MEDIA ETHICS
LECTURE 6
Baila Aftab
MEDIA ETHICS
Media plays an important role in informing the people
about the truths.
Professional ethics, such as what kinds of topics to cover
(balance), accuracy, truthfulness, impartiality, fairness and the
respect of individual’s privacy, act as important guiding
principles for journalists to maintain the integrity of the news
content.
Media Ethics defines and deals with ethical questions
about how media should use texts and pictures.
“Moral rules of conduct that guides one’s decisions.”
Factors influencing journalist’s
ethical practices
Whole process of information dissemination to the general
public involves different interests such as;
• personal interests of information source or journalist,
• ownership interests of media organizations,
• reputation of politicians,
• agenda of interest groups,
• policy implications for governments,
• fame of advertisers’ products,
• size of the target market and preferences of the
audience
Four distinct but related categories
Those relating to journalists themselves
Those relating to non-journalists who
influence journalists
Those tied to the media organization and
industry structures
Those that are connected to broader
societal considerations
All these interests impair the capability of
journalists to disseminate the news content
timely, unbiased and in accurate form to the
general public.
Journalists are often driven by different
personality traits to reach a decision when
they caught in situations like ethical
dilemmas e.g. Younger journalists.
There are hundreds of code of conducts in
media, however, we will focus on few of them:
1. Truth and accuracy
2. Independence
3. Impartiality
4. Public interest
5. Privacy
6. Taste
7.Accountability
Pakistani Media and Ethics
Over the last decade, Pakistani media has
experienced dramatic changes due to the factors
such as liberalized media policy introduced by the
government in 2002.
Technological advancements in media industry
TV news channels have been licensed
Channels are in head-to-head competition
In this scenario, the immature electronic and
competitive print media industry in Pakistan is more
vulnerable to unethical professional practices.
The current Pakistani media landscape reflects a
multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic and class-divided
society.
There is a clear divide between Urdu, national
language, and English, official language, media.
The Urdu media, particularly the TV channels and
newspapers, are widely viewed and read by the
masses—both in urban and rural areas.
However, the English media is urban and elite-
centric
We will consider three basic media ethics
with reference to Pakistani media industry
1. Coverage
2. Biasness
3. Objectivity
Coverage
Media should be representative of the overall society.
Media ethics requires a balanced coverage to
all important aspects of the society.
some studies have highlighted the important
domains, such as entrepreneurship development,
cultural diversity, corruption and social problems
of religious minorities ,largely ignored by media
Biasness
Media should inform people about issues in neutral way.
Hassan and Sabir (2011) found that main newspapers had
portrayed NGOs in a biased manner.
By analyzing main newspapers of Pakistan for their portrayal of
NGOs, researchers found that the National press negatively
framed NGOs in the period under research, instead of their
positive contributions to social development.
Media largely portrayed them as the agents of the West,
endorsing the allegations leveled against NGOs by those who
opposed their establishment.
Objectivity
“The ideal of objectivity suggests that facts can be
separated from opinion or value judgments”
The practice of news content reporting as not fair.
They surveyed viewers and found that respondents
believe that the private television news channels are
sensitizing the issues frequently regarding politics,
crime, terrorism, and celebrity etc.
These channels present routine news events as
breaking news to create hype.
Media Ethics and Virtual World
• These issues will be limited to communication ethics in;
1. cyberspace
2. internet
3. Copyright
4. plagiarism issues
5. as well as integrity in mass media and communication.
Journalistic ethical Advertising ethical
considerations considerations
• Sensationalism • Spin
• Privacy • bending the truth
• eagerness to report first rather • false advertising
than fact check
• Sexualization
• selective editing
• body image
Digital Media ethical Ethical issues of
considerations photography
• Photoshop 1. Showing victims of
• taking something out of violence.
context 2. violating the right of privacy
3. picture manipulation
