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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