Ethics In The Media - Essay Example

In order to establish this concept of ethics in media, the method of self-regulation is used. Self-regulation in essence, aims to set minimum standards on ethics to guarantee that journalists pertain to rules of conduct while representing information through the media. Ethics become necessary in this regard because any source of media would be regarded as untrustworthy by the people if it presents distorted information. In the current generation the high levels of competition in the media industry could result in severe losses.

Many problems could arise due to not respecting the ethics in a particular situation. Ethics ensure a reliance on a culture that understands personal boundaries of people, refrains from lies and deceitful dealings and does not use unfair means to achieve personal gains (Chiyamaka 4). Applying ethics to media would obviously mean by extension that no social, moral or professional harm should be caused to those involved. When these ethics are applied in the form of rules, it would guarantee the general public that their private lives are respected and no personal harm is caused to any of them.

The spirit of democracy is hampered if a code of ethics is not followed by the media because no freedom is present since, people are controlled through the watchful eyes of the media lurking to catch up on their every move. Therefore, the judgements should always be rational on the part of media, keeping in mind the fact that there are lives and sensitive matters such as the relationships between different countries involved (Chiyamwaka 3). A prominent book basically covered the idea of social and religious factors when it comes to ethics in the research media.

A case was the recent publication of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish Newspaper, which was an offence intended towards all Muslim readership (Ward & Wasserman 142-143).The whole idea that a religion is being disrespected is horrendous and does not respect any of the rules of ethics. This caused a tremendous outcry in the media and people carried out mass protests against this act because it went out rightly against a particular system of belief. This also occurred upon the planning of the international Burn the Quran Day (Ward & Wasserman 143-145).

This was shown on different news channels without having a hint of hatred or realization that this act was wrong. The reason why this might be so popular in the United States is because of the reason that media has been given the same freedom as human beings. This is one of the articles in the constitution, which says: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech or of the press” (Johnson et al 1). This was passed in 1971 as the 1st Amendment, in the Bill of Rights in the U. S. Constitution.

According to this concept, the U. S. claims that every system has a presence of checks and balances. This means that the media will try to establish the fact that internal checks and balances will control and mishaps in the media (Johnson et al 4). Ethics are synonymous with fairness, justice, impartiality and their presentation of truth just as it is. These ethics play a significant role in shaping a society, especially for its reformation. The media plays a major role in the lives of people today all