The major ethical issues brought to attention in this case study is primarily
Malcolm X famously said, “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power, because they control the minds of the masses”. Although the modern media is powerful, it is always changing not only technologically, but in the way journalists report and act. Commentary over the last several years has centered on the negative changes of the media that journalists are unethical, stories are approval driven, and opinion is included in the news. Many Americans as well as journalists are concerned in the apparent decline in moral of the media.
To resolve this conflict of interest, I would like to use Thomas White’s Framework. Thomas White’s framework for ethical decision making should be more useful to deal with situations in dilemma. White’s framework states: • Analyze the consequences and collecting necessary information. • Analyze the actions. • Making the final decisions.
In our class recently we watched the film “Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press”. This film examines the case between Gawker media a news company known for publishing questionable things about celebrities. Gawker release a sex tape of Hulk Hogan without his permission. Hulk Hogan a famous wrestler and huge name in the media was outraged. He claimed this tarnished his image and made him look bad.
The hardest part during ethical issue is identifying the causes as they will lead to other personnel not enforcing the standars and identify those who are not stweards of the profession. Two retired
The SPJ has a code of 4 main principles that encourages and helps guide journalists to as ethical of a career as they can. The first of their four principles is to “Seek Truth and Report It" which essentially states that they want to make journalism “as accurate and fair” as possible. Another principle that is mentioned is “Minimize Harm” which essentially means that one needs to treat everyone with the respect that they deserve as well as making sure that the journalist is aware of the potential harm that the report can cause in certain situations. The third principle that is brought up is called “Act Independently”. The gist of this principle is that the journalist mainly serves the public as an individual journalist.
The movie spotlight portrays different elements and functions of journalism using the roles of the cast and investigating the case study of priest John Geoghan sexually abusing children and this later turned into a story by the Spotlight team. Journalism has more than meets the eye, as this essay will uncover the functions that this movie portrays of journalism by discussing the function of the media, editors, the task of a journalist, the use of sources and the elements of a good story. Marty Baron the editor of The Boston Globe, his role is giving guidelines to subjects of case studies for journalists to write about, he is the active intelligent voice of an article, he does the editing work and fine detail before a publishment, he made the spotlight team investigate the Geoghan case as it was important to him and as a good quality of a editor is to know what the public’s interest and need are to read.
Reporters in the media have a specific job, to provide updated and accurate news, so that the public remains informed and current on the world’s daily events. Since, we are looking at Kantian ethics in this essay, it is important to look at the actions needed to be taken to be a good reporter and the whether or not the reporters in this particular case are being ethical based on Kantian ethics. In order to provide both necessary and accurate news, which keeps everyone up to date on various events, reporters must possess several defining qualities. A reporter in the media must be willing and determined enough to seek out the truth and then unbiased and straightforward enough to report the information without taking away from the honesty of the news that they are reporting on. Since Kantian ethics focuses on a person’s actions and whether or not those actions would be acceptable if everyone did them, in this paper we are going to focus on the reporters’ actions and the ethicality of their
Implicit factors that influenced these officers were the organizational structure of the department, and the lack of ethical supervision. The organizational structure gave the officers freedom to steal and engage in corrupt behavior without their supervisors knowing. According to the article, Peer Effects in Unethical Behavior: Standing or Reputation, by David Pascual-Ezama, Derek Dunfield, Beatriz Gil-Gómez de Liaño, and Drazen Prelec, “evidence shows that working in an unsupervised, isolated situation under competition, can increase dishonest behavior.” The officers were surrounded by other officers who were encouraging the idea of “looking out for number one” (Albanese, 2012).
Objectivity is a key ideal of professionalism for a journalist that refers to impartial, accurate and value-free news, opposing biased and opinion-led reports. Journalists must consider the consequences of their work, and in order to avoid such consequences as critical onslaught, missed deadlines and libel suits, Tuchman suggests that they use strategic rituals as defence mechanisms from such risks. 4 rituals are proposed (Gaye Tuchman, 1972, Vol. 77); “the presentation of conflicting possibilities, the presentation of supporting evidence, the use of quotation marks and structuring information in an appropriate sequence.” Tuchman takes a cynical stance, using the word “strategic” to suggest that these rituals are not to achieve objectivity,
4. Comment on each of the ethical issues mentioned in this case. Rank them
Upon the discovery of their fabrications Janet Cook, Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass attempted to justify their actions with a myriad of excuses. Additionally, the management of their publications and even their colleagues attempted to justify their actions. This reveals a low level of responsibility within the publications’ management. Media Ethics: Across media platforms defines responsibility as having to do with, “defining proper conduct, accountability with compelling it.” The purpose of justifying the actions of their employees this was to shift the blame and lessen the severity of the scandals.
The responsibility of the media to ensure its social ethics are followed comes to the regulations and rules set down by the organization itself. These rules are for all the company staff to adhere to; however, the editor may have a narrow view of some of its regulations when it comes to certain stories that may appeal to the audience and get more circulation for the organization. The culture of a nation may have many kinds of products which include video games, movies online, Fashion, and even technological advances, which influence the cultural changes. The rapid change for reporting the news has become an Internet and social media advantage. There are some issues with the accuracy of these news reports because the information being given may not have had efficient time to be sufficiently investigated.
Must employees will notice, criticized, or even emulated the moral failures of their leaders. If we look at our world history, it is filled with examples of how competent leaders have failed from ancient times to modern times. Periodically, we read about unethical behavior in some type of media outlet. Which often corrupts the public’s trust in the leader’s company or agency, then it brings the individual leader into question.
Public relations practitioners are faced with many challenges when it comes to abiding to the code of ethics in public relations, and making sure that they are accountable to the interest of the community, their clients and employers. In most situations these three groups of people have different expectations, values and beliefs, hence realistically it is very difficult to achieve perfect symmetry. As a result, practitioners are faced with many ethical dilemmas, as the area of ethics is a grey area. The definition of ethics explained by Parsons (2008) stated that public relations ethics is the application of knowledge, understanding and reasoning to questions on what is that right or wrong behaviour in professional practice of public relations.
