Newscorp phone-Hacking - Speech or Presentation Example

The issue here goes much beyond phone hacking and goes to the question of corporate culture, ethics, privacy, confidentiality and freedom of speech. Journalists are traditionally have a right to investigate and they are expected to report fearlessly. The Pulitzer prize of USA is awarded to such outstanding journalists. However, what Murdoch and his hacks accomplished was not an expose into illegal dealings but an expose into the private sorrow of deceased soldiers and murdered girls. Clearly, News Corp went to a new low.

However, some people have also blamed the news hungry public that constantly feeds off the cable television, the Internet and other modern media tools. Realty shows also find high viewership and in such shows, celebrities commit all types of behaviour that should not be actually shown on public TV but which the celebrities want to be shown. In addition, there are crime TV series and other such channels where the blur between acceptable and tasteless footage is very fineClearly, people place great pressure on the newsmakers, reporters and media houses to deliver and show something new and unique.

TV ratings, advertisement revenues, salaries of people and survival of the media channels depends on the ‘eyeballs’ that their content generates. Thus, journalists are under great pressure to deliver what the public wants. News Corp had been hacking phones since 2005 and a large number of people read stories some of which were presumably written using phone hacks. It was only after that the journalists were caught that people were disgusted. Therefore, the audience is also partly to blame for creating a demand for such tasteless stories. 3) Practical and realistic policy recommendationIt is clear from the incident of News Corp that ethics, moral responsibility and corporate culture of news media houses is highly questionable.

The government is in a very tight position. If it brings in regulations and imposes curbs on what can be published and what cannot, the whole media will revolt and cry out against censorship, forgetting the main issue of phone hacking. At the same time, if the government does not do anything, it is accused of dragging its feet and of being held to ransom by a power media house.