The Role Of Ethics In Mass Media

Introduction
In this essay, it is argued that the media needs ethical guidelines to control the power mass media owners and practitioners have over general public.

Mass media’s nature and role in society is of communication that is written, broadcasted, or spoken that reaches a large audience. Collins Dictionary defines Mass media as “the means of communication that reach large numbers of people in a short time, such as television, newspapers, magazines, and radio” It is prominent, enough to have transferred itself on to society and have created a culture for itself. Society is assaulted, for lack of a better term, with messages from a multitude of sources; cinemas, print advertisements and magazines, and more. These messages promote products

Some media conglomerates dominate the market more than others. Each media conglomerate presses upon its viewer a certain message, powered by advertisers working with these conglomerates. Is this fair? Shouldn’t audiences be given the freedom of choice to hear the good and bad about before making a decision? This essay will further elaborate on these points.

Theories and how its used in Mass Media
Many theories are heavily used in mass media and two of them stand out prominently - Agenda setting Theory and Spiral of Silence.

Agenda setting theory is applied by telling you what to think about although it doesn’t tell you what to think.

“In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. In reflecting what candidates are saying during a campaign, the mass media may well determine the important issues—that is, the media may set the “agenda” of the campaign.” ( Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972 in Public Opinion

An example- It’s easy to perceive that Americans love “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel, given that it has received over 6 million airplays over 45 years as of 2013 across 80% of radio stations in the United States. But that’s not the case. In 1995, The Federal Communication Commission (USA) banned companies from owning more than 40 radio stations, however as of 2014, iHeartMedia (also known as Clear Channel) owned close to 1000 radio stations across the United States. They maximize profits by playing the same tested songs, like and akin to “Mrs. Robinson”. Another area will be the Internet, now largely dominated by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

With ownership of vast proportions, and the continued convergence of media bodies, state owned media the effects of mass media consumptions are becoming obvious.

Representation, stereotyping and socialization

Mass Media consumption
Six corporations produce the content that we read, see, hear and model us after. Just six. The power that these six corporations hold is immense. As an example, ABC is a credible source of news for most Americans. Disney owns ABC. On ABC, Disney is able to promote its latest Pixar (also owned by Disney) movie or the newest programmed to air on ESPN (owned by Disney). ABC will have a lot of leeway on how much a product of their parent company is discussed. Disney/ Pixar/ ESPN, by itself cannot