Ethics and Mass communication

• Moral and ethics are often confused ,They are not the same thing. Morals are codes of right and wrong often associated with religious traditions.

• Ethics on the other hand involves system or frameworks for working through dilemmas where clear direction from moral codes are lacking, or are in conflict.

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• We will see that in some ways ethics is bigger and more complex then moral.

• We learn moral codes as a natural part of our social upbringing ,ethics is more systematic and needs to be studied as a body of theories.

• The role of ethics is to provide guidance and rules where traditional moral codes are inadequate.

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• Moral, for instance would suggest that it is always wrong to tell a lie. But what if telling lie resulted in someone ‘s unemployment, or imprisonment ,or even death, what if you told lie to get ahead professionally.

• Ethics helps to clarify these dilemmas, and these dilemmas arise more and more frequently in a complex globalized media

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dominated world of many distantly interacting stakeholders.

• Next we will consider little bit on the history of Ethics.

• Following are some of the theories that were introduced by philosophers long time ago

Virtue Ethics

• This is the broad idea that one should live moderately ,not excess or frugality, but somewhere in between.

• Virtue ethics is centered on the individual involved in a scenario, and need to be applied on an act by act basis. which will lead to different outcomes for different situations.

Utilitarianism

• Also known as consequentionalism theory. This is the broad idea that dilemmas can be resolved by identifying what outcome would lead to the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

• Utilitarianism is centered on the outcome of a scenario.

Deontologism

• According to this theory there are moral absolutes governing our behaviours and that, it is our duty to resolve dilemmas by referring to those absolute irrespective of the outcome.

• It is more based on the act involved in the scenarios, not about the actor or the outcomes.

Further points• All these systems have their strengths and

weaknesses.• Virtue ethics are seen to be weak because they

lack the moral absolute many desire.• Utilitarianism is criticized because according to

its teaching an act considered evil by many is allowable if it increases happiness for the greatest number.

• Deontologism seems simple but doesn’t handle complex conflict of interest very well.

Comparison between law and ethics

• Both Ethics and Laws are complimentary to each other and they are there to :

-guide people who are involved in the media industry.

-create a healthy media industry - Generally to prevent people involved in

the media from doing anything that may be detrimental to the society as whole.

Difference between Ethics and Law

• Although both law and ethics are there to complement each other, there are a lot differences between them.

• Among the differences are : 1) -Ethics acts as guideline to people

involved in the industry. - Law is there to control the media

industry

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2-Ethics is more based on moral standards, ethical behaviour is judged by the moral standard of the society.

-Laws are based on judicial standards, they are judged based on judicial standard.

3)- As far as compliance is concerned, people in the media industry have a choice whether to follow the ethical rules or not because compliance is based on obligation.

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-As far as laws are concerned there is no, choice people in the industry are bound to follow it whether they agree with it or not.

4)There is no punishment if ethical codes are not followed, there could be implications but no punishment as such

- If laws are not followed there could be penalties, imprisonments and other type of punishments

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5) Ethical values are universal, ethical rules are applied anywhere, all over the world. It does not mean that everything will be exactly the same, there will be some kind of similarity.

- Depend on the state or country and their policies, that is why certain things maybe legal in one country and at the same time it will not be legal in a another country.

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6)- The aim is more towards educational, it aims to produce ethical media industry.

-Laws are meant to prevent and control the media from doing the illegal things.

7)- Not honoring media ethics means ignoring the moral elements in other words the acts will be considered to be an immoral act.

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- Not obeying the law of the land means the action is illegal and can be punished.

8)-Thers is no one to enforce ethical rules -On the other hand if laws are not followed

the police or the relevant authorities are there to enforce the law.

Examples of unethical conduct

• News manipulation-news can be manipulated, government and corporations may attempt to manipulate news media for example by censorship.

-Method of manipulation are subtle and it maybe voluntary or involuntary. Those being manipulated may not be aware of this manipulations.

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• Publishing news without verification, this happens very often where media is known for publishing materials without proper verification.

• Sometimes although publishing certain information can be considered as legal but it is can still be unethical.

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• We always read about, celebrities complaining that they are being followed by reporters.

• Although celebrities have to accept the fact once they are popular there will be thing written about them, the press sometimes go over board and write thing that may be considered as too personal.

• Sometime getting affecting innocent people for the example the children of film star and so on.

How can ethical rules be implemented ?

• As mention earlier ethical rules are not enforced by the authorities.

• It is more for individuals to take it as a moral obligation to abide by these rules.

• How can media organization or even governments try to ensure that people in the media industry abide by these rules.

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• One way of doing it, is to come up with code of conduct for media, this means, just like all the other professionals, people in the media industry can be made subject to a code of conduct.

• In most of the countries around the world they have their own code of conduct for the media in their country.

Our own code

• The press in Malaysia have come with their own Canons of Journalism they call it.

• Malaysian Press reiterated its belief in the principles of Rukunnegara and the national aspirations contained therein :

- It acknowledges its role in contributing to the process of nation- building.

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-It recognizes its duty to contribute fully to the promotion of racial harmony and national unity.-It recognizes communism ,racialism

religious extremism as grave threat to national well being and security.

-It believes in a liberal, tolerant, democratic society and in the traditional role of a free

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And responsible press serving the people by faithfully reporting facts without fear or favor.

-It believes that a credible press is an asset to the nation.

-It believes in upholding standards of social morality.

-It believes that there must be no restriction on the entry of Malaysian into the profession.

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-it believes that the Press has a duty to contribute to the formation of public policy.

• Further the Malaysian press does hereby adhere to the following Canons of Journalism :

- The primary responsibility of the Malaysia journalist is to report facts accurately and faithfully and to respect the right of the public to the truth.

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-In pursuant of this duty he shall uphold the fundamental freedom in the honest collection of news and the right to fair comment and criticism.

- He shall use only proper methods to obtain news ,photographs/films and documents.

- It shall be his duty to rectify and publish information found to be incorrect.

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-He shall respect the confidentiality of the sources of information.

- He shall uphold standards of morality in the performance of his duties and shall avoid plagiarism ,calumny or slander, unfounded accusations or acceptance of bribe in any form

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- He shall avoid publication of news or reports ,communal or extremist in nature ,or contrary to the moral value of multiracial Malaysia.

- -It shall be incumbent upon him to understand public and national policies pertaining to the profession.