Let's Get Ethical

Our lovely land of the inter webs are a breeding ground for ethical problems to manifest.  Not being tied down to the same laws and protocols as most other forms of media relations (print, radio, television), the digital world allows for the uncensored, ill-advised and devious tongue (or fingers) to get away with some of the most unethical behaviors that would otherwise not fly in our alternate media world.  Since I intend to have a career heavily based within the digital world, I fear that I will encounter multiple ethical scenarios.  I mean, we all know Twitter and Instagram can only stay righteous but for so long.  Living in an age fueled with “leaks” and a gossip hungry society, the realm of ethical problems to be faced is endless.

If we look back, there are a plethora of ethically questionable media stunts. For example: our beloved Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and the beautiful Gabrielle Union had their "goods" shared with the public without their consent due to hackers.  That’s just one type of unethical behavior in our digital media. If we look at broadcast media or print we run into some other issues with ethics, such as whether or not a journalist is being objective or bias in their coverage of an event. 

Fox News…who seems to clash with the understanding of ethics in the media ALOT, has been confronted on many occasions due to their seemingly lack of comprehension of the term ethics.  Fox Business News host, Charles Payne used a certain photo (which he assumed was from the protest) as the image for his discussion on the #blackbrunch protestors. Little did he know (probably because fact checking, research, and maybe even clearance from a supervisor, is something abnormal for Fox News) the photo he used was actually an incredibly old photo, turned racist meme, and not in any way related to the topic he was discussing. Although he never took responsibility or apologized for the mishap, he did mention in a tweet (following his bashing of the image in his understanding of it to be from the protest) that the photo was indeed real, but not from the protest (Read More). Humble much Fox?  Then there's the catalog of well-known satire and yellow-journalistic publications that are available for your entertainment; the media is not a perfect entity, there are many ways it falls short in remaining an honest form of communication, yet so does everything, unless you’re some omnipotent being, which is why you have to be exceedingly cautious when you enter a field heavily involved in media relations. 

As I begin to delve into my media centered career path, I like to think that I am pretty aware of ethical and unethical procedures when it comes to communicating to the masses.  I am currently interning with a national not-profit organization where I maintain their social media platforms.  I ALWAYS….I repeat ALWAYS, check with my supervisor before posting information to make sure it’s accurate, relative, and true.  If you can’t back it up with hard evidence then you shouldn’t be posting it, tweeting it, publishing it.  If you have beef with a competitor organization, you don’t bash them through the media, that’s  childish.  Keep your brand classy and polished, no need to make under the table deals with politicians or stalk your page visitors with cookies. We’re better than that, agreed?

There have been a couple of tools that have helped me build a substantive ethical decision making toolkit.  Having been raised by a journalist probably helped immensely. My conscious is another huge one. I feel awful after accidentally stepping on a worm after a rain storm; so I couldn’t possibly do

something I know is morally and ethically tainted.  I’ve also had the benefit of engaging in a coupe of text that have helped me shape my ethical toolkit such as  “I Know Who You Are And I Saw What You Did” by Lori Andrews, which essentially unveils the stalker-like reality of social media sites and how they track your info in order to sell to you on behalf of ad agencies.  “The Terror Dream” by Susan Faludi gave great insight into the many facets of broadcast and print media during the time of tragedy; which helped me gain awareness into how wording and inflated descriptions can play a huge part in story-telling.

Being that this blog is an extension of my media ethics course, as a student, I am obligated to have many questions, which I naturally do anyway.  One of my biggest questions is when it comes to the internet, our digital media seems to not have many boundaries; in a realm when anyone can be a journalist (authorized or not) and where internet leaks, and digital stalking is a new norm, when looking for information, how do we go about it in the truest of forms?  I’d love to see how some of the most scandalous issues in media history were handled, and I’d love a discussion on ethical issues exclusively in the digital world. I feel like there’s a melting pot of unbelievable awfulness to be explored.