Journalism ethics

1. PERSPECTIVES ON
JOURNALISM ETHICS
JRNL 6202 SUMMER II 2015
• Instructor: Bill Mitchell
• 3 August 2015 | Northeastern Univ.

2. PERSPECTIVES ON
JOURNALISM ETHICS
JRNL 6202 SUMMER II 2015
• Instructor: Bill Mitchell
• Bmitch (at) gmail dot com
• 727-641-9407
• 3 August 2015 | Northeastern Univ.

3. WHAT WE’LL DO TONIGHT
• Discussion of your final paper snapshots
• Introduction to Media Economics
• 10 minute break (at about 7:30 p.m.)
• Review of assigned readings
• Working the ethics of a business case
• Upcoming assignments, etc.

4. CLASS PARTICIPATION & ITS
RELEVANCE TO ETHICAL
DECISION-MAKING
• If you’re not inclined to speak up, consider doing so
• If you speak up a lot, consider encouraging others
• Do your best to stay on point
• Try to make your point briefly

5. FINAL PAPER SNAPSHOTS
• Summarize your idea for a final paper
• Describe a dimension of media ethics that needs work and
that can have impact on the focus of your final paper
• Describe the research you’ll do in support of your thesis
• Explain how this reform or rethinking fits with your personal
ethics guidelines
• What questions do you have for the group (and/or me)?

6. THERE’S ECONOMICS, AND THEN…
THERE’S MEDIA ECONOMICS
• Economics (in general) as “the study of how societies
use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities
and distribute them among different groups.”
(Samuelson & Nordhaus)
• Media economics as “the study of how media industries
use scarce resources to produce content that is
distributed among consumers in a society to satisfy
various needs and wants.” (Albarran)

7. MEANING OF SCARCE RESOURCES?
• Idea of finite resources
• Examples of finite resources in media production?
• Public goods vs. private goods (in economic terms)
• Free-riders (and the ways in which web-surfers and
midnight drivers are alike)
• Ah, but what about the formerly finite resources known
as space (in newspapers) and time (on TV or radio)?

8. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
“SCARCITY” AND “VALUE”
• Economists define value as “the worth of a particular
product or service. It is a subjective process that is
linked to individual satisfaction… based on individual
wants and needs.” (Albarran)
• And the scarcer that such a needed and wanted
product or service may be, the higher the value.

9. IMPLICATIONS FOR
SUSTAINING AN ENTERPRISE
WHEN ITS CORE PRODUCTS ARE
LESS SCARCE & BECOME WIDELY
AVAILABLE?•

10. A DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF
TRADITIONAL MEDIA INDUSTRIES:
“DUAL PRODUCT MARKETS” (PICARD)
• Content provided to individual consumers
• Space/time (& access to potential customers) provided
to advertisers
• But what’s happening to those markets?

11. “Creative destruction is the
essential fact about
capitalism.”
-- Austrian economist Joseph
Schumpeter, 1942

12. “NEWS ORGANIZATIONS TODAY ARE EXPERIENCING
A CONTINUING CRISIS OF VALUE DESTRUCTION
…THEY MUST FIND WAYS TO CREATE NEW VALUE
TO REPLACE THAT WHICH IS BEING DESTROYED. IF
THEY DO NOT, THEY RISK THEIR DEMISE.”
-- AMERICAN ECONOMIST ROBERT G. PICARD, 2006

13. THE CORE PROBLEM FOR
MEDIA WORKERS
• “The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is
put in its place… That is what real revolutions are like.”
-- Clay Shirky

14. THE ADVERTISING LANDSCAPE
• The shopper model
• The Consumer Reports model
• The advertising-as-valuable information model

15. SHOPPER MODEL DECONSTRUCTED
• The journalism draws an audience
• The journalism company “rents” that audience to
advertisers, who will then:
• Interrupt the journalism
• Promote products rather than inform people
• Advantages?
• Limitations?

16. CONSUMER REPORTS MODEL
DECONSTRUCTED
• The content itself promises sufficient new value to
readers to charge higher-than-usual subscription fees
• The avoidance of advertising supports the
independence of the magazine’s product evaluations
• Advantages?
• Limitations?

17. ADVERTISING-AS-VALUABLE-INFO
MODEL

18. ADVERTISING-AS-VALUABLE-
INFO MODEL DECONSTRUCTED
• Advantages?
• Limitations?

19. HOW TO RESPOND TO ALL THIS
DESTRUCTION & DISRUPTION?
•

20. 10 MINUTE BREAK

21. BUSINESS ETHICS VS.
JOURNALISM ETHICS
• Any essential differences?
• Fundamental purposes
• Key principles
• Stakeholders

22. POSSIBLE ETHICAL ISSUES IN
NEW MEDIA VALUE CREATION
• Sharing profit with advertiser (Los Angeles Times/Staples)
• Paid appearances on news/entertainment shows (WFLA-TV)

23. POSSIBLE ETHICAL ISSUES IN
SUSTAINING MEDIA VALUE
• Staff reductions (almost all news organizations)

24. ECONOMIC (& JOURNALISTIC)
STEWARDSHIP
• Stewardship of most companies involves at least two
responsibilities:
• Sufficient ongoing return on investment
• Sufficient investment to increase future return
• Third responsibility for journalism company:
• Serving the public interest by providing people with
news & information they need to govern themselves

25. ETHICS OF HARVESTING
(OR MILKING)

26. THE PROCESS OF VALUE CREATION
• Select an audience to be served
• Select a need or want to be satisfied
• Imagine a produce or service representing new value
• Explore possible ethical tensions

27. ASSIGNMENTS:
• For all assignments, see bit.ly/EthicsAssignments
• Reading: Chapters 14, 15 & 17 in Foreman book
• By 7 a.m. Friday 7 August: Final version of your
personal ethics guidelines
• By 7 a.m. Sunday 9 August: A post to your blog (if
helpful, it can be related to your final paper)
• By 3 p.m. Monday 10 August: A comment about a
classmate’s post
• By 7 a.m. Friday 21 August: Final version of your final
paper