The importance of ethics in media
Why are ethics important in the media? Well, let’s think about what the media would be like without ethics. Without ethics, the media would most likely make important decisions using only emotions to determine their decisions, which may be actually true of some media sources today. However, this is called expressive decision-making, and it is difficult to morally justify. When you make an expressive decision it is passionately driven, instead of being rooted in a sound ethical principle, which is key to being able to morally justify the decision itself. Expressive decision-making is just one example of the importance of ethics in the media. Throughout this blog post, I am going to discuss the importance of ethical reasoning as a mass communication professional.
With the technological evolution, media professionals now play a more crucial role in society than ever before. People are now able to respond to media professionals instantly through social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The direct communication access to media professionals also comes with the ability of the public to demand explanations and reasoning for their decisions. Therefore, I believe the use of ethics in the media is more vital today than ever before.
For example, media professionals are constantly being questioned for their decisions to do public relations work or advertising associated with a cause, such as gay rights, feminism, immigration and pro-choice/life. For example, let’s say Megan is an account executive for a public relations firm in Amarillo, TX, which is a highly-conservative environment. The firm utilizes the principle of Judeo-Christian ethics in order to make morally justified decisions in their business. The firm’s loyalty is their duty to their clients, which is in quadrant four of the Potter Box.
After using the ethical system and principle of her firm, Megan has made the decision to run a school-board campaign for a client who is an immigrant from a predominantly-Muslim country. People in the community start to contact Megan on Twitter stating their disapproval, and they publicly question the morality of Megan’s decision. However, in her decision-making process she has followed the Judeo-Christian ethics principle, which main ideas include to “love your neighbor as yourself” and “humans are made in the image of God and with unconditional values regardless of circumstance.” Therefore, Megan’s decision is morally justified because she used the Potter Box along with a sound ethical principle. She can also refer to this principle when being questioned on social media. Had Megan not taken these steps carefully to come to an ethical decision, she would not be prepared to ethically defend her decision and its morality to the public. This could not only lead to distrust in Megan, but of the entire public relation firm.
In today’s media industry, reputation is everything and sound ethical practices are essential to success. These principles must be implemented in every decision of an organization. I recognize that an ethical system is routinely part of media organization, but it is not always rooted in a sound ethical principle nor is this ethical system always enforced. However, because of the current distrust of the media, sound-ethical reasoning must be a concrete principle in every media organization. The students in this class, as future media professionals, need to daily implement a conscious ethical system in our own decisions while at Oklahoma State University and continue this practice as we transition into the workforce. This will help put ethics back to the forefront of the media industry and strengthen how media professionals makes their decisions.
