Media Theories and Ethics

1

DECLARATION:

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that this is my own work and personal work,

except where the work(s) or publications of others have been acknowledged by

means of reference techniques.

I have read and understood Tutorial Letter CMNALLE/301/4/2014 and 101/3/2014 for

COM3707

regarding

technical

and

presentation

techniques and plagiarism.

My Name:

Natalie Ehmke

My Student Number:

4373-251-8

Date:

02 September 2014

Witness:

Irmhild Ehmke

requirements,

referencing

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.

INTRODUCTION

3

2.

MEDIA THEORIES AND ETHICS

3

2.1

Normative Media Theories

3

2.1.1 Authoritarian Theory

4

2.1.2 Social Responsibility Theory

4

2.1.3 Soviet Communist Theory

5

2.1.4 The Three Levels Model

6

2.2

6

Professional Media Ethics

2.2.1 Professionalisation

7

2.2.2 The Influence of the Sociopolitical Structure

8

3.

TOWARDS A MODEL FOR ANAYSIS

9

3.1

The Integrated Ethical Analysis (IEA) Model

9

3.1.1 Meta-ethical variables

10

3.1.2 Normative variables

10

3.1.3 Legal stipulations

10

3.2

Issues illustrating that ethical decision-making in the media will always

be challenging, especially if conflicting interests are involved

11

3.2.1 Reporting on violence

11

3.2.2 The right to privacy

12

4.

13

CONCLUSION

SOURCES CONSULTED

14

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1.

INTRODUCTION

“Ethics are the basic standards or expectations of what constitutes acceptable

behaviour

or

proper

conduct.”

“In

terms

of

societal

expectations,

circumstances often influence how specific behaviour is viewed.” “Knowing

what is acceptable behaviour is not always easy to ascertain, and it becomes

even more difficult when there is a conflict of interests.” “Judging the behaviour

of the media or individual media workers, or the consequences of their

behaviour constitutes the domain of...