Transcript Models for Desicion Making

Models of Decision Making
• THE POTTER BOX
• Few people would argue that any one of the
ethical philosophies has provided a perfect
model for making ethical decisions. Instead
we can draw ideas from each theory and
construct an outline of how ethical decisions
should be made.
• called “Potter’s Box”, named for Harvard
Divinity School Professor Ralph Potter. Potter
suggests that ethical decision making should
go through four interrelated stages.
• THE POTTER BOX
• The first step in Potter’s box is to define the
problem.
• Suppose a student accuses a professor of
asking bribe for better grades and asks the
editors of the campus newspaper to write a
story.
• Before they make a decision, they need more
information so they can understand the
situation.
• THE POTTER BOX
• Potter called this seeking “empirical
definition.”
• They may ask if the source is trustworthy,
whether the student has any way of proving
his allegations, if the student has some grudge
against the teacher, if the student has
approached the department chair or
university about the problem.
• THE POTTER BOX
• The second step in Potter’s box is to identify the
values that should play a role in making decisions.
• Editors will want to consider some professional
values.
• They may believe that role of the news media is to
provide truthful information. They believe that it is
important for media to be fair.
• Personal values such as honesty, trust and fairness,
may also be considered.
• THE POTTER BOX
• The next step calls for the editors to view the
situation from a variety of ethical viewpoints:
• Utilitarians would want them to consider the
consequences. Would society benefit from the story?
• Would the amount of good to the society outweigh
the harm that the story might cause?
• Kant would ask them to consider their intensions in
running the story.
• Aristotle would counsel that they avoid extremes
behavior. Perhaps the best course of action lies
somewhere between publishing all the information
and not writing the story.
• THE POTTER BOX
• The fourth step in the Potter Box is to determine
your loyalties.
• In this situation, several loyalties come into play.
• Editors have the professional loyalties that come with
being a journalist.
• They have also loyalties to student who is facing this
situation, the accused teacher, to the campus, to
their colleagues.
• They have loyalties to themselves, their sense of
conscience and their well being.
• THE POTTER BOX
• Finally, taking the results of all four steps into
consideration, one must make a decision.
• If everyone applies these same four steps, will we
arrive at the same conclusion as to what is ethical?
• No. the goal of ethics is not necessarily to get
everyone to agree on the same course of action.
• The value of these guidelines is that they require you
to make a thoughtful, informed decision.
• THE PYRAMID MODEL
• A modified Potter Box model is suggested, called the
Pyramid Model, which attempts to base analysis on a
philosophical foundation.
• We suggest a transformation of the Potter Box into a
three-dimensional pyramid—a point-of-decision
pyramid that will help the media practitioner think
through an ethical dilemma to the point of making a
decision.
• The Point-of-Decision Pyramid will serve to better
equip readers and media practitioners to use their
moral imagination for resolving ethical dilemmas
• THE PYRAMID MODEL
• Moral reasoning always is built upon a philosophic
foundation, whether or not the decision maker is
aware of it.
• The base of the pyramid of moral reasoning in ethical
cases represents the philosophical foundation that
informs analysis.
• The decision maker first should consider the
philosophical base as he or she moves from an
arrangement of the case facts through the
prioritization of the principles and to the list of
stakeholders—primary, secondary and tertiary
CANONS OF JOURNALISM
• Canons of Journalism
• To perform all the journalistic functions and duties
canons or code of ethics are set forth.
• The 7 canons of journalism are a necessity to know
for all journalists.
• They were adopted in 1923 by the American Society
of Newspaper Editors.
• They are the basic guidelines on how to conduct
yourself on writing topics.
• Canons of Journalism
• RESPONSIBILITY: The right of a newspaper to attract
and hold readers is restricted by nothing but
considerations of public welfare.
• The use a newspaper makes of the share of public
attention it gains serves to determine its sense of
responsibility, which it shares with every member of
its staff.
• A journalist who uses his power for any selfish or
otherwise unworthy purpose is faithless to a high
trust.
• Canons of Journalism
• FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: Freedom of the press is to
be guarded as a vital right of mankind.
• It is the unquestionable right to discuss whatever is
not explicitly forbidden by law, including the wisdom
of any restrictive statute.
• Canons of Journalism
• INDEPENDENCE: Freedom from all obligations except
that of fidelity to the public interest is vital.
• 1. Promotion of any private interest contrary to the
general welfare, for whatever reason, is not
compatible with honest journalism.
• So-called news communications from private sources
should not be published without public notice of
their source or else substantiation of their claims to
value as news, both in form and substance.
• Canons of Journalism
• 2. Partisanship, in editorial comment which
knowingly departs from the truth, does violence to
the best spirit of American journalism; in the news
columns it is subversive of a fundamental principle of
the profession.
• Canons of Journalism
• SINCERITY, TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY: Good faith
with the reader is the foundation of all journalism
worthy of the name.
• 1. By every consideration of good faith a newspaper
is constrained to be truthful. It is not to be excused
for lack of thoroughness or accuracy within its
control, or failure to obtain command of these
essential qualifies.
• 2. Headlines should be fully warranted by the
contents of the articles which they surmount.
• Canons of Journalism
• IMPARTIALITY: Sound practice makes clear
distinction between news reports and expressions of
opinion. News reports should be free from opinion
or bias of any kind.
• This rule does not apply to so-called special articles
unmistakably devoted to advocacy or characterized
by a signature authorizing the writer's own
conclusions and interpretation.
• Canons of Journalism
• FAIR PLAY: A newspaper should not publish unofficial
charges affecting reputation or moral character
without opportunity given to the accused to be
heard ; right practice demands the giving of such
opportunity in all cases of serious accusation outside
judicial proceedings.
• 1. A newspaper should not involve private rights or
feeling without sure warrant of public right as
distinguished from public curiosity.
• Canons of Journalism
• 2. It is the privilege, as it is the duty, of a newspaper
to make prompt and complete correction of its own
serious mistakes of fact or opinion, whatever their
origin.
• Canons of Journalism
• DECENCY: A newspaper cannot indulged in details of
crime and vice, publication of which is not
demonstrably for the general good-