jle 2010 week 2
DESCRIPTION
Week 2 of my series of lectures on journalism ethics in 1st semester 2010TRANSCRIPT
3/7/2010
1
Contradictions and the
political economy of ethics
Ethical Fault Lines
Fault Lines
� fault line: (geol.) a planar fracture in which the rock on one
side of the fracture has moved with respect to the rock on
the other side
� the term fault zone is used when referring to the zone of
complex deformation that is associated with the fault plane
� he creation and behaviour of faults is controlled by the
relative motion of rocks on either side of the fault surface
[wikipedia]
Fault Lines in Journalism
� fault line: (journ.) an ethical fracture in which the accepted
rule or action on one side is contradicted by an alternative
rule or action
� the term fault zone refers to the zone of complex
contradictions that is associated with the social relations of
journalism practice
� the creation and behaviour of ethical fault lines is controlled
by the relative motion of the ideas, ethics and practices of
the newsroom in constant friction with the surface of the
world around it
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2
New fault line:
Digital Dilemmas� Web 2.0 has created a
new set of ethical fault
lines:
� Existential questions
� Who is a journalist?
� What is news today?
� Applied questions
� How do you manage
Facebook and social
networking?
Digitalization represents a new
technical paradigm that
reorganizes in a wide
scale the Political Economy of
Communication Information and
Culture, as it allows a complex
convergence that makes
consolidated markets unstable,
contesting hegemonic
PositionsCėsar Bolano 2009
Arguments and Cases
� Ethical dilemmas can occur
in spectacular single
moments
� Watergate
� Jayson Blair
� Others take longer to
develop
� Responsible v. Free
� The ‘Information
Revolution’
Fault lines are the tremors that
often shake individual journalists
and/or their organisations to their
core as they grapple with ethical
dilemmas
Hirst & Patching (2007, p.3)
Dialectic: paradox, conflict
contradiction & change
� The dialectic – as a way of thinking:� To ‘make sense of the connection between the
material world and consciousness’
� The dialectic – as the trajectory of change:� The ‘mutual constitution’ of social, economic,
cultural and political forces
� The ‘disintegration and reintegration of the
modern world’ (Mosco 1996, p.5)
� ‘Flux is king in journalism.
Dynamic thinking and dialogue is essential to
journalistic progress’ (Merrill 1989, p.8)
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3
The movement of the dialectic
action
Thesisaction
Antithesis
action
Synthesis
action
Antithesis
action
Synthesis
Ideas and social forces are
in constant motion
– a moment of balance is
not stasis –
there is constant
disequilibrium
Merrill talks of a
“triadic movement”
– the dialectic in
journalism
A thesis is
challenged by its
opposite
(antinome or
antithesis)
The struggle is
momentarily
resolved, but
then erupts
again
Each new
thesis
(synthesis) is
challenged in
turn
Change is
caused by the
actions of
people
reacting to
the world
around them
Institutions and
structures
contain
competing social
forces
Why political economy?
� If, to consider ethics we need to
understand:� ideas and social forces
� the actions of people
� institutions and structures …
� How do we know which ideas, people,
social forces, institutions and structures
are important?
� How do we understand their interactions
– mutual constitution?
Mutual Constitution
POLITICAL ECONOMY
…the study of the social relations
particularly the power relations,
that mutually constitute the
production, distribution, and
exchange of resources, such as
communication.
(Mosco 2004, p.6)
MUTUAL CONSTITUTION
individuals (journalists), institutions
(media firms, civil society), structures
(law, economics) and processes (news
gathering, regulation) are in constantly
evolving relationships.
(Mosco 1996, pp6-9)
COMBINED & UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT
The dialectic is not a smooth one-to-one operation.
Power relationships are unequal and subject to ebbs and flows
Thus, the process of mutual constitution – the impact of one event or action on
another social actor – is uneven.
For example: legal and ethical approaches to a particular dilemma or paradox do
not necessarily occur at the same time, nor do they necessarily match-up
THE ETHICO-LEGAL PARADOX
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4
Manufacturing Consent
"...a way of coming to understand
the world without illusion.“James Peck, The Chomsky Reader
The propaganda model
The mass media serve as a system for
communicating messages and symbols to the
general populace.
It is their function to amuse, entertain, and
inform, and to inculcate individuals with the
values, beliefs, and codes of behaviour that
will integrate them into the institutional
structures of the larger society.
In a world of concentrated wealth and major
conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role
requires systematic propaganda.
Propaganda must be an ethical issue
Is it conscious, or unconscious?
Mosco’s political economy
� historical analysis, the
present arises out of the
past
� understanding the broader
social system
� a moral philosophy and a
study of social values
� intervention and action in
the world (praxis)
What political economy
believes
� Media systems are social structures
� The media system is an important
factor in social systems
� Media systems help to create and
reproduce systems of belief
� Structure and policy impacts on the
types of content produced
� Systems are shaped by market
structures, technologies, government
policies and the culture of news work
(what journalists do; how and why)
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The problem of journalism
� Separation of editorial and
commercial functions
� How real is it in practice?
� The incorporation of “certain key
values” into codes of ethics
� Which values?
� Are they the right ones?
� Dependence on official sources
� stenographic journalism
� compromise with power
� susceptible to spin
� Soft news over hard
How a society can construct a
media system that will generate
something approximating
democratic journalism is a
fundamental problem for a free
society.
(McChesney 2008, p.25)
The limit of media freedom
No credible scholarly analysis of
journalism posits that journalists
have the decisive power to
determine what is and is not news
and how it should be covered.(McChesney 2008, p.58)
EPMU Code of ethics – Preamble
Respect for truth and the public's
right to information are over-riding
principles for all journalists. In
pursuance of these principles,
journalists commit themselves to
ethical and professional standards.
A code to overcome the
paradox?
� Self-censorship can be linked to
ownership and control
� Values are often those of the
systemic consensus
Censorship is largely self-censorship by
reporters who adjust to the climate of
practice at their media organisation.Tully, Intro (2008, p.5)
…values in the news are rarely explicit
…each story implicitly expresses a value
about what is desirable(Tully, Intro (2008, p.6)
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A code provides a set of
values for journalists
� report and interpret the news with
scrupulous honesty
� not allow personal interests to
influence them
� use fair and honest means to
obtain news
� identify themselves and their
employers
� respect private grief and personal
privacy
These are individual values – collectively applied – are they enough?
For this week’s tutorials
� Read Intro Ch1 – Tully on the values of
journalism
� Hirst & Patching (2007) Ch. 1 & Ch. 2
� The objectivity norm in American
journalism (Schudson, 2001)
� Professional confidence and situational
ethics (Berkowitz & Limor 2003)
Next week
� Lecture:
� codes of ethics and ethics case studies
� methods of ethical decision-making
� Reading:
� Price (2007) Ch. 23
� Hirst & Patching (2007) Ch. 10