Why should journalists practice sound ethics?
Usually, responses can be divided into two broad
categories:
1. The moral incentive
- Journalists should be ethical because they see themselves as decent and honest human beings.
- To crave self-esteem, which is very natural
- To get the respect of others
- A psychic reward for doing something good-for don't want to be known as someone who has exploited someone.
2. The practical incentive
- In the long term, it promotes news organizations' credibility and thus its acceptance in public.
- This translates into commercial success- just as a consumer would choose a product with a trusted brand name over a no-name alternative when seeking quality.
Defining Ethics
Ethics is a set of moral principles, a code-
often unwritten- that guides a person's conduct. According to Michael Josephson, there are two aspects to ethics:
1. The first involves discerning right from wrong,
good from evil, and decency from impropriety.
2. The second involves committing to do what is
right, sound, and proper.
So ethics is about how we meet the challenge of
doing the right thing when that will cost more than we want to pay.
According to Keith Woods:
Ethics is the pursuit of right when wrong is a
strong possibility
The origins of Ethical Theory
- The ethical theory evolved in ancient societies
as a basis for justice and the orderly functioning of the group, a purpose it
still serves today.
- Ten Commandments 1500BC- they were admonished not
to steal, kill, or lie
- Ethics from Greek word- ethos- meaning character-
a Greek citizen would be honest simply because it would be unthinkable to be
dishonest
- Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato believed that: the
individual, in living a virtuous life, would form part of an overall ethical
community
- Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth
living.
- Golden Rule: the essence of being an ethical
person which is to consider the needs of others
Or Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
The criterion of reversibility as stated by Rush
M. Kidder:
- Bible(Mathew): all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the
prophets.
- Jews(Talmud): that you hold as detestable do not
do to your neighbor. That is the whole law: the rest is but commentary.
- Islam: None of you is a believer if he does not
desire for his brother what he wishes for himself.
- Confucius(551-479 BCE) is undoubtedly the golden
maxim: Do not do to others what we do not want them to do to us.
Transmitting a Society's Ethical values
Over time values were passed down through
socialization- the new generation absorbed the importance of the community. Louis A. Day identifies four main conduits for
transmitting values
- Family
- Peer groups-friends etc.- a powerful urge to go
with the crowd
- Role models-famous people; or someone they knew
personally- urged to emulate them
- Societal institutions-media- drama, television
,cinema
How we fix our beliefs
Charles Peirce (1839-1914), an American
pragmatist, philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, explored how we know
what we think we know how we fix our beliefs. He concluded that individuals and
societies rely upon four basic and hierarchical ways of knowing.
- Tenacity - merely believing in something out of
blind prejudice or through unquestioned adherence to traditions- learned
through our Parents, places of worship, teachers, coaches professional
colleagues. Once we latch onto these simple, all-encompassing explanations, we
use them automatically to define and resolve continuing problems and as
shortcuts to handling new situations. Holding tenaciously and dogmatically to
our beliefs is more accessible than grappling with troubling nuances. That is
why dogmatic and visceral people make decisions quickly and seemingly with more
certainty.
- Authority - to accept ideas passed on to us by
various authority figures- secular or religious person or institution, etc. the
extent to which we tentatively or wholeheartedly accept opinions from authority
figures says a lot about how open or closed-minded we are. Careful, rational
filtering of ideas from authorities is a sign of mental and moral maturity;
blind obedience and willful deference are not. In some environments, elders
clarify that experience and opinions are to be challenged; authority serves as
a form of social control. In other cases, an open environment encourages
exploration and even tolerates some mistakes.
- Intuition - beyond authority-based beliefs are the
ones we generate by our intuition, best judgments. Through a wide variety of
opinions and observations, we are running them through our filters- filters
created by our particular lot in life, our professional backgrounds, our
demographic(age, sex, gender, income, place of residence, etc), and
psychographic variables(our values and motivations), our attentiveness or
indifference our self-interests, etc.
- Science - after we have transcended tenacity and
authority and have come to rely on good intuition, what happens when the
well-meaning impulses or one person are not in accord with the well-meaning
intentions of others? What happens when good people see the world differently
because their filters are dissimilar? How then do we reach a meaningful consensus?
Peirce's answer was to use the scientific method. Science does not decide until
evidence is gathered; it asks to be objective in assessing ideas and
experiences rather than jumping to conclusions. It says our opinions and
conclusions should stand up to public scrutiny. In essence, we are describing
Principled decision making.
Keywords
Ethics, Media and Ethics, Ethical Theory, Media, Sociology, Mass Communication, Sociology,
Ethics is the pursuit of right when wrong is a strong possibility
The criterion of reversibility as stated by Rush M. Kidder:
- Bible(Mathew): all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
- Jews(Talmud): that you hold as detestable do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole law: the rest is but commentary.
- Islam: None of you is a believer if he does not desire for his brother what he wishes for himself.
- Confucius(551-479 BCE) is undoubtedly the golden maxim: Do not do to others what we do not want them to do to us.
Transmitting a Society's Ethical values
Over time values were passed down through socialization- the new generation absorbed the importance of the community. Louis A. Day identifies four main conduits for transmitting values
- Family
- Peer groups-friends etc.- a powerful urge to go with the crowd
- Role models-famous people; or someone they knew personally- urged to emulate them
- Societal institutions-media- drama, television ,cinema
How we fix our beliefs
Charles Peirce (1839-1914), an American
pragmatist, philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, explored how we know
what we think we know how we fix our beliefs. He concluded that individuals and
societies rely upon four basic and hierarchical ways of knowing.
- Tenacity - merely believing in something out of blind prejudice or through unquestioned adherence to traditions- learned through our Parents, places of worship, teachers, coaches professional colleagues. Once we latch onto these simple, all-encompassing explanations, we use them automatically to define and resolve continuing problems and as shortcuts to handling new situations. Holding tenaciously and dogmatically to our beliefs is more accessible than grappling with troubling nuances. That is why dogmatic and visceral people make decisions quickly and seemingly with more certainty.
- Authority - to accept ideas passed on to us by various authority figures- secular or religious person or institution, etc. the extent to which we tentatively or wholeheartedly accept opinions from authority figures says a lot about how open or closed-minded we are. Careful, rational filtering of ideas from authorities is a sign of mental and moral maturity; blind obedience and willful deference are not. In some environments, elders clarify that experience and opinions are to be challenged; authority serves as a form of social control. In other cases, an open environment encourages exploration and even tolerates some mistakes.
- Intuition - beyond authority-based beliefs are the ones we generate by our intuition, best judgments. Through a wide variety of opinions and observations, we are running them through our filters- filters created by our particular lot in life, our professional backgrounds, our demographic(age, sex, gender, income, place of residence, etc), and psychographic variables(our values and motivations), our attentiveness or indifference our self-interests, etc.
- Science - after we have transcended tenacity and authority and have come to rely on good intuition, what happens when the well-meaning impulses or one person are not in accord with the well-meaning intentions of others? What happens when good people see the world differently because their filters are dissimilar? How then do we reach a meaningful consensus? Peirce's answer was to use the scientific method. Science does not decide until evidence is gathered; it asks to be objective in assessing ideas and experiences rather than jumping to conclusions. It says our opinions and conclusions should stand up to public scrutiny. In essence, we are describing Principled decision making.