Lecture Eight

This week’s lecture focused on the role of ethics in Communication, in Journalism and in Public Relations. The lecture was taken by Donna MeikelJohn, an academic from the University of Queensland who currently teaches media law and ethics and who has previously worked in the field of journalism as a foreign correspondent.

We began the lecture by looking at some advertisements in light of questions such as: Is the advertisement offensive or upsetting? Is it ethically wrong? We looked at the following advertisement which offended many people but which I personally did not find to, in any way, upset my sensibilities (honestly, I found it very funny).

Ethics are indeed a very philosophical area of inquiry and MeikelJohn in the lecture posed many philosophical, thought-provoking questions such as: How do we know what is good or bad? How do we know what is moral and immoral? Can we and should we know instinctively if something is right or wrong? She told the very personal and poignant story of how she had, as a young journalist, been sent to interview a couple who had lost their three children in a freak canoeing accident. Her superiors had told her if she did not come back with an interview she would be effectively fired. MeikelJohn, after much apologising, did get the interview, however, the question arises of whether what she did was ethical? Such a question is truly dependent on the ethical theory one adopts.

Predominantly, there exist three main ethical theories: Deontology, consequentialism and virtue. Adopting a deontological approach, one acts ethically if one follows the rules and duties. As such, MeikelJohn can be seen to have acted ethically in tracking down the couple for an interview as she was fulfilling the duty she had been assigned. Comparatively, under the theory of consequentialism, something is ethical if it results of a "good" outcome, regardless of the means by which this outcome was reached. Moreover, this approach puts emphasis on the idea of 'the greatest good for the greatest number.' Lastly, the ethical theory of virtue is concerned with what is right and what is wrong and whether the action in questions aligns with the type of person you want to be? As such, "goodness," MeikelJohn notes comes from "morally good habits of character" - the idea of character building. 

Codes within Journalism, Communication and Personal Relations outline what is "ethical" and sometimes what is so unethical that is it seen as illegal (e.g. Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, etc. Refer to the State's respective Anti-Discrimination Acts). The codes that exist within Australia are the following: 

MeikelJohn posed the questions of whether our codes of ethics fail us? Essentially, as MeikelJohn stresses, "[a] code of ethics is only as powerful as the sanctions behind it, and the wilingness of the codes keepers to enforce those sanctions." 

Is an intrusion into someone's privacy ever justified? Arguably, it is when the public interest is concerned. Many argue that the public has a right and need to know as such issues can affect people directly or even affect national security.  

Ethical limits in relation to photojournalism are also important and sometimes hard to define. Kevin Carter's image of a young and evidently very sick African girl received much criticism as many agued his work was unethical - instead of taking the picture Carter should have helped the girl. But did the public have a right to see the image? Can some good come from the public seeing thing scene that Carter captured? I argue in the affirmative. I believe awareness is the most powerful tool in us, as a global community, fighting problems such as poverty and famine. It is also of considerable importance to note that Carter, after taking his photograph, helped the girl as much as he possibly could. Poignantly, unable to deal with the onslaught of criticism he received, Karter took his own life in 1944. Arguably, his death is a warning to those of us of more sensitive dispositions to avoid a career in Journalism. It makes me think, would I have been able to cope with such criticism? Am I "hard" enough to be a journalist reporting on the serious and important things happening in our world, that people, particularly those blessed enough to live in Australia, ought to know about? I  hope so. 

The infamous photograph taken by Carter