Ethics and Media Culture: Practices and Representations

Book description

Ethics and Media Culture straddles the practical and ethical issues of contention encountered by journalists. The book's various contributors cover a diversity of issues and viewpoints, attempting to broaden out the debates particularly in relation to Journalism Studies, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Culture and Communications, Philosophy and History.

The debate concerning media ethics has intensified in recent years, fuelled mainly by the standards of journalist and media practices. The role of practitioners has taken centre-stage as concerns over what constitutes ethical, and therefore socially acceptable practice and behaviour, by the public, practitioners and intellectuals alike. The discursive relationship between the production and consumption of information is central to the debate regarding moral conduct, particularly in light of the commercialisation of the media. Considering that media institutions operate in a climate of intense competition, the value of information and its corresponding quality have begun to be critically assessed in terms of ethical understanding.

A degree of open-endedness is maintained in discussions throughout this book, which is intended to engage the reader with the issues raised and determine their own conclusions.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Dedication
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright Page
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Preface
  8. Notes on contributors
  9. Acknowledgements
  10. Introduction
  11. 1 Radical mass media criticism: elements of a history from Kraus to Bourdieu
    1. References
  12. 2 Trust in media practices: towards cultural development
    1. Faking
    2. The pursuit of truth
    3. The value of truth
    4. Trust or democratic accountability?
    5. On the question of cultural development
    6. Conclusion
    7. Postscript
    8. Endnotes
    9. References
  13. 3 Enframing/revealing: on the question of ethics and difference in technologies of mediation
    1. Understanding media technologies
    2. Dangers and saving powers
    3. Différance and mediation
    4. Conclusion
    5. Endnotes
    6. References
  14. 4 The 'fourth estate' and moral responsibilities
    1. Introduction
    2. The individual and the social contract
    3. The indetermincy of journalism
    4. Cultural politics
    5. Conclusion
    6. Endnotes
    7. References
  15. 5 Reproducing consciousness: what is Indonesia?
    1. Representation
    2. Constructing Indonesia
    3. Contesting national constructions
    4. Adat
    5. Conclusion
    6. Endnotes
    7. References
  16. 6 The manufacture of news - fast moving consumer goods production, or public service?
    1. Dealing with 'the crisis': professionals and workers
    2. A shared ideology and shared ethics?
    3. Caught in the middle
    4. Conclusion
    5. Endnotes
    6. References
  17. 7 'If it bleeds, it leads': ethical questions about popular journalism
    1. Introduction
    2. Representing the public interest
    3. Journalism ethics: critical issues
    4. Freedom of the press
    5. The public trust
    6. Truth, facts and objectivity
    7. Infotainment
    8. Professionalism
    9. Endnotes
    10. References
  18. 8 New Labour, New Britain. Campaign politics and the ethics of spin
    1. Introduction: 'the battle of spin'
    2. The 1959 General Election campaign and the emer gence of a 'feel good' politics
    3. Harold Wilson and the 'New Britain' 1964
    4. A message in touch with its times: the media response to the 'New Britain' of 1964
    5. New Labour, New Britain 1996-7
    6. The packaging of New Labour 1997
    7. The controversy of 1997
    8. Old versus new: tabloidisation
    9. High versus low: 'dumbing down'
    10. News and habitus
    11. Conclusion
    12. Acknowledgement
    13. Endnotes
    14. References
  19. 9 Parody, pastiche or purloining? The uses and abuses of artistic imagery in media representations
    1. Case study No. 1
    2. Case Study No. 2
    3. Endnotes
    4. References
  20. 10 'Shock': the value of emotion
    1. Introduction
    2. Responding to shock
    3. The realm of emotion
    4. Summary
    5. Conclusion: Towards a media ethics
    6. Endnotes
    7. References
  21. 11 Cyber-ethics: regulation and privatisation
    1. Some history and theory
    2. The origins of the network
    3. Privacy and protection
    4. Access and control
    5. Endnotes
    6. References
  22. 12 'Sweet sell of sexcess': the production of young women's magazines and readerships in the 1990s
    1. 'Nothing but sex, clothes and boyfriends'
    2. Morality, 'the family' and media regulation
    3. Feminist magazine scholarship and women's magazines
    4. Shifting cultures of femininity in the 1990s
    5. Endnotes
    6. References
  23. 13 A social drama: media violence controversies and anti-violence campaign groups
    1. Introduction
    2. A brief overview of British anti-violence campaign groups
    3. Media violence controversies and the social drama of risk
    4. Ethics and media violence
    5. Endnotes
    6. References
  24. 14 Consuming interests in a culture of secrecy
    1. Introduction
    2. The power of secrecy
    3. A multitude of sins
    4. Evaluating news
    5. Squaring the circle
    6. Endnotes
    7. References
  25. 15 And the consequence was ... Dealing with the human impact of unethical journalism
    1. Introduction
    2. PressWise - the media ethics body
    3. Are journalists supposed to be ethical?
    4. Straining credibility
    5. Time is not the great healer
    6. Open to interpretation
    7. The bottom line
    8. Where next?
    9. Endnotes
  26. 16 A degree of uncertainty: aspects of the debate over the regulation of the press in the UK since 1945
    1. The removal of state controls
    2. The problem of standards
    3. Self-regulation and the second Royal Commission
    4. The third Royal Commission and after
    5. An unresolved issue
    6. Acknowledgement
    7. References
  27. 17 Codes and cultures
    1. Endnotes
    2. References
  28. 18 Media ethics at the sharp end
    1. The Nigerian civil war
    2. The Hudson Report
    3. Endnote
  29. Index

Product information

  • Title: Ethics and Media Culture: Practices and Representations
  • Author(s): David Berry
  • Release date: August 2013
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136029370