RESPONSIBILITIES OF MEDIA

The Media and Its Responsibilities

Abstract

The research paper sought to engage in a holistic approach towards the role of ethics and responsibility in the media. In this regard, the discussion spanned the differing forms of media that play a major role in today's globalization driven world. In addition, the discussion also gave relevance to the the general public's perspective towards the role and relevance of ethics in media. It was observed that the media plays a crucial role in the development of social norms and trends. The issues of freedom of speech and aesthetic values (taste) are primarily at home in media ethics. However a number of further issues distinguish media ethics as a field in its own right. A theoretical issue peculiar to media ethics is the identity of observer and observed. The press is one of the primary guardians in a democratic society of many of the freedoms, rights and duties discussed by other fields of applied ethics. In media ethics the ethical obligations of the guardians themselves comes more strongly into the foreground.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Discussion& Analyses5

A theoretical perspective6

Evolution of ethics in the media7

Media ethics through the public's perspective9

Conclusion10

The Media and Its Responsibilities

Introduction

While corporate responsibility occupies a growing place in reputation strategies, as well as in relationship-based marketing and stakeholder relations, very little research has been conducted on how these strategies are represented over time in news media. A notable recent exception employs a constructionist framework to analyse how media assertions concerning corporate responsibility transform the claims of medias. The authors observe that hostile coverage or coverage focused on problems more than solutions and reliance on individuals with extreme views as sources of information may have discouraged some medias from undertaking corporate responsibility initiatives and reporting the results. It is worth noting that the tendency of consumers to give greater weight to negative than to positive news about a brand in making purchase decisions has been repeatedly conmediaed in the literature, and may influence media editorial choices.

Fears of receiving negative press are unfounded for medias that undertake and report demonstrably substantive corporate responsibility initiatives. If so, one reason may be that there exists a positive and statistically significant relationship between corporate values and media performance, which is of primary importance to key stakeholders. However, at least one study demonstrated no significant link between corporate responsibility strategies or values and approval from the media and the public, unless practices generally considered as good management can be called corporate responsibility. At present the questions of how corporate responsibility practices become media content, and to what effect, remain largely open (Fitzgerald & Baralt, 2010). This research argues that corporate responsibility-based organisational promotion and reputation carry specific opportunities and risks based in the roles played by media and their sources in reporting the outcomes of and objections to the initiative.

Discussion& Analyses

We identify factors inherent in the media's internal environment that emerged as decisive for the campaign's later success. We compare these factors to a Trojan Horse, because they were largely imperceptible at ...