Media ethics
The field covers many varied and highly controversial topics, ranging from war journalism to Benetton ad campaigns.
Media ethics promotes and defends values such as a universal respect for life and the rule of law and legality.
In relation to news coverage it includes issues such as impartiality, objectivity, balance, bias, privacy, and the public interest.
More generally, it also includes stereotyping, taste and decency, obscenity, freedom of speech, advertising practices such as product placement, and legal issues such as defamation.
The ethics of online journalism holds great importance to the authenticity and credibility of reported literature although it can be difficult to gauge a set standard because of differences in national and international cultural values.
[5] In this current digital climate with multiple new technologies and broad availability of information, Journalists have less ascendancy over what is considered important news.
Today these paths consist primarily of the mass media, to the extent that if press freedom disappeared, so would most political accountability.
[11] It talks about how journalism should interact and use the 'new media' to publish stories including how to use texts and images provided by other people.
Citizens now have the availability to take pictures and videos in easier and faster ways like smartphones which allow them to not only collect information but also edit and manipulate it.
Within the last two decades, numerous regional discussions have taken place in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia in order to create a universal code of ethics for the information society.
[13] The UNESCO INFOethics Congresses then met in 1998 and 2000, where specialists coming from a wide range of educational, scientific, and cultural environments addressed the ethical dimensions of global media and information.
Constant television coverage displays the legislative proceedings; exposing faster than ever before, unjust rulings throughout the government process.
The press is one of the primary guardians in a democratic society of many of the freedoms, rights and duties discussed by other fields of applied ethics.
Expressed in a consequentialist manner, media usage may be subject to pressures to maximize: economic profits, entertainment value, information provision, the upholding of democratic freedoms, the development of art and culture, fame and vanity.
AI tools give its users the ability to generate imagery and writing quickly, bringing in an ethical concern regarding biases from source data, misinformation, and manipulative content.
When AI-generated content provides the public with misinformation, and bias, there is an unclear idea of who is responsible for the harm or damage caused.
These platforms provide financial and social benefit for those who receive large amounts of attention, leading media creators to more frequently spread unreviewed and opinionated information.
