Business Media - Case Study Example

Case Study, Journalism, Mass Media, and Communication The CBC television network has a contract with Air Canada in which the airline purchases and shows daily CBC news programs on its domestic flights. CBC journalist Marivel Taruc researches and writes that the most important business story of the day is the impending layoff of 3,000 Air Canada employees. Her producer disagrees with her choice of the Air Canada story and says the story should probably miss in the rundown. After she objects, the producer tells her that she had no choice except complying.

The outcome of the decisions made by the producer will affect two issues, the reputation of the two corporate institutions companies and the journalist’s job. If the story leaks out of the newsroom to the public, a conflict is likely to develop between CBC and Canadian Air. The management may decide to lay off the journalist for having disregarded the company’s code of ethics. The case shows a conflict of interest between what the reporter believes and what the company upholds as the morals of its employees.

The dilemma of what should be the solution requires that concerned parties consider five approaches. The first should be consideration of what good and harm may come out of the decision. The second is what moral standards and rights the two parties hold. The third is what decision gives everyone concerned equal treatment. The fourth is a consideration of what decision provides the common right, and lastly which action creates morality. This work describes the decision-making process, which is the most suitable for the case of the two institutions.

CBC media has a clause in its code of ethics, which addresses conflict of interest (CBC 1). The provision requires that the workers at the company preserve the integrity of the organization. The case presented in this work is an expression of situations when conflict of interest is a reality. The journalist has to consider that Air Canada is one of the most loyal customers to the company. For such a case, there is a need that the media house does not expose the problems of the airline. As much as the case may be a reality, the code of ethics supported by the ethical models of decision-making, demand that the story must not appear in the airwaves.

Considerably, there are many models of ethical decision-making each with a different approach, but fashioned to attain a solution. The Utilitarianism model is the center stage as the most appropriate for this case (Lea, Williams, and Donahue 234). Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart advanced the theory, which distinguishes what is good from that, which is bad. According to the model, what is good is that, which will bring the best results to the majority of the parties involved in the case. Everyone at the media house expects that the firm does not embarrass its customers by publishing and airing news against them.

For this case, the best for the company is guarding the integrity of the code of ethics. The latter document demands and defines that what the producers and the journalists need to do for this case. The news received on that morning should reach the public because it is almost sure that the outcome will disrupt the partnership between the two companies. Making decisions may present difficult moments especially for solving cases of conflict of interest. The best solution is that, which will safeguard institutional and individual moral standards.

Another consideration should concern the possible effects of the outcome. What is the best according to the Utilitarianism theory is what is good for both parties involved.Works CitedCBC Radio Canada. Conflict of Interest. 2015. Web. Jan 05, 2015. Lea, Dale., Williams, Janet, and Donahue, Patricia. Ethical Theories, Principles, and Decision-Making Models. Journal of Midwifery & Womens Health 50.3 (2005):234-240.