Media Ethics and Law Essay Example

the issues he was talking about. Media users need to get true information without any biasness. The information given by the President contradicts to the one by Central Intelligence Agencies (CIA). This raises questions on the objectivity of the media houses in giving its users the true information they need.

The third article addressing the same issue of objectivity is a chapter from the class text book. A chapter “The Press as Custodian of Fact” by Jamieson Waldman talks of different factors influencing the process of delivering information to the users. The chapter sees the press as a custodian of fact in that they usually know the truth but they give different version of the story to the public. Same as politicians, journalists will try to deceive people in order to deter them from the truth. Though they are tasked with the role of telling the masses about the truth in their societies, they sometimes lie to their users (Veatch & Ross, 2014). The chapter is linked to the work by Black and Roberts talking of media ethics since they all talk of the press shielding masses from the truth. The articled had narrowed on truth and deception with all being characteristics of information users get from media houses.

Examples of deception in the mass media are all centered to government influence to the American journalist. One of the examples is the manipulation of organized opinions and habits in favor of the ruling government. Propaganda has also been used to spread lies about a given issue affecting the Americans. Deception has also been used by the media in United States to address the Islamic religion. What the

media talks of Islamic is opposite of the reality which goes against media ethics. An example is when the press calls for people to reject Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance. It’s believed that the aim was to extinguish the alliance.

Roberts and Black in chapter 7 of their book covered truth and deception as one of the key issues in media ethics. Some of the ways used by media to deceive the public include photo manipulation, faked memoirs as well as government disinformation. Photo manipulation has been used to deceive the public on various issues. Cameras used to give the real image of a given action but since photo manipulation came, pictures are no more trusted. Government disinformation holds that government was to be made classic and secure from the public. Faked memoirs have been used by the authors to show how media faked identities of different people (Black & Roberts, 2011). Media has become untrustworthy to the users in the United States of America. Ideas in the brought out in the book are reflected in other two articles.

In a video by Nicholas Lemann, the main idea being objectivity, it connects to main idea by Black and Roberts. Lemann talks of how journalists tend to leave their tasks and work in order to please politicians. In chapter seven in our textbook, the author talks of how the press has become custodians of fact. They fail to act according to their professional requirement but instead choose to act the opposite to favor. It’s the same topic addressed in chapter seven “Truth and Deception” of Black and Roberts text. In another article “Re-thinking objectively” by Brent Cunningham, he talks

of how President Bush gave opposite to the truth. The press was present but did nothing which links the article to Black and Robert’s text on Truth and Deception.

Media ethics govern actions of journalists and other personnel in the media. Actions of professionals in the media are guided by a set of ethics. Such ethics prohibit them from doing anything outside their profession. However, the trend has changed in the recent days with journalists and news presenters violating the established ethics set. Press is seen as the major custodian of truth in favor of top politicians in the country. It’s something which needs to be addressed before it ruins the entire industry.

References

• Black, J., & Roberts, C. (2011). Doing ethics in media: Theories and practical applications. Taylor & Francis.
• Lemann, Nicholas. "Nicholas Lemann: Can Journalists Be Objective?". Big Think. N.p., 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
• Veatch, R. M., & Ross, L. F. (2014). Transplantation ethics. Georgetown University Press.