Course Title: Lecture No: 10

Media Management Media Management & the Public

Course Code: Interest
MCMM-549
 Introduction
• The public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general
welfare."
• The public interest is central to policy debates, politics, democracy and
the nature of administration or management or government itself.
• While nearly everyone claims that aiding the common well-being or
general welfare is positive, there is little, if any, consensus on what
exactly constitutes the public interest, or whether the concept itself is a
coherent one.
 Public Interest and Media Set-ups
• Given the broader political and cultural significance of media products, it
is perhaps not surprising that the public interest long has been the
central guiding principle in the regulation of media.
• Since the advent of broadcasting, media personnel and policymakers
have been aware of the unique potential for political and cultural
influence that resides within the media and have felt compelled to
impose a variety of behavioral and structural regulations in an effort to
increase the likelihood that media firms serve the public interest.
 Understanding Dimensions of Public Interest
• For media managers, the concept of the public interest exists both as an
ethical imperative (borne of the social responsibility dimension of media
management) and a regulatory mandate that they must follow.
• To a certain degree, these two manifestations of the public interest can
overlap, as regulatory mandates may take the form of behavioral
obligations that media managers must follow; or media managers’ own
ethical imperatives in the conduct of their work may correspond with
the conceptualization of the public interest articulated by regulators.
 The Three Definitional Levels of Public Interest

The Conceptual Level: The debate revolves around the general meaning
behind public interest in terms of how public interest determinations
are made.
The fundamental question at this level of analysis is: How should an
institution charged with serving the public interest make its public
interest determinations? The public interest typically has been
conceptualized as a unitary, coherent scheme of values or principles.
 The Three Definitional Levels of Public Interest

The operational level: Specific values or principles associated with

serving the public interest are identified.
That is, this is the level at which the specific objectives to be pursued are
defined. This level has been associated with identifying “indicators that
we may use to determine empirically whether something is in the
public interest”.
 The Three Definitional Levels of Public Interest

The Applicational Level: The particular values and principles delineated

at the operational level are translated into specific behavioral objectives
or regulatory standards.
These different levels (particularly the latter two) provide a useful
framework for exploring the meaning of the public interest concept both
as ethical imperative and regulatory mandate.
 Public Interest as Ethical Imperative
• When we turn to the meaning of the public interest principle as an
ethical imperative for media managers, we must look to media industry
ethical and behavioral guidelines.
• It is important to note that the public interest as an ethical imperative
for media managers extends beyond its fairly narrow confines as a
regulatory mandate.
• The entire field of journalism is infused with an ethical obligation to serve
the public interest.
 Public Interest: The Ethical Imperative and Social Responsibility
• Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm’s Libertarian Theory of the Press is
directly relevant to the behavior of media firms (Media Managers).
• The underlying purpose of the mass media is to “help discover truth,
to assist in the process of solving political and social problems by
presenting all manner of evidence and opinion as the basis for
decisions”.
• The right and duty of the press is to serve as an extralegal check on
government”.
• The public can “be trusted to digest the whole, to discard that is not in
the public interest and to accept that which served the needs of the
individual and of the society of which he is a part”.
 Public Interest: The Ethical Imperative and Social Responsibility
• There is an articulation of the key components of an
operationalization of the public interest as an ethical imperative for
media organizations (and media managers), with the press having
obligations to contribute to the solving of political and social problems
and to protect citizens from governmental abuses.
• The public interest as ethical imperative, of course, extends beyond
the realm of news and into entertainment programming as well,
where the key concerns facing media managers do not typically
involve serving the informational needs of the audience, but rather
effectively and responsibly serving their cultural tastes and
preferences.
 Guidelines under the Public Interest as Ethical Imperative
• Independence: Journalists must avoid impropriety and the appearance
of impropriety as well as any conflict of interest or the appearance of
conflict. They should neither accept anything nor pursue any activity
that might compromise or seem to compromise their integrity.
• Truth and Accuracy: Good faith with the reader is the foundation of
good journalism. Every effort must be made to assure that the news
content is accurate, free from bias and in context, and that all sides
are presented fairly. Editorials, analytical articles and commentary
should be held to the same standards of accuracy with respect to facts
as news reports. Significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission,
should be corrected promptly and prominently.
 Guidelines under the Public Interest as Ethical Imperative
• Impartiality: To be impartial does not require the press to be unquestioning
or to refrain from editorial expression. Sound practice, however, demands
a clear distinction for the reader between news reports and opinion.
Articles that contain opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly
identified.
• Fair Play: Journalists should respect the rights of people involved in the
news, observe the common standards of decency and stand accountable
to the public for the fairness and accuracy of their news reports. Persons
publicly accused should be given the earliest opportunity to respond.
Pledges of confidentiality to news sources must be honored at all costs, and
therefore should not be given lightly. Unless there is clear and pressing
need to maintain confidences, sources of information should be identified.