Ethics in Media Industry - Research Paper Example

Ethics in media industry Ethics in media implies the good morals or deeds observed to ensure production of quality mediamaterials to the viewers, the audience or the society at large. It is observed by online article writers, reporters, Television Anchors, media industries’ managers, actors, musicians, comedians and auditors among other media personalities. The current generation is characterized by advanced technology that anyone, including children below 15 years old can access certain information with a simple button click. This work is about some important ethical issues to be observed in the media industry, with regards to sexuality, dressing, language and ethnicity among other relevant media elements. Media plays a great role in keeping the society updated on current issues and entertainment among other benefits to the society, but it can turn to be disastrous when ethical issues are not well considered. Media could promote pornography, propaganda and false/doctored information, which promote culture rot and immorality among other negative societal traits (Kieran, 39). Ethics applies in different areas in the media industry, and each country has established ethical guidelines to guide each media personality depending on the type of interaction he/she have with the audience. Media personalities in their profession must understand the prevailing ethical and legal guidelines in the industry. They act as the eye or mind openers of the society. They are required to inform the society on the current occurrences or happenings in the economical, political, entertainment, religion, Educational, governance and health among other societal issues. The majority of the media personalities are the role models or mentors to several individuals, more so the teenagers, who are likely to take over media personalities’ dress style, walk style and language among other issues. It would be better if the media personalities consider some ethics in the career to mentor or encourage development of responsible and respective society members. It is worth mentioning that media is among the most complex careers, due to the nature of interaction it has with the public. Everyone is always watching eager to learn the current happenings, any slightest mistake or misconduct may compromise their respect and relationship with the public. News manipulation forms one of the ethical issues in the media industry. It is the omission or alterations of some elements in the news in favors of certain individuals or community. This is common with politics where some political aspirants or leaders may use his/her power or office to influence whatever is being conveyed to the public. Some media companies may also manipulate media content on some bribes or tokens by the wealthy and influential political class. Although there is no specific law describing certain consequences to such act, but a company may lose the public trust. Some external stakeholders like advertising companies or agencies may cut their links and deals with such media company. Social researchers more so in developing nations indicate that major civil and international wars have been caused by the manipulation or doctoring of the actual facts. The audience or viewers will have no time to evaluate the news or any other media content but take to the streets and cause havoc. Manipulating the news is more about telling lies to the public and this is demoralizing. Some of the modern media companies do not observe certain international media ethical standards. The advancement of technology implies some life changes like dress code, entertainment as well as relationships among other aspects of human life. Media personalities hardly consider their career ethics so long as their audience is entertained or contented. Modern ladies in the media companies wear short and sex appealing uncomfortable dresses to keep the male audience attracted. This may be appealing to the younger generation unlike older adults who appreciate good morals. Media personalities are fond of using the ‘F’ among other vulgar language to keep their audiences attracted. Some of these controversies have sparked some concerns with human rights activists/ organizations whose main responsibility is to advocate for good morals in the society (Plaisance, 139). There are complains that the current children would develop into an immoral society if some of the immoral and unethical elements in the media is not addressed. The problem is that the media personalities cannot be forced to dress in some decent manners because they have all the resources to spend on the latest or modern fashion, they may lose the public celebrity or fame should they rely on some old fashioned dress mode. Some media celebrities are awarded huge salary packages by design or fashion companies like Armani, Hugo Boss, and Georgi among others. A lot has been done and is still being done to effective morals and ethics in the media industry. First, some commissions have been established to ensure ethics media careers. This came after some researches on adolescents and teenagers indicated some unpleasant and worrying behaviors in various learning institutions and the society as a whole. The government has called for strict regulations to ensure the public gets the best pictures or images, among other media contents. Online contents also need to go through keen valuations before being posted for public access. This work will consider some case study with regard to the media ethics. It covers some media responsibilities in the Kenya’s 2007 post election violence. Both regional and international broadcasting companies like CNN and Al Jazeera among others conveyed the images and happenings to the global audience. Some Blogs and web sites posted some sort of scary war images and news. The disaster was associated with certain inadequacies in media ethics. International social research firms depicted the media implications played a greater role in encouraging the war between two major great communities in the country. First, the issue of ethnicity provoked violence in some parts of the country. The election outcome announcements were made specific native languages, during which, false information was being passed. Different media personalities stopped being national images by taking sides with respect to their ethnics. False or doctored information and images were also shown to such communities to increase people’s anger. The use of vulgar language by several media personalities is another ethical issue with the encouraged the Kenya’s 2007 post election violence. This was meant to provoke certain communities whose key figures participated in the elections. Language use is a very important value in the media sector (Frost, 200). The society would never have time to analyze any news before reacting to it. The majority of Kenyan’s too took to the streets on learning some false information after the election. Some felt provoked or intimidated with the false information hence attacked some community members, on revenge missions. Thousands of people were killed, millions worth of property destroyed and others left homeless (Internally displaced). The economy of the country was greatly compromised due to the lootings and property destruction during the event. (Jean, 137). Furthermore, the Kenya’s national media was used to announce doctored election results to the public Media personalities should understand and apply some basic ethical principles in their career, which may include advertisements and marketing to ensure good public relations (PR) between their company and the audience or society at large. ‘Truth’ is an element my media career cannot ignore. Media is meant to inform the society on current happenings as they are, without any kind of doctoring to suit specific persons. Evidence or information back up is some of the aspects that confirm the truthfulness behind any information conveyed to the public. This implies that media personalities should be careful with photos or image capturing presented to the audience. Sometimes one is compelled to an abandon certain information on news coverage due to lack of sufficient information to prove it. Media companies must maintain and keep good reputation when it comes to making adverts. They should give the correct qualities of a certain product or service to be advertised. This is to create and maintain trust and good relations with the public. Fairness is another important consideration in media careers. Being a media personality calls for being the advocate or the voice of the community. The current society is made up of different people with regards to race, economic class, race and ethnicity among others. It is the role to serve all people without any kind of discrimination. There are scenarios where some journalists have been paid off to report some bias stories like manipulating election results and unfair court verdicts among others. Training curricula of media personalities should address the importance of ethics. This was to mold students to appreciate the principles in their career. Standard of decency is another important ethical consideration in the sector. Their dress code should appeal to both the young and older adults. This does not necessarily mean modern or latest fashion with expensive price tags, but decent clothing that would leave everyone pleased. Media personalities must always remember they are role models to several people out there. They should also ensure appropriate language in their career. They ought to revise or review every news or article before reading or posting it to the public. One has to understand the beliefs and culture of their audiences; hence, they would never utter any word against the religion, lifestyle, social life or culture of a certain group of my audiences. There is a certain instance when a certain regional media company was contracted to do the news coverage regarding some mining company’s plans to drill titanium from some privately owned farm. The company joined hands with some powerful top political class to evict the residents so that the mining process would start. The politicians through their lawyers lamented that the farm was a private property; hence there were no compensations for the residents who were to be evicted. However, the residents could produce their land ownership documents and they were not ready to be evicted from their personal land. To beat the case, the top politicians decided to bribe the media company to report false information with respect to the eviction saga. The media company was to fake that the mining company had already released huge amounts to cover compensation fees and that some residents were ready to move off the premise. This would imply taking sides with the rich and influential politicians. However, the media company refused the offer and stood by the truth, by reporting the actual facts as it was. This brought the company some problems, for instance it was threatened of its practicing license being confiscated for some alleged misconducts. But the public and human rights activists intervened and some of the influential political and business individuals were arrested and resigned from their offices. Media when managed well can save the community from violations from the wealthy class. To conclude, media career entails much of human interactions and communication. This would mean that ethical principles play a great role in prosperity in the media companies. Each country should ensure good ethical implications in the media sector by establishing a body that would always monitor the kind of media materials conveyed to the society. All media companies should be licensed after making specific declarations with regard to certain ethical and legal implications in the industry. The issue of posting irrelevant sexual materials to the public should be completely burned by the commission of communications to be appointed by the minister of communication. All movie stores should be licensed and monitored to limit chances of selling pornographic films to children. The inspections should be random to ensure the society is kept immoral and mind corrupting materials. Works Cited Frost, C. Media Ethics and self regulation. New York: Longman, 2002. Print Jean, C. Media ethics and accountability system. New York: Transaction publishing, 2000.Print Kieran, M. Media Ethics. London: Routledge, 2005. Plaisance, P. Media Ethics: Key principles for resposbility. New York: SAGE Publications, 2008. Print. Read More