What Relationship Should the News Media Have with Social Justice - Essay Example

Media Ethics Q1. What relationship should the news media have with social justice and why? Justice V.R.Krishna Iyre, in the landmark case of The Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) and another vs. The Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Employees’ Union and Others, beautifully summed up the relationship between news media and social justice. In his judgment he commented, “In a democracy, news media and the men behind have a special value….The importance of enthusiasm, integrity and thoroughness of the silent army, which speaks daily in every issue of newspaper, once understood, the necessity for a square economic deal to these hands argues itself. A Free Press serves the nation successfully when it serves its family fairly.” (Babu and Shetty, 255) Though context of delivering the judgment was different, but role and ethical importance of the news media have reflected from his judgment. Role of ethics in journalism has become so important that media ethics has emerged as a new discipline of study in this field. Progress in the field of media ethics depends greatly over “responsible journalism’ as it aims at conveying “truth and enlightenment.” (Berry, 82) Media ethics has been provided with so much important these days as it has failed to comply with its integral relationship with social justice. The morality factor plays an important role in the development of media ethics and factors like ‘social and self-responsibilities, duties, rights, consequences, truth, trust, objectivity-subjectivity, public interest, representation and purpose’ are associated with it. In the book, Social Justice, Matthew Clayton, Andrew Williams have commented, “Issues of social justice, in the broadest sense, arise when decisions affect the distribution of benefits and burdens between different individuals or groups.” (Clayton, Williams, 1) The concept of social justice is essentially related with common people and issues related to the sense of justice. It is expected that all forms of media will attempt to heighten the aspect of justice from different perspectives. Looking into the current condition of news media it is widely regarded that it has declined to some extent from its actual role. There are several occasions, where news media has failed to comply with its role as voice of people. This is the main reason that ethics in case of news media is provided with special attention. Recently, the unequal distribution of power factor is becoming increasingly conspicuous in the society and on several occasions the news media has intentionally refused to pay attention to such factor. Judging from the ethical perspective of news media it is expected that it will put its highest emphasis over the aspects, related to social justice. News media must not compromise over any such factor that will attempt to violate rules of social justice. Common people and their realization about justice are main focuses of the news media and it must not decline from that position. Q.2: To what extent do advertisers influence media content and what are the resultant ethical issues? Advertisement, as an effective tool of communication between people and industries, is into use since middle portion of the 19th century. The late 19th century, more specifically the year 1920 observed drastic change in the field of advertisement. In the recent years advertisement has become completely essential for promotion of a business. Influence of advertisement has reached to such a dimension that advertisers and businesses houses are creating a particular brand image at the mass psychological level to increase demand of their products. However, series of debate has been raised regarding the influence of media content and ethical issues related to it. “It is not really in doubt that advertising has a general influence on media content, especially by shaping the structure of markets, the relations between media and their audiences and the balance of types of content offered.” (McQuail, 134) According to the theories of market analysis, there can be various types of market situations. Thus, a marketing strategy related to product content always does not satisfy such situations. While it comes to opening of opportunity of a new market, conditions like, “experiment, originality and independence of public policy” (McQuil, 134) play a leading role. Under these conditions, success of content and is followed by the advertisers. In the recent times, the major ethical issues that are directed against advertisement are, a) increase of deceptive, untruthful or manipulative elements, b) high level sexual connotation in advertisement, c) perpetuation of advertising stereotypes, d) creating unnecessary influence over consumerist behavioral aspect of the mass. Development in the field of modern advertisement has opened up opportunity for advertisers to influence people from the psychological level and in most of the cases they are ignoring ethical aspects. Q.3: What are the ethical implications of the adage, “a picture says more than a thousand words", i.e. what are the specific media issues with regard to photo and video journalism? Effect of photo and video journalism has reached to a different dimension these days as “a picture says more than a thousand words.” A picture or a video is capable of expressing more aspects than words. Due to such influence use of visual advertisement is on a high every day and in this particular field we see excellent use of creative efforts. At the same time, from the social perspective, debates regarding ethical matters are also increasing. There are numerous such examples, where the use of a picture or a video is mainly aimed at exploiting mass psychology from the perspective of basic desire and sometimes those are overburdened with erotic or immoral connotations. ‘Eighty percent of the consumers interviewed spoke out against obscene or immoral advertisements. Such advertisements lead to generation in the society.” (Tyagi and Kumar, 384) Though business men and advertisers desperately ignore the negative aspect of photo and video journalism but from a common man’s perspective such sensitive aspects cannot be denied. We see that the young section of the society gets highly influenced due to such effect and in a sequential manner it casts wrong impact over the society from macrocosmic view point. Q4. Discuss the relationship(s) between truth, on the one hand, and entertainment, art and religion, on the other. Great philosophers, literary figures and social scientists have always suggested that Truth is one and it can be attained from various ways. Such theory was widely accepted till the end of modernism. However, since the inception of post modernism, such concept has changed drastically. Post modernists, like, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida have emphasized that Truth is variable and there is no one Truth. If we look at the whole scenario, then such post modernist approach can be definitely challenged. Entertainment is a vast canvas that at the level of application encompasses both Art and Religion. It is almost impossible to find such a piece of art that is anti-social or anti-humanist. Apparently, such artistic works can contain several hints that are directed against conventional social or humane actions but the artists have actually tried to imply their conceptions about the society and human beings. In case of religion and philosophy associated with it, Truth is singular and it can be attained at the human level. As entertainment encompasses both these aspects, evidently it is actually focusing over unanimity of Truth. While philosophizing over the relationship between Truth one hand and entertainment, art and religion, on the other, it can be said that both these aspects are interdependent. They fulfill each other in the course of their mutual interaction. Q5. How can Piaget and Kohlberg contribute to media ethics? The aspect of media ethics has received a new dimension with contribution from U.S. ethicist Lawrence Kohlberg and French psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget is famous for his contribution on moral development in the field of media and Kohlberg has provided emphasis over ethical issues. Scholars of media science are of opinion that “in the work of Piaget and Kohlberg, internalization defines movement from a lower to higher developmental stage.” (Wilkins and Coleman, 17) Change in the social pattern and psychological perception of common people has also reflected in the field of media studies. Various forms of media, in the post modern era, have declined from their goal and those cannot be restored if proper emphasis is not provided to the moral and ethical issues, as conveyed by Piaget and Kohlberg. Works cited 1. Berry, David, Journalism, Ethics and Society, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 2008 2. Clayton, Matthew and Andrew Williams, Social Injustice, Blackwell Publishing, 2004 3. Coleman, Renita, Wilkins, Lee, The moral media: how journalists reason about ethics, Routledge, 2005 4. Kumar, Arun, Tyagi, C.L., Advertising Management, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2004 5. McQuail, Denis, Media Performance: Mass Communication and the Public Interest, SAGE, 1992 6. Shetty, Rashmi, Babu, I. Sharath, Social Justice and Labour Jurisprudence: Justice V.R. Krishna Iyers Contributions, SAGE, 2007 Read More