
According to Henry:
Libertarian
o Holds fast to individualistic ethical development
o Improve society by stressing self-improvement and individual decision-
making
Communitarian
o Seeks to enhance the community and take ethical nourishment from the
group
o Improve society by sublimating personal concerns to community wishes and
cooperatively making decisions that are designed to eliminate friction
The Importance of Freedom in Discussions of Ethics
If there is no freedom, then the media person is acting in accordance with a
controlling agent and cannot really be making an individual ethical decision
In western society (e.g. US), journalist and people generally put their trust in the
owners and managers of their media: this loyalty affects their concepts of ethics
o Many people feel western journalism is irresponsible, biased, greedy,
imperialistic, and harmful to nation-building
o Natural to view western media morality as intrinsically bad
In non-western countries (e.g. Singapore, Saudi Arabia), loyalty is to a political or
religious authority: social order is often more important than individual pluralism or private
media system
Two main paradigms
Western freedom-centered one that has grown out of the European Enlightenment
o Designed for maximum freedom and consequently permits excess in
journalistic activity
The non-western authority-centered one that prevails in most of the world
o Designed to bring about an increasing degree of social order
In social-order (authoritarian) countries, the media system is not much concerned
with ethics, but with guiding principles and controls places on the press by the political
authority
, Journalists have guidelines and rules; what is the proper thing to do is determined
for them a priori, so there is no real need for any serious consideration of ethical behaviour
Countries with less press freedom = decreasingly concerned with ethics
Three classes of ethical theories
Two main/mega-theories of ethics:
Deontological: those that base ethical actions on a priori principle or maxims that
are accepted as guides for such actions
Teleological: those that base ethical actions on a consideration or their
consequences
Three main types of ethical theory:
Absolutist/legalistic theories - Aristotelianism, Confucianism, Kantianism
o Deontological
Consequence theories - utilitarianism, altruism, egoism, the social contract theory
o Teleological
Personalist theories: which are predominantly subjective and individualistic -
including the instinctual, emotive, antinomian, and existential
Deontological Ethic Theory
Has to do with duty: following formalistic rules, principles or maxims
If you follow the rules (e.g. giving sources), you are ethical; if you don't you are
unethical
Leading deontologist in ethics was Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German
philosopher
o Believed that only an action taken out of self-imposed duty could be ethical
o Formulated categorical imperative - what was ethical for a person to do was
what that person would will that everyone should do
Teleological Ethical Theory (aka consequence-related mega-theory)
Says that the person trying to decide what to do attempts to predict what the
consequences will be if A is done instead of B
The object is to choose the action that will bring the most good to the party the
actor deems most important
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