Transcript Media Ethics - Charles Warner

Media Ethics:
Introduction and
Piaget
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Introduction
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The rush of events forces the media to
make ethical decisions by reflex more
than by reflection.
There are several mindsets involved in
media ethics:
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Ethics requires deliberation, careful
distinctions and extended discussion.
The news media emphasize toughness and
the ability to make quick decisions in the face
of daily crisis.
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Advertising and public relations professionals
are expected to be competitive and
enterprising and to advocate.
Entertainment writers and producers are
expected to value skepticism, confident
independence and hot blood – tell an
engaging story no matter what.
Nevertheless, a solid reasoning process is a
necessity even in a high-pressure environment in
which there is a huge volume of work and action
and immediacy is highly valued.
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Potter Box
1
4
Facts
Loyalties
3
2
Values
Principles
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“The Fellowship of the Rings”
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What’s it about?
What is Frodo’s ring’s most seductive
power?
The ring of Gyges
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What’s Right and What’s Wrong?
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Sophocles’s Antigone
Antigone speaks of a higher law that requires her
to bury her brother, despite an order from her
uncle, King Creon of Thebes, forbidding burial of
civil war rebels.
Antigone says, “Nor did I think your orders were
so strong that you, a mortal man, could over-run
the gods’ unwritten and unfailing laws.”
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Higher Moral Law
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At the Nuremberg trials, problems of jurisdiction
prevented crimes from being prosecuted under
the laws of any one nation, thus indictments of
Nazi war criminals referred to “crimes against
humanity.”
Martin Luther King, writing in a jail in
Birmingham, AL, invoked the writing of Thomas
Aquinas to make a case against social prejudice:
“…a just law is a man-made code that squares
with moral law or the law of God…an unjust law
is a code that is out of harmony with moral law.”
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How Do We Learn About
Moral Laws?
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As little children, from our parents.
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Jean Piaget’s The Moral Judgment of the
Child.
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Observation research on Swiss children in the
1920s
Brilliant insights still relevant today
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Piaget
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Identified two social worlds in which children
learn moral rules:
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Adult/child relations
Peer relations
Vastly different
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From adults, children learn rules of constraint: topdown, unilateral respect for their superiors – “No.”
From peer relations, children learn rules of
cooperation, based on mutual respect for one’s
equals.
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The Rules of the Game
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“All morality consists of a system of rules,
and the essence of all morality is to be
sought for in the respect which the
individual acquires for these rules.”
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Most of the moral rules a child learns to respect
come from adults, especially in the younger
years.
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From the cradle, children are subjected to a
multiplicity of rules, even before a child learns
language.
These rules are very hard for the child to learn.
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Piaget Studied Games
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Found two levels: (1) Practice of the rules
and (2) consciousness of the rules.
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Relationship between the practice of the rules
and consciousness of them defined the
psychological nature of moral realities.
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The Four Stages of Moral
Development
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Stage One: 0-2 years - Plays alone,
makes own rules (motor and individual)
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Child play for him/herself
Motor pleasure, not social pleasure
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Stage Two: 2-5 years – Learns codified
rules, but everyone plays their own rules;
everyone can win. (egocentrism)
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Plays for social reasons and to get a sense of
winning.
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Stage Three: 6-8 years – Cooperation;
mutual control of the game. Rules still
fuzzy; argue over rules.
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Desire for mutual understanding of rules
The desire to win, beat others within the
limits of the rules
Fairness, equity
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Stage Four: 11-12 years – Codification of
rules.
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They understand the reasons for the rules.
Take pleasure in juridical discussions and
deliberations of the rules.
In Stage Four, a child must be able to
reason formally, have a conscious
realization of the rules of reasoning and
be able to apply reasoning to a variety of
situations.
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Learning Rules
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The acquisition and practice of the rules
of a game follow simple laws:
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Simple individual regularity
Imitation of seniors with egocentrism
Cooperation
Interest in rules for their own sake
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What Games Did You Play?
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Was your experience similar to what
Piaget observed?
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A young child has a sense of moral obligation
that is expressed when the child accepts a
command from someone who is respected –
someone with power and authority.
In older children, the rules undergo a complete
transformation. Rules no longer are seen as
external laws, sacred in so far as they have been
laid down by adults, but as the outcome of a free
decision and worthy of respect because they
come from mutual consent.
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It is from this moment that it replaces the
rule of constraint that the rule of
cooperation becomes an effective moral
law — the law of universal cooperation.
Cooperation is a universal moral law
because cooperation leads to the practice
of reciprocity.
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Kant’s Categorical Imperative
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A person should act on the premise that the
choices one makes for oneself could become
universal law (for everyone) for all times.
Treat humanity well always as an end in itself
and never as a means to an end.
“Categorical” means that the decision was not
subject to situational factors (i.e. “always”).
Thus, the categorical imperative reinforces the
existence of a higher “unwritten and unfailing”
moral law.
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Potter Box
1
4
Facts
Loyalties
3
2
Values
Principles
THE NEW SCHOOL