 |
| Media
ethics
|
 |
It is not enough that we be incorruptible
and act with honest motives.
We must conduct all aspects of our lives
in a manner that averts even
the appearance of conflict of interest or misuse of
the power of the press.
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers Ethics
Code
The notion “media” stands for all kinds of means
of communication such as magazines, newspapers, the World
Wide Web, television, cinema films, radio, out-of-home advertising,
books, videocassettes, CDs, DVDs, computer games and other
forms of publishing. The term itself appeared in 1920s though
the phenomenon of media first appeared with the advent of
the printing press in the fifteenth century. Today media purposes
different aims, among which one can name advertising and publicity,
enrichment and education, journalism and of course, entertainment.
Media generally covers all spheres of life and its influence
is very strong on people. It is no secret that it is generally
a subject of controversy as its evaluation of this or that
situation can often run counter to a general opinion or some
personal principles. That is why nowadays the question of
media ethics emerges. If to look up the word “ethics”
in an English-English dictionary we can find out that it is
“the study of values and customs of a person or group,
which covers the analysis and employment of concepts such
as right and wrong, good and evil, and responsibility”(Collins,
368). Therefore, media ethics deals with some certain ethical
standards and principles of media, covering manifold topics,
frequently contradictory.
Media ethics comprises a great number of areas, the most prevalent
of which is the ethics of journalism. It is probably one of
the most conflict fields as these are newspapers and magazines
that are involved into news manipulation. The methods of manipulation,
primarily used by governments are subtle and various, and
can greatly influence the society. The fact that news can
also distort facts in order to attract as much attention as
possible is a general knowledge. Such kind of journalism,
also called “yellow journalism”, has to do with
all sorts of scandals and sensations regardless ethical issues
of privacy and tact. But those journalists who try to follow
the ethics code always face the problem of revealing one or
another fact as it can often be objectionable either for the
government or for public figures or for the society in general.
Moreover, public figures, such as politicians and movie stars,
play a significant role in media ethics dealing with advertising
and public relations. On the one hand, they may suffer from
journalists, so-called paparazzi, interfering their lives
and setting forth all the details, but on the other hand,
they get fame due to media and help media to develop as well.
Another field where media ethics is essential is entertainment
media. The use of strong language, the depiction of violence,
the practice of products placement, the widespread use of
stereotypes and taboos are among the most controversial issues
in this area. For example, product placement in movies, television
series, and music videos is quite common. Still it has its
supporters and adversaries as it has huge impact on people,
especially on teenagers. While widely using stereotypes media
also tends to break some of the rules formed in the society
in order to shock the public. The problem to what extent it
is acceptable causes hot ethical arguments. Profiting by proclaimed
freedom of speech journalists often lose the sense of proportion
and get out of line.
Besides media ethics is closely connected to media transparency
that implies existence of many sources of information, usually
competing with each other, freely available funds of information
and the methods of information delivery. This criterion of
media purifies its quality. In order to cope with all these
ethical dilemmas properly journalists create codes of ethics,
aiming at guiding them through all difficulties and helping
them at self-correction. Being coined in different countries
and in different organizations all journalistic codes have
similar features and promote common principles of work. Among
the most significant ones there are clear distinction between
news and opinion as well the separation between advertisements
and news, accuracy in factual reporting, balance of different
points of view and the limitation of harmful information,
even if it is true. Still there is a permanent opinion that
journalists ignore the majority of these rules and today media
is far away from the principles proclaimed in the codes.
What about the American media? Does it have its own code and
does it stick to it? The Society of American Business Editors
and Writers developed the Ethics Code, the main statement
of which says: “Recognize the trust, confidence and
responsibility placed in him or her by the publication's readers
and do nothing to abuse this obligation.”( Ethics Code,
2)
In fact, the question about the ethics of modern American
media is rather ambiguous and as every controversy topic it
causes different opinions. An important issue in American
media is the depicting of ethnic minorities in the USA. At
the beginning of the 20th century, the portrayals of ethnic
groups were very radical and even racist. Eventually, with
the development of the ideology of “melting pot”
they became more moderate but preserved some subtle pejorative
traits. Today images of nations in American media are primitive
and based on stereotypes.
The coverage of world tragedies and violence is another issue
that produces many ethic concerns. Journalists confront with
the problem how to handle the images of catastrophes and cruelty.
Assessing the way in which Americans report about the war
in Iraq, the earthquakes and hurricanes, journalism professors
disaccord. For example, commenting on the American coverage
of the earthquake in Indian ocean that happened on the 26th
of December, 2004, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University
Paul Janensch said: “[g]reat on explaining what a tsunami
is. But otherwise I can see why the rest of the world thinks
Americans care about death and destruction only when Americans
are involved.” (Deutsch, 3) He also remarked that journalists’
attention was focused mainly on American and European tourists
that were victims, in spite of the fact that the majority
of perished people were natives. There are other professors
who support him in so-called double standard of media ethics:
“If it’s OK to show us images of dead Indians,
Sri Lankans, Thais and Indonesians killed by a giant wave,
then isn’t it OK to show us images of dead Americans?
We see virtually no images of Americans killed in Iraq.”(Deutsch,
2) Actually, there is an opinion among American people that
the media tends to back up patriotic spirit more than to assure
the complete true coverage of a certain situation. This was
evident during the war in Iraq. The American public noticed
that at the beginning of the war reporters failed to present
the complete situation of the damage and sufferings of people.
That is why at first American society supported the war. But
after the announcement that the weapon of mass destruction
had not been found, the reports changed and the coverage of
the war became negative. So the problem is how far the journalists
should be patriotic in their reports.
However, not all people agree with such critical point of
view. Many journalists back their colleagues and state that
covering that particular disaster reports managed to cover
the tragedy in a more substantive than usually and it could
be an example for coverage of catastrophes in future. The
investigations of PEW Research Center for the People and the
Press showed that 75% of the American public believes media;
moreover people trust media more than such democratic institution
as the parties, the Supreme Court or Congress. Still such
high rate does not mean that people do not criticize the American
media. According to the research of the mentioned-above center
25% of Americans believe that the majority of media channels
are more guided by opinions than the facts in their news.
Concerning the issue of democracy in the American media 47%
of the American public think that the media supports democracy
and 33% suppose it saps it. Besides American media is often
involved into scandals both within the country and on the
international stage. The cases of plagiarism, distorted facts
and political bias are very common. In 2005 the White House
paid several journalists in order to promote the policy of
George W. Bush’s administration. In 2007 a journalist
was accused in plagiarism, the newspaper found out that all
the articles were copied from the free electronic encyclopedia
Wikipedia.
In order to control the news media in the United States several
organizations were created, such as Accuracy in Media (AIM)
founded by Reed Irvine in 1969 and Fairness and Accuracy In
Reporting (FAIR), founded in 1986 in New York, Media Matters
for America founded by a journalist David Brock in 2004. Media
Matters even instituted a prize “Misinformer of the
Year” which is awarded to a journalist or a network
that committed the most numerous blunders.
Thus, the system of American media is imperfect as everything
in this world. Personally, I believe that American media is
unethical, though it tends to create laws of journalism and
ethics codes. Unfortunately, to know and to preserve these
rules does not mean to fulfil them. Today we can witness various
cases of nonobservance of ethical laws by reporters. I should
say as there are different people in any society, so there
are different journalists. As every person has his or her
own moral principles and adhere to them throughout the life,
so every journalist choose the particular policy and elaborates
some rules he can not overstep in any situation. When there
is a dilemma whether to earn much money at the expense of
others’ grief or misfortune, then exactly these principles
come to the rescue. Those who choose cheating people and thus
earning money undermine the reputation of the media and so
the trust of public in the media as well. Due to such representatives
there is an opinion that the media in the U.S. is unethical.
As the rate of Americans who give credence to the media is
very high, it plays a very important role in the forming of
the public opinion and has great impact on the situation in
the country. Therefore, journalists should be aware of the
great responsibility that lies on them and realize what consequences
their work may cause. Moreover, they form public opinion not
only within the country but also beyond the bounds of the
USA, so their activity contributes much to the forming of
international opinion about the country. Despite it nowadays
in the history of media you can find scandalous cases which
conflict with each and every statement of the code. According
to the ethics code journalists should “accept no gift,
special treatment or any other thing of more than token value
given in the course of his professional activities. In addition,
he or she will accept no out-of-town travel paid for by anyone
other than his or her employer for the ostensible purpose
of covering or backgrounding news. Free-lance writing opportunities
and honoraria for speeches should be examined carefully to
assure that they are not in fact disguised gratuities. Food
and refreshments of ordinary value may be accepted where necessary
during the normal course of business.”(Ethics Code,5)
Nevertheless, journalists take bribes and use all opportunities
to make a profit.
Still, it is necessary to acknowledge that the American media
has its advantages and is considered to be patriotic not only
by the Americans but by foreigners as well. The organizations
that control media try to improve the situation and though
they are criticized, their role in the monitoring the situation
in the USA cannot be denied. In comparison with other countries
people in the U.S. trust it more and the main aim of the American
media is not to lose the trust it has now and to gain even
more. I wish that among journalists there would be more and
more people with high moral and ethical standards who would
devote much time to their work and think about the status
of their country on the international stage.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Christians, Clifford G.; et al. (2004). Media Ethics: Cases
and Moral Reasoning, 7th edition. Allyn & Bacon.
2. Patterson, Philip; Lee C Wilkins (2004). Media Ethics:
Issues and Cases, 5th edition. McGraw-Hill
3. Andrew Deutsch, Silha research assistant, Media Ethics
Tsunami Coverage Raises Ethical Concerns
4. Journalism Ethics -- A Reference Handbook (Contemporary
Ethical Issues) edited by Elliot D. Cohen and Deni Elliott
(Abc-Clio, 1998)
5. Crisis of Conscience - Perspectives on Journalism Ethics.
Hausman, Carl. New York, Harper Collins, 1992.
6. Ethics & Journalism, Sanders, Karen. London, Sage Publications,
2003.
7. The Society of American Business Editors and Writers Ethics
Code, 2003
8. Lidar Grave, Michal Nissenson, Ethics and the Media. It
Sounds More Patriot ic In American, 2007
9. Timothy Garton Ash, Anti-Europeanism in America, 2003
10. Collins Cobuild English Learner's Dictionary. HarperCollins
Publishers, 2004.
|
|
