Three Ethical Philosophies

• Your personal ethics may derive from the way you

answer one fundamental question: Does the end
justify the means? Another way of asking that is,
should you ever do something that is not good in itself
in order to achieve a goal is good? If you answer No to
that question, you are in some sense at lease an
Absolutist or a Legalist. You would then most likely
subscribe to Deontological ethics. If your answer is
yes to that question, you are more of a Relativist and
would subscribe to Teological ethics. If you answer
maybe or sometimes, you would subscribe to a form
of Situation ethics.
The following are the philosophical jargons relative to the understanding
of the principle cited:

• Deontological Ethics
is the ethics of duty According to this
philosophy, it is the person’s duty to do what is
right; some are always right; some are always
wrong. There exists in nature (or for those with
religious faith, in divine revelation) a fixed set
of principles or laws. The end never justifies the
means. That is why some refers to this kind of
ethical philosophy as Absolutism or Legalism.
• Teleological Ethics
Holds that what makes an act ethical is not
the act itself but the consequences of the act. The
end can and often does justify the means. This
philosophy makes ethics more relativistic than
absolutist or legalistic.

• Situation Ethics
When asked whether the end justifies the
means, persons subscribing to situation ethics
would reply that it all depends.
Solving Ethical Dilemmas
• There are four elements:

- Appraising the Situation- Making a good ethical

decision begins with good reporting. You need all the
facts from a variety of sources. Reaching a decision
without trying to know all
the facts makes any ethical decision impossible.

- Identifying Values- What are your personal

values, your news organization’s values, your
community’s values. The nations values?
 - Appealing to Ethical Principles- You need to look
at the various ethical principle discussed previously.
To be ethical, you may have to choose the principle
or principles that are far from expedient.

- Choosing Loyalties- You owe a certain loyalty to

your news organization, yes, but you must also be
loyal to your readers, listeners or viewers. And what
about loyalty to your sources and to the people
about whom you are reporting.
Ethical Problems of Global
Journalists
- According to Everette E. Dennis
Executive Director of the Freedom Forum
Media Studies Center, “Journalists demean
themselves and damage their credibility
when they misrepresent themselves and
their works to news sources and, in turn, to
the public at large. The following are the
ethical problems faced by media people:
• Deceit- Deceit covers a wide range of practices. When you may lie,
misrepresent yourself, use a hidden tape recorder or camera. When
you may steal documents? Media people use deceit most often in
consumer reporting.
• Conflicts of Interest- Reporting assumes that the reporter starts out
with no point of view; that the reporter is neither out to get someone
nor to get something out of the story. This basic tenet is the
foundation for any and all credibility. Most new media ethics codes
devote the bulk of their substance to determining what constitutes
conflict of interest and they should.
• Friendship- Perhaps the most obvious the most frequent, and the
most overlooked conflict of interest confronting media people is
friendship, Friendship, According to Proffesor Paul Fisher of the
Missouri Freedom of Information Center called friendship the
greatest obstacle to the flow of information. Because it is impossible
to ascertain, no one knows whether friendship causes more stories to
be reported or more stories to be killed, either way, it sets up a
powerful conflict of interest.
• Payola- no one would condone accepting payment for writting a story
other than from one’s employer. News organizations frown upon
reporters doing promotional work for people they cover.
• Freebies- Can media people remain objective? Do media people write
stories they would otherwise not write? Does the public perceive the
newscaster who has accepted or is suspected of accepting freebies as
objective? It is this perception that bothers most news organizations
the most. Some argue that the least reporters must do is disclose
prominently in their stories any freebies they have accepted.
• Checkbook Journalism- Does the audience believe your story if you
have paid your source for it? Should you always report that you have
paid your source? Is it ethical to pay a source of an exclusive story?
Should media people be in the business of keeping other media people
from getting a story? The terrible consequence of checkbook
journalism is that even legitimate news professionals may be cut off
from sources who want and expect pay. Some sources have begun
asking for fee even for good news. The increase in tabloid journalism,
both in print and in broadcast have brought the opportunists out in
droves.
• Participation in the News- According to Kowet, Richard Harwood,
Washington Post Ombudsman at the time, told a conference of
journalists in Washington U.S.A in 2006: “You have every right in the
world to run for office, or participate in a political activity or
lobbying activity. You don’t have the ‘right’ to work for the
Washington Post” Nevertheless, some worry that uninvolved
journalists will be uninformed journalists, an unconnected group of
elitists. The problem is compounded when editors and even news
organizations are involved in community projects. May the editor
join the religious rally? May the station support the political rally?
• Advertising Pressure- Newspaper often have special sections to sell
advertising. The stories are light and fluffy and quotes local business
people as sources. Nothing investigative or hard hitting appears.
• Invasion of Privacy- The most obvious and talked about is naming
crime victims, especially rape and abuse victims. In Florida, USA,
they have legislated laws against publishing rape victim’s names,
only to have the law struck down by a Florida District Court .
• Withholding Information- You never do needless
harm to an individual or inflict needless pain or
suffering. It is better that you do the least harm
possible. You certainly don’t do harmful stories
deliberately to harass someone or without a good
reason, No one likes a mean bully.
• Plagiarism- No one condones plagiarism. the
problem is defining just what constitutes
plagiarism. Probably you know when you do it
even if no one else does. In the daily practices of
journalism, reporters, conciously or unconciously,
deal with many situations that could involve
plagiarism. Nevertheless, every media people must
fight every impulse, question and check any
doubts, avoid any hint of plagiarism.
The Relationship Between
Globalization and Popular Music
• The impact of urbanization on the development of new genres and
philosophies of music continues to be felt today.
• The New music style is created with the global communication. In order to
cater to the worldwide audience, today’s popular music is divided into
different genres. Finally, the globalization of pop music industry changed
people’s life.
• Changes in musical culture constitute one of the aspects of globalization, and
multileveled since they affect institutions, system of value, and social groups
involved in musical life. The change in popular music is not the outcome of
globalization; that is, pop music industry is part of the globalization
phenomenon.
• People today consume diverse music offered to the global market by
multinational media and entertainment industry. On social and economic
level, globalization has various impacts on the popular music industry.
Globalization promote the world music industry and enhance the cultural
communication however, mainstream pop culture replaces the traditional
music which leads to a result that the quality of the music is decreasing .
Popular Music Expansion and
Transculture
• Audiences today are seeking for amusement and leisure; the pop
music industry produces and packages pop music carefully in order to
fulfill the consumers requirements. The interaction of global pop
music breaks down the cultural and economic boundaries. In other
words, globalization provides new opportunities for the pop music
industry to expand the world market and gain huge profits.

Music- We often hear the expression “Music is the universal

language.” This means that even if two people do not speak each
other’s language, they can at least appreciate music together. But
like so many popular sayings, this one is only partially true. Although
all people do not have the same physiological mechanisms for
hearing, what a person actually hears is influenced by his or her
culture.
Ethnomusicology
• The cultural study of music is known as ethnomusicology, a new
field involving the cooperative efforts of both anthropologists
and musicologists
1. Ideas about music- What functions does music play for the society? Is
music viewed as beneficial or harmful to the society? What constitutes
beautiful music? On what occasions should music be played?
2. Social structure of music- What are the social relationships between
musicians? How does a society distinguish between various musicians on
the basis of such criteria as age, gender, race, ethnicity, or education?
3. Characteristics of the music itself- How does the style of music in
different cultures vary (scale, melody, harmon, timing) What different
musical genres are found in the society (Lullaby, sea chantey, hard rock
and so on) What is the nature of musical texts (Words) How is music
composed? How is music learned and transmitted?
4. Material culture of music- What is the nature of the musical instruments
found in a culture? Who makes musical instruments and how are they
distributed? How are the musical tastes reflected in the instruments
used?