Ethics and the media

     This review talked a great deal about ethics and journalism online. After reading this work I began to think about many of the unethical behaviors that have been occurring in the media over the past few years.  More and more very few journalist sticks to or follows ethical behavior when reporting.  According to the review “On the Wild, Wooly Internet, Old Ethic Rules Do Apply” by Mark Glaser, he refers to his panel when he states, “Our panel agrees that online or offline, all media should pay attention to ethics and standards of accuracy in a time of media concentration and sensationalism.”

            Online journalism takes journalism to a whole other level.  There is such power behind online journalism because work can reach such large audiences without considering its ethical or unethical content.  Glaser goes on to state, “But the ability of one person to publish their thoughts to a global audience remains a unique online activity, difficult or impossible in broadcasting and print.  There are many things journalist can get away with when reporting online.

            The First Amendment is very important when concerning any type of journalism.  Freedom of expression is our God given right, but some journalist tend to take this right too far.   For many years the media has be bashed for their thoughts and behaviors.  Even though the First Amendment grants freedom of speech and expression, the media is often silenced when it comes to the freedom of expression.  Online journalism is a way they get around being silenced.  When people in the mass media make decisions, they have to use their moral judgment.  Sad to say, in many of the high profile cases we tend to see journalist letting the fame and controversy get the best of their moral judgment.  This article did a great job in tying in the internet and the ethical behaviors of journalist online.

Endless possibilities with the Internet

      Edward Felten, from the University of Princeton gave a very interesting lecture about the internet and how it affects society.  The lecture was discussed “How the internet, affected the use of media, legal and political struggle?”  I focused in on the ease of accessing music on the internet.  The chapter talked Sean Manning who “created a client program and internet service.”  Manning was the creator of napster.com according to Felten.  He went into further details as he discussed the ease of accessing and downloading music for free.  What he found immoral about Manning’s site was not the fact that he allowed people to download artist music for free, but he did not have a place where people could pay for the music even if they wanted to.  The music industry was not happy about this, as I am sure none of us would be if we were artists as well.  This bought about a whole legal issue, where artists were trying to stop their music from illegally being obtained. 

            I found this section of the lecture to be very interesting because downloading music on the internet has become something so popular and widely accepted.  Society is in fact stealing from these artists.  I, myself, personally do not download music simply because it is illegal and I do not have the time to search for, download and burn cd’s, it’s time consuming in my opinion.  Today anything is accessible with the click of a button.  The internet provides ways to access music, news, clothes, homes, cars, jobs, pets, spouses, and so much more.   The internet is very helpful, but it can also be a hindrance on one’s life depending on how it is used. 

            After listening to the lecture on how the internet affects the music industry, I then read the work “Warship out the Altar of Convergence” by H. Jenkins.  This article proved how any material placed on the internet is no long safe or private.   The “Bert is Evil” section was very interesting.  Dino Ignacio created mayhem without even knowing.  Although his collage was created out of fun, he should have been careful when placing this material on the internet.  People fail to realize that once content hits the internet, it is no longer private.  Representatives from the Children’s Television Workshop were outraged by the content, which is totally understandable.  This type of content and negative publicity has a negative affect on their network.  My one question is who they would take legal actions against in a case like this one?  Would it be Ignacio for creating it, terrorist supporters who displayed it or CNN for airing it?  This is one of the major problems that the internet serves.  Information is transferred so quickly and displayed at anyone’s whim that it is hard to establish who would actually be at fault. 

            Media content becomes very controversial as it travels around the globe.  The article goes on to state, “The circulation of media content across different media systems, competing media economics, and national borders- depends heavily on consumers’ active participation” (3).  The author argues that “Convergence should be understood primarily as a technological process bringing together multiple media functions within the same devices” (3).   He goes on to say, “Convergence represents a cultural shift as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content” (3).  When discussing the internet, it has an affect on everything in life.  The internet is a technology that will forever have an impact on the media, legal actions, and politics.  If we want to take a look at how the internet has an affect on politics, sign online and take a look at all of the top headlines on any search engine or news site.