Media Ethics Issues & Cases: Ch. 4

Loyalty: Choosing Between Competing Allegiances

Loyalty is a funny thing. I always kind of thought loyalty was a cut and dry concept; either you are loyal or you are not. Of course everything is situational and I think in certain instances it is ok to break an established sense of loyalty. It's always a tough judgement call taking a step back to weigh the consequences knowing someone or something will ultimately be effected for the worse by your decision.

Recently, I was placed in a situation that forced me to establish my loyalty in regards to an agreement made out of necessity. Long story short, my roommate and I agreed to room with one of our five current suite mates but had to withdraw our agreement after a series of events that lead us to believe we had a potential better option. Based on lack of communication, from all parties involved, it came down to a decision from my roommate and myself to settle our rooming situation next year.

When the ball was left in our court we laid all the facts on the table eventually determining that our second option was the most financially pleasing and would make us happiest. The conflict continued as that required us to sacrifice our principles and values in regards to having already made an agreement. My roommate continued to seek options that would please everyone while I was much more determined to sacrifice the principle of the agreement for my own happiness. (Call me selfish, but I have been that person to sacrifice my absolute happiness one too many times to waste a full year of tuition in a situation I knew I wouldn't be pleased with. Also, withholding the fact that we preferred the second option would elicit a dishonest behavior that I wanted to dispel.) So, after calling outside sources - our parents - I agreed to break the news, with a heavy heart, that we would have to abandon the initial agreement and go with another option.

Despite the emotional decision and risk of losing a friend, the situation resolved itself as best it could. She understood and decided it was for the best. Not to mention, she appreciated the honest apology.

I think what made this so tough is that we truly care about her. Also, having been that friend that gets sort of screwed over made the situation that much harder from my perspective. Setting certain values and principles aside was a dagger knowing how it would effect her. Having to define my loyalties really tested my ability to be truthful, but I am happy that the truth surfaced instead of a false sense of complacency that could have ultimately been the downfall of a really good friendship.

Media Ethics Issues & Cases: Ch. 2

Information Ethics: A profession Seeks the Truth

This chapter discusses the problematic ideal of truth in that it extremely fickle in all accounts of life situations. No matter what truth is more than just a collection of facts and it means different things to different people. In the media objectivity and framing limits what an absolute truth may be. Packaging a story does more for a news station than it does for the public receiving the information. A focus on “current events” only to increase viewers and engage a larger audience now trumps the whole of a story that may prove a long standing issue. Lying and concealing the truth ultimately threatens the whole of our societal knowledge. 

Are we ever really getting the whole story? Probably not. To me, that is extremely scary. I wish I could say that turing on the news would help me to understand our national and world problems, but it doesn’t because not enough time is focused on the absolute truth. All for what, news ratings? I feel that the issue runs deeper into the completely skewed priorities of our country. Forget about learning the truth, give the people entertaining tidbits that will do nothing to further our growth as a nation.   

A changing view of truth:

• Pre-Socratic Greek [alethea]: existed in a time when information was only spoken (oral culture). By repeating messages, songs, or stories truth was kept alive for future generations. This was discarded when ideas were written down. --> We now believe what we see.
• Plato's Cave: links human rationality and intellect; it could not be touched or verified. We are all living in a cave.
• Medieval: What the king, Church or God says.
• Milton: competing notions of the truth should be allowed to coexist, with the ultimate truth eventually emerging.
• Enlightenment: divorced the Church, and developed correspondence theory stating that truth should correspond to external facts or observations. (Journalistic ideal of objectivity).
• Pragmatists: knowledge and reality were not fixed by but instead were the result of an evolving stream of consciousness and learning.

Enlightenment Cont.

• Journalists view objectivity as refusing to allow individual bias to influence what they report or how they cover it. It is in journalism that all facts and people are regarded as equal and equally worthy of coverage.

Pragmatists Cont.

• Truth lost much of its universality, but it was in remarkable agreement with the American value of democratic individualism and provided a challenge to objectivity. 

[ Pragmatists challenge Enlightenment because it questioned the absolute idea of there being and objective/detached reporter while truth remains subjective.]

Media Ethics Issues & Cases: Ch. 1

As chapter one was primarily an introductory chapter that comprised the broad topic of ethics, it was quite informative. I was most intrigued by the multitude of theories presented in the chapter. It makes sense that there are as many as there are due to varying perspectives concerning ethics as no two situations are ever alike, but I never realized the breadth of them. The book broke them down in a way that categorized the ethical, moral and principle means specific to each theory allowing for a deeper understanding of my own ethical principles. I appreciated the myth busting section engaging the idea that ultimately there are no right answers under the jurisdiction of ethics. Finally I was really intrigued by the case study of the picture shown at the end of the chapter. It brought about a different perspective concerning visual context in relation to ethics and the multi-angled prism of presented dilemmas.