MEDIA

The goal of the OLBIOS Advisory Group is to help you ask the right questions, raise awareness and inform you on the ethical issues you are confronted with, using ethics not as a constraint machine but as a basis for a stronger, deeper, more conscious and creative approach to your field.

What are the eight mass media industries? What are the results of digital communication technology? Should we include video and computer games, cell phones in the definition of media?

What is simultaneous communication in a large group? What kind of communication is mass advertising? The ethical aspects of the tendency of the media to chose trivial stories, whilst ignoring intellectually stimulating news?

Is media essentially a business like any other business? Definitions of entertainment. Differences between mass, local and speciality media. Is mass media the new opiate of the masses? The real extent of the media’s moral influence.

How should we think about the concentration of media ownership? Do media possess a key role in political power? Seeking the truth by profession.

On freedom and accountability. Persuasion ethics: what’s fair in advertising and PR. Accessing the media: Information equity and information apartheid.

“Correctness” and Inclusiveness: Culture, race and gender in the Media. Mass Media in (non)democratic societies. Media Economics: When Deadline meets Bottom Line. Private lives, public interests – on Gossip and Rumour.

The ethics of photo and video journalism. Data Privacy. Media and Cyberspace: new questions and roles. Ethical dimensions of Art and Entertainment.

Historical glimpses of the Media. Study of some professional codes, including: PPC Code Of Conduct, NUJ Code Of Working Practices, Radio Authority Code, BBC Code Of Ethics, International Federation Of Journalists, ITC Code Of Practice, NUJ Code Of Conduct, guidelines and working practices.

Media, and the construction of the Moral Adult. On ignoring stories about important public-interest issues in favour of titillating tales pandering to the public’s prurient curiosity. Deciding what to publish and how to present information. History of media regulation and regulatory systems.

News reporting as driven by the free market rather than the truth. Is the free press totally immoral? Revelation of secrets and morality: the Wikileaks case. The social responsibility theory of the press, and the public as beneficiary.

Does an open and diverse debate on public issues really exist? Interest groups, advertisers, and the media’s dependency. Unconstrained and complete freedom of the press: the libertarian model. The exact, direct and indirect profits of media conglomerates.

Censorship and media bias. The end of the public’s dependence on mass media sources for news. Media Watchdogs and Press Freedom. How to teach Media Literacy. Copyright & Intellectual Property issues. The five forms of censorship: political, religious, racial, corporate, gender.

Media Economics. The Ethics of Cyberspace. Historical glimpses of Media Ethics. Ethics of art and entertainment coverage in the media.

The case of the Benetton advertising. Schramm & Siebert: The four theories of the press. News manipulation and propaganda. On ways of presenting a piece of information.

War journalism. The questions of truth and public secret : Privacy and free speech /Mix of fantasy and truth /Bad taste and sensationalism. Confidentiality of news sources – where is the limit when trying to obtain news? The Audimat Curse. On vulgarity. Undercover and investigative journalism.

Consequences from too much exposure to information. Strong language, violence and sex in entertainment media. Supervision methods of computer games. Is product placement in electronic media legitimate?

On heavy use of stereotypes in the media and promotion of prejudice. Breaking with existing norm and shock strategies. Is Art above ethics? Media and governments. Press freedom and political accountability. Freedom of Information.

Subversion of media independence by financial interests. Government monitoring of media. Media Transparency. Regulating media entities. Trade union and labour issues. Citizen media (low-power FM, community radio etc.).

Deceptive and misleading information. On press scandals. Intercultural dimensions of Mass Media. Media meta-issues: Who guards the guardians? Identity of the observer and the observed. What are the goals of journalism : Economic profits? Entertainment value? Providing information? Upholding democratic freedoms?

Advancement of art and culture? Fame and vanity? All the above? The Social Responsibility System of News Reporting: The media as supposedly driven to benefit the public and answer society’s need for truth. Openness and diversity of debates on public issues, honest updates on current events, focus on education.

Serving the public vs. serving special interest groups and advertisers. Media bias. What is really new in the news? On voices unheard: limited coverage of various political movements.

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