1. Mass Media
Jason Nix
Journalism Instructor and
Program Director
JOURN 110
Spokane Falls Community College

2. Chapter 15
Media Ethics: Understanding Media
Morality
Chapter Outline
• History
• Ethical Principles
• Controversies

3. A Brief History of Media Ethics
Ethics
• Generally speaking, “ethics” is the study of
guidelines that help people determine right from
wrong in their moral conduct.

4. EarlyHistory of Media Ethics
Penny Press
• Horace Greely and the New York Tribune.
• Yellow Journalism
• Sensationalism
• William Randolph Hearst
• Joseph Pulitzer
• Muckraking

5. The Electronic Era
• Blacklisting
• The practice of keeping a particular type of person
from working in media and other industries.
• Deception
• Janet Cooke
• Jayson Blair

6. The Digital Era
• The ethics of unlimited information
• Who is considered a journalist?
• Free speech online
• Hate speech
• Porn
• WikiLeaks
• Content Factories
• Patent trolling

7. Basic Ethical Orientations
• Absolutist Ethics
• There is a clear right and wrong for every ethical
decision
• This is moral realism as opposed to moral relativism
• Prescriptive codes
• Outlining what you should do ahead of time
• Proscriptive Codes
• What you should NOT do

8. Basic Ethical Orientations
• Kantian Ethics
• Kant’s Categorical
Imperative
• Kant sought
principles that
would hold true in
all situations
• Something is just if
and only if it is just
in all situations

9. Basic Ethical Orientations
• Rawls’s Veil of Ignorance
• Make a decision as if you
knew nothing at all about
that person’s connections,
status, wealth, race, etc.

10. Basic Ethical Orientations
• Aristotle
• Golden Mean
• Moderation should be a
guiding principle

11. Basic Ethical Orientations
• J.S. Mill
• Utilitarianism
• Actions are ethical if
and only if they result
in the greatest
amount of good for
the greatest number
of people

12. Basic Ethical Orientations
• Machiavellian
Ethics
• The end justifies the
means

13. Basic Ethical Orientations
• Situation Ethics
• Ethical decisions should rely primarily on context, not a
rigid adherence to a set of rules
• Also known as: Relativistic Ethics

14. Conflicting Loyalties
• Duty to personal conscience
• Duty to organization, firm, employer
• Duty to one’s profession
• Duty to society
• Duty to God

15. Conflicts of Interest
• Friends and family
• Financial links
• Professional aspirations
• Publication rights
• Checkbook journalism

16. Accountability
• Corporate Ownership
• Corporate Censorship
• Ombudsman
• News Councils
• Professional Publications
• Citizen’s Groups

17. Chapter 15
Media Ethics: Understanding Media
Morality
Chapter Outline
• History
• Ethical Principles
• Controversies

18. Mass Media
Jason Nix
Journalism Instructor and
Program Director
JOURN 110
Spokane Falls Community College