My Ethical Manifesto!
In a world where the media is constantly being questioned for their decisions, it is important to me, as a media student, to understand my own ethical process. By understanding what my values are and the ethical principles that align with those values, I am able to discover my loyalties. Ethics are important to understand and practice both in your personal and professional life because it allows us to draw responsible conclusions that yield justifiable actions. This blog post will explain my personal-based and professional-based approach to moral decision-making
Throughout my decision-making process, I follow closely to the Potter Box model, which is just one form of an ethical system. The first step in any decision is to assess the definition of the situation at hand, or the details. These are to be handled with care and are never to be assumed.
For example, in the professional world of news reporting I must have accurate and reliable resources for the stories I choose to cover. If I have false information to begin with, my effort to make ethical decisions could be completely unjustifiable from the very start simply because of my sources.
This step is equally important in making a decision in my personal life as well. Say I heard from my friend Grace she thinks my roommate borrowed my shirt without asking. I could act rashly on that information out of frustration with my friend, but I would be taking a risk using information that is not completely reliable. These are a prime examples of why the specifics of a situation are vital to moral-decision making.
The second step is where I determine my values, which are the accepted principles or standards of an individual or group. After personal reflection, my values are ranked according to importance as follows: stewardship, fairness, independence, honesty and creativity.
Independence in my personal life is seen in my ability to go about my daily routine and tasks such as homework, errands and cooking without relying on help or affirmation from anyone else to accomplish them. Independence in my professional life may look like my ability to problem solve in a situation and develop a new strategy without relying on help from my co-workers. This is just one example of how my values are reflected both in my personal life and my professional life.
The third step requires me to determine the ethical principles that my values correlate with, and these principles will guide me to make a morally justified decision. The ethical principles that I utilize in both my personal and professional decision-making are Rawls' veil of ignorance and the Judeo-Christian principle, which states to “ love your neighbor as yourself.”
Both of these principles support my values. The Rawls' veil of ignorance states “justice emerges when negotiating without social differentiations.” This clearly supports my value of fairness. An example of this in my professional life would be, a time when I might have to examine resumes for an open position at my company. I would place a “veil of ignorance” over myself. This concept would allow me to choose the best candidate for the job without being influenced by my own social position, and brings forth my value of fairness.
The Judeo-Christian ethical principle supports my value of stewardship in its motto, which states to “love your neighbor as yourself.” I show stewardship in my personal life in the way I care for my friends when they go through a hard time. However, I also display stewardship in my professional life daily as I care for and supervise the academic responsibilities of student-athletes I tutor at Academic Services for Student-Athletes here at Oklahoma State University.
Finally I reach the last step, which is determining my loyalties. My personal loyalty is my duty to care for others such as my family and friends. My professional loyalty is my duty to my coworkers and to my organization. Therefore, when the two ethical principles I associate with are in conflict such as between my values of fairness and stewardship. I will allow my Judeo-Christian principle to have the final decision-making authority because my loyalty to care for others is more important to me than fairness.
After considering these, whatever the situation may be, I am able to reach a sound judgment that I can justify because I went through this ethical process carefully.
