Media Ethics 2009 Abstracts
Media Ethics Division
Special Call
Teaching journalists how to navigate ethical dilemmas: A case study of ethics in the newsroom • Beth Concepcion, University of South Carolina • The purpose of the media is to cover the issues the public needs and wants to know. However, journalists face competitive and organizational pressures that sometimes conflict with personal morals and principles — and that larger altruistic goal of informing and protecting the public. Often these pressures result in personal and professional ethical struggles.
Standards of Excellence in Breaking News Online: A MacIntyrean Analysis • David Craig, University of Oklahoma • This paper examines the pursuit of excellence in breaking news online and the pressures that stand in the way of it, drawing on interviews with journalists at four large online news organizations. The analysis is guided by MacIntyre’s theoretical framework. Discussion centers on standards of excellence in online journalism, challenges to their attainment, and how journalism as a practice is advancing, declining, or both with developments in online journalism.
Interactive Ethics: Overlapping Norms of Practitioners and the Public in a Shared Media Space • Jane B. Singer, University of Central Lancashire / University of Iowa • Journalists and users share the interactive digital environment in unprecedented ways, suggesting a need to reconsider both professional and audience ethics in this context. This essay considers several ethical principles that take on new configurations for journalists as they move into closer relationships with audiences, then turns to normative concepts that gain relevance for audiences as their online role expands. It concludes by suggesting that digital journalism ethics is an inherently collective enterprise.
The Paradox of Public Interest: Why Serving Private Interests Provides a Stronger Moral Foundation for Public Relations Performed in Behalf of the Public Interest • Megan Stoker, Brigham Young University; Kevin Stoker, Texas Tech University • The paper examines the concept of the public interest as defined in political science literature and public relations research. This paper applies various philosophical approaches from Ayn Rand to Immanuel Kant, along with recent literature on game theory and public and private interests in public relations, to show that the most ethical approach to serving the public interest is focusing on adhering to personal values and private interests.
Student Competition (Carol Burnett Award)
Building credibility: Developing transparency in public relations • Giselle A. Auger, University of Florida • As an industry, public relations struggles with poor public perception. Such perception is strengthened by highly publicized situations involving questionable ethical behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explicate transparency as it relates to public relations, and to discuss the potential for development of trust within organizations and credibility in public relations, through the practice of transparent communication.
Multi-contextual, Visual Ethical Analysis of Privacy and Ritual in Corpse Images from Sichuan Earthquake • Yang Liu, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism • This paper provides a visual-ethical interpretation and analysis of corpse images from the photo coverage of 2008 Sichuan earthquake, China. Corpse images are interpreted in multiple contexts and analyzed around two concepts of privacy and ritual, both of which feature cultural specificity. Through content analysis and interviews, the paper points out the inconsistency of standards and the impact of media benefits in the ethical self-regulation of Chinese photo journalism.
Yes We Can or No Can Do?: The Distortion of News Coverage in Political Ads • Anthony Palmer, University of South Carolina • Barack Obama’s presidential campaign’s use of the Internet in regards to a video advertisement called Bad News created an ethical controversy due to its use of distorted NBC material without consent. This paper addresses the ethicality of Bad News in terms of the ethical perspectives of Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill and proposes a solution that would allow future politicians and political organizations to convey the same message without prompting legal or ethical concerns.
Media Morality and Compassion for “Faraway Others” • Ryan Thomas, Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University • In January 2009, the BBC refused to broadcast an appeal by the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) for humanitarian relief for refugees in the Gaza region on the grounds that it would compromise BBC impartiality. This paper explores three issues highlighted by this incident of concern to media ethics scholars: the blurring of news and non-news discourses, the consequences of impartiality, and the responsibility media institutions have to “faraway others.”
Open Competition Papers
Negotiating Privacy in the 21st Century: The Millennial View • Seth Ashley, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Lee Wilkins, School of Journalism/University of Missouri; Amanda Wysocki, University of Missouri School of Journalism • Traditional philosophical and legal understandings of privacy are not sufficient for appreciating how people think about privacy today. Radin’s “contested commodities” and Westin’s “circles of intimacy” offer a bridge between positive and negative constructions of liberty and privacy.
Journalistic Constraints: Weighing the pressures that surround the modern media • Jenn Burleson Mackay, Virginia Tech • This paper outlines existing models of constraints on journalistic decisions and applies those concepts to journalistic ethics. The researcher considers how journalistic ethics may be influenced by society, the news organization, the profession, technology, and audiences. Survey responses from weekly newspaper, daily newspaper, and television station journalists illustrate how these constraints affect journalists. The researcher suggests that journalists and journalism students should to be aware of these influences in order to make sound ethical choices.
The Ethical Dimensions of Duke’s Communication Response to its Lacrosse Team Scandal • Rod Carveth, University of Hartford; Claire Ferraris, Western Oregon University • Duke University is one of the most elite private universities in the nation, having tied for fifth in the 2005 U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, behind only Ivy League schools. In addition to superior academics, the school boasts several major sport powers, especially its basketball team.
Persistence of Narrative Persuasion in the Face of Deception • John Donahue, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Melanie Green, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Individuals are persuaded by fiction, but left unanswered is whether individuals maintain attitude change when a story presented as factual is later shown to be inaccurate. In this experiment, the alleged truth status of a narrative was manipulated. Participants in two conditions were informed after reading the story it was inaccurate due to (1) unintentional inaccuracy or (2) intentional deception. Although readers derogated a deceptive author, they did not correct their attitudes due to inaccuracies.
Offering the Cloak of Confidentiality to News Sources: Journalist’s Ethical Decision-making Behaviors • Michele Kimball, University of South Alabama • The use of confidential sources in news coverage can provide information integral to understanding significant issues for news consumers, but it comes at a price to journalists’ credibility and ethical standards. This study uses qualitative methods to evaluate journalists’ ethical decision-making behaviors when determining whether to grant sources confidentiality. Results show that journalists engage in a four-part process in determining whether to make a promise to protect a source’s identity.
Facing the Future: Media Ethics, Bioethics, and the World’s First Face Transplant • Marjorie Kruvand, Loyola University Chicago; Bastiaan Vanacker, Loyola University Chicago • When the world’s first face transplant was performed in France in 2005, the complex medical procedure and accompanying worldwide media attention sparked many ethical issues, including how the media covered the story. This study used framing theory to examine what happens when media ethics intersect with bioethics by analyzing French, American, and British media coverage on the transplant and its aftermath.
Television News Coverage and Disaster Management – The Ethical Difficulties of Disaster Journalism • Chao Chen Lin, National Chiao Tung University • The study explores ratings-driven television disaster journalism and other related issues on one side and discusses the relationship between disaster reporting and disaster management on the other. This study uses qualitative research methods such as “case study” and “in depth interview, focuses on the four typhoon disasters occurring between July and September of 2008 and conducts related analysis affecting the news production system of television in Taiwan.
Social Constructivism Meets Social Media: The Case for Collaborative Learning in the Ethics Classroom • Patricia Parsons, Mount Saint Vincent University • Teaching ethics as a collaborative process to cultivate moral imagination is an important adjunct to student development of the knowledge, attitudes and skills required of professional practice. The collaborative nature of the new social media provides a platform for the development of pedagogical approaches that are grounded in social constructivism. This paper presents a case illustration of the application of an online wiki to enhance student engagement in learning about professional ethics.
Short and to the Point: How More Ethical Online Headlines Might Help Restore Journalism’s Reputation • David Remund, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Writing headlines for online media can pose an ethical challenge. The limited real estate and dense saturation on most news organizations’ landing pages means trouble for copy editors and reporters. They must be extremely succinct in their wording yet clever enough to somehow breakthrough the clutter. This paper examines the ethics of news headlines online, drawing upon a blend of primary and secondary research.
Public Relations and Rawls: A Harsh Veil to Wear • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • John Rawls’ “veil of ignorance” approach to ethical behavior is a seeming staple in mass media ethics textbooks, but the veil is less likely to be given serious consideration as an approach to ethical decision-making than other approaches. This paper looks at the uses, misuses and applications of the veil in contemporary discussions of public relations ethics, and it posits six reasons why the veil may be hard for public relations practitioners to wear.
Beyond Case Studies: An Analysis of Teaching Effectiveness in Award-Winning Media Ethics Exercises • Carol Schwalbe, Arizona State University; David Cuillier, University of Arizona • A content analysis of 228 Great Ideas for Teachers (GIFTs) found that the 16 activities suitable for ethics courses relied on traditional methods of teaching, mainly discussions, teamwork, and case studies. Few used technology, games, or simulations. The authors created an index to measure teaching effectiveness. While most ethics ideas stimulated higher order learning, they did not incorporate other elements that might improve student engagement. The authors make suggestions for dynamic, interactive ethics activities.
Guanxi, Gift-Giving, or Bribery? Ethical Considerations of Paid News in China • Katerina Tsetsura, University of Oklahoma; Zuo Lin, U of Oklahoma • This study of the phenomenon of paid news in China reviews the English-language and Chinese-language literature on the subject of media opacity and cultural traditions of gift-giving and guanxi in Chinese media practices to answer a question whether discussions of media bribery are appropriate in the context of the Chinese media environment.
Credibility as a strategic ritual: The Times, the interrogator, and the duty of naming • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This study examines the use of names in the construction of “credibility” as a journalistic duty. Using the framework set forth by Tuchman (1972) of objectivity as a “strategic ritual,” the study discusses the ethical justifications put forth by the New York Times for the process through which it decided to identify a CIA interrogator who had been involved in questioning 9/11 captives.
A Content Analysis of the Public Service Announcements Dealing with Children’s Nutrition and Obesity -Investigating Advertising Appeals, Health Claims, and Health Intervention Techniques- • Jay (Hyunjae) Yu, Louisiana State University; Hoyoung Ahn, U of Tennessee • Public Service Announcements (PSAs) against childhood obesity have been widely used to help children understand the importance of healthy eating habits and smart weight management in their lives. As the rate of childhood obesity in the country has increased enormously in recent years, researchers have emphasized the significant role of the PSAs more than ever, but few have comprehensively investigated the content of the current PSAs dealing with the issues.
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