Ethics

MEDIA ETHICS ISSUES

How do ethics relate to economic field? In what specific way(s) do ethics need to be applied (and/or in what ways are they monitored)? Explain.

Ethics arise throughout the field of economics simply because professionals in the field are provided with access to the financial assets of members of the public. Because financial professionals have an infinitely greater understanding of the processes and mechanisms of economic institutions, transactions, and investment strategies, they would be in position to profit personally at the expense of their clients and shareholders of publicly traded corporate entities. Ethics need to be applied (and enforced by compliance laws) in the economics field that ensure honesty and full disclosure, and that prohibit any conflicts of interests that could harm customers, clients, institutions, and the general public.

State in your own words what the principle of ethical responsibility in journalism entails, and discuss an example of a time you have seen this principle either upheld or broken by the press. Ethical responsibility in journalism is susceptible to various definitions: mainly, the different schools of thought are that ethical journalism relates primarily to abstract concepts like truth and justice, or to the United States, or to the members of the public. A comprehensive approach to ethical journalism might incorporate all three concerns by focusing on the duty to protect the welfare of the people within the U.S. By ensuring that all journalism is truthful, unencumbered by conflicts of interests, and only deviates from the absolute truth when necessary to protect the public. In that case, deviation from the truth must be limited to the withholding of information rather than the deliberate publication of untrue information or the inference that untrue information is, in fact, true.

The New York Times violated that ethical obligation in 2006 by publicizing information detailing law enforcement methods of tracking potentially terrorist-related funds because that publication compromised that particular strategy. Various news organizations violated their ethical responsibility during the 2008 presidential election campaign by repeatedly reporting Sarah Palin's ridiculous characterization of now President Barack Obama as having ties to known terrorists because that emphasis had the effect of increasing that false perception in the public. Conversely, most American news organizations upheld the ethical responsibility by withholding primary election results until their publication could no longer influence voters not to bother voting for trailing candidates.