Doing Ethics in Media: Theories and Practical Applications

Doing Ethics in Media: Theories and Practical Applications is an accessible, comprehensive introduction to media ethics. Its theoretical framework and grounded discussions engage students to think clearly and systematically about dilemmas in the rapidly changing media environment.

The 13-chapter text is organized around six decision-making questions― the "5Ws and H" of media ethics. The questions encourage students to articulate the issues; apply codes, policies or laws; consider the needs of stakeholders; sift and sort through conflicting values; integrate philosophic principles; and pose a "test of publicity." Specifically, the questions ask:

• What’s your problem?

• Why not follow the rules?

• Who wins, who loses?

• What’s it worth?

• Who’s whispering in your ear?

• How’s your decision going to look?

As they progress through the text, students are encouraged to resolve dozens of practical applications and increasingly complex case studies relating to journalism, new media, advertising, public relations, and entertainment.

Other distinctive features include:

• Comprehensive materials on classic moral theory and current issues such as truth telling and deception, values, persuasion and propaganda, privacy, diversity, and loyalty.

• A user-friendly approach that challenges students to think for themselves rather than imposing answers on them.

• Consistent connections between theories and the decision-making challenges posed in the practical applications and case studies.

• A companion website with online resources for students, including additional readings and chapter overviews, as well as instructor materials with a test bank, instructor’s manual, sample syllabi and more. www.routledge.com/textbooks/black

• A second website with continuously updated examples, case studies, and student writing – www.doingmediaethics.com.

Doing Ethics in Media is aimed at undergraduates and graduate students studying media ethics in mass media, journalism, and media studies. It also serves students in rhetoric, popular culture, communication studies, and interdisciplinary social sciences.

Jay Black is Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics, Emeritus, at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He is founding co-editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and has authored or edited ten volumes. He was named co-winner of the first Freedom Forum Journalism Teacher of the Year award in 1997. 

Chris Roberts is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama. He started his media career working for newspapers and radio stations in his hometown of Anniston, Alabama, before becoming a full-time reporter and editor for newspapers in Birmingham, Ala., and Columbia, S.C.