Media Ethics [antikvár]

Preface M. Ledia ethics has been traveling a rough road at the junction of theory and practice. Occasionally textbooks will include an ethics chapter at the beginning but will not integrate it with the workaday problems that follow. Principle and practice do not merge well in such endeavors, nor in our daily actions. The rush of events forces us to make ethical decisions by reflex more than by reflection, like drivers wheeling around potholes, mindful that a blowout sends them into a courtroom at one ditch and into public scorn at the other Two different mindsets are involved; thus, it makes fusion difficult. The study of ethics requires deliberation, careful distinctions, and extended discussion. The newsroom tends to emphasize other virtues: toughness and the ability to make quick decisions in the face of daily crises. Advertising and public relations professionals are expected to be competitive and enterprising. Entertainment writers and producers value skepticism, confident independence, and hot blood. For the teaching of ethics to be worthwhile, the critical capacity must emerge; reasoning processes need to remain paramount. Yet executives of media firms value people of action, those who produce in a high-pressure environment. If media ethics is to gain recognition, the gap between daily media practice and the serious consideration of ethics must be bridged creatively. Like the previous editions, this revision attempts to integrate ethics and media situations through case studies and commentaries. Communication is a practice-oriented field. Reporters for daily newspapers tend to work with episodes, typically pursuing one story after another as they happen. Advertisers ordinarily deal with accounts and design campaigns for specific products. Public relations professionals advocate a specific cause. Actors and writers move from program to program. Because communication is case oriented, media ethics would be uninteresting and abstract, unless it addressed practical experiences. However, ix