Controversies in Media Ethics offers students, instructors and professionals multiple perspectives on media ethics issues presenting vast "gray areas" and few, if any, easy answers. This third edition includes a wide range of subjects, and demonstrates a willingness to tackle the problems raised by new technologies, new media, new politics and new economics. The core of the text is formed by 14 chapters, each of which deals with a particular problem or likelihood of ethical dilemma, presented as different points of view on the topic in question, as argued by two or more contributing authors. The 15th chapter is a collection of "mini-chapters," allowing students to discern first-hand how to deal with ethical problems. Contributing authors John A. Armstrong, Peter J. Gade, Julianne H. Newton, Kim Sheehan, and Jane B. Singer provide additional voices and perspectives on various topics under discussion. This edition has been thoroughly updated to provide: discussions of issues reflecting the breadth and depth of the media spectrum numerous real-world examples broad discussion of confidentiality and other timely topics A Companion Website (www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415963329) supplies resources for both students and instructors. You can also join the Controversies community on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CME3rd Developed for use in media ethics courses, Controversies in Media Ethics provides up-to-date discussions and analysis of ethical situations across a variety of media, including issues dealing with the Internet and new media. It provides a unique consideration of ethical concerns, and serves as provocative reading for all media students.

This volume offers a historical, philosophical, and practical critique of public and civic journalism--a movement that gained momentum in the final decade of the 20th century. During that period, proponents of the movement have published nearly a dozen books expanding upon and expounding the virtues of journalism, seeking to repair what is thought to be the torn social, political, and moral fabric in America. Although previous works have established a strong practical underpinning for public and civic journalism, none has examined its philosophical roots or challenged its methodology and grounding in neoliberal constructs. This volume does just that, tracing its origins in early philosophy to the current newsroom policies and practices that conflict with traditional constructs in libertarian press theory.
"Twilight of Press Freedom" postulates that institutionalized journalism is fading away and world journalism--prompted by the people--is veering toward more order and social harmony, and away from the traditional idea of the great value of press freedom. The volume provides a critical examination of the trend toward public journalism and considers how press freedom will be impacted by this trend in coming years. Scholars and students in journalism, public opinion, and media studies will find this book insightful and invaluable.

Controversies in Media Ethics offers students, instructors and professionals multiple perspectives on media ethics issues presenting vast "gray areas" and few, if any, easy answers. This third edition includes a wide range of subjects, and demonstrates a willingness to tackle the problems raised by new technologies, new media, new politics and new economics. The core of the text is formed by 14 chapters, each of which deals with a particular problem or likelihood of ethical dilemma, presented as different points of view on the topic in question, as argued by two or more contributing authors. The 15th chapter is a collection of "mini-chapters," allowing students to discern first-hand how to deal with ethical problems. Contributing authors John A. Armstrong, Peter J. Gade, Julianne H. Newton, Kim Sheehan, and Jane B. Singer provide additional voices and perspectives on various topics under discussion. This edition has been thoroughly updated to provide: discussions of issues reflecting the breadth and depth of the media spectrum numerous real-world examples broad discussion of confidentiality and other timely topics A Companion Website (www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415963329) supplies resources for both students and instructors. You can also join the Controversies community on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CME3rd Developed for use in media ethics courses, Controversies in Media Ethics provides up-to-date discussions and analysis of ethical situations across a variety of media, including issues dealing with the Internet and new media. It provides a unique consideration of ethical concerns, and serves as provocative reading for all media students.

A main intent of this book is to show how freedom relates to ethics in journalism and at the same time to discuss how a number of other contraries or antinomies are unsuitable in the real world of journalism. I also hope to demonstrate how a synthesis, a position near the Aristotelian Golden Mean, is the best solution to many of the problems of mass communication. We need to form the habit of thinking dialectically about many of our journalistic problems realizing that a clash of opposing positions is not harmful but useful in the constantly changing world of journalism. - From the Introduction Over the past thirty years, John C. Merrill has produced what many critics consider an essential body of writing on the relatedness of journalism and philosophy. He speaks with authority for a growing group of scholars who are looking behind the product of journalism for the ideologies that create them. His latest work, The Dialectic in Journalism,is an ambitious and comprehensive examination of the forces at work throughout the press. The book focuses on two important and timely issues: journalistic license and social control, or in a larger sense, freedom and responsibility. What are the just limits of the press? Where may libertarians and statists of the press find common ground? How do journalists convert the world into the word? Merrill places sweeping questions such as these in the context of the Western intellectual tradition. Beginning with the Heraclitean observation that reality is constantly changing, he traces the development of the dialectic through Plato and Aristotle to Rousseau, Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Hegel. Merrill connect these thinkers with many of the problems facing the journalistic community today. He uses the Hegelian dialectic to suggest that a moderating force is at work in the contemporary journalism. He shows that the tensions created between the concept of freedom of expression and necessity of restraint resolve themselves in a synthesis of ""social responsibility."" Readers familiar with Merrill's earlier works will find in this new book the same strong concern for the ethical foundations of journalism. The Dialectic in Journalism is sufficiently rigorous philosophically that it sustains a close critical reading, and yet the general reader will find it straightforward and lucid. Journalists will want to read this book to gain new insight into the frequently unexamined philosophy of their trade, and the public will profit from a broader understand of the force that plays a central role in shaping our view of the world.

In a previous book, John Merrill and Ralph Lowenstein were the first journalism academics in America to predict, correctly, that newspapers and magazines as we know them would soon disappear, to be replaced by digitized products. Drawing on their long experience in journalism and journalism education, they lay out in this book their observations, suggestions and predictions - not only for the American media, but for the education of future journalists. They believe many media moguls have abused their fiduciary responsibility to maintain the financial strength and credibility of the press. They believe few university presidents understand the important relationship between journalism education and political democracy. They describe the chain of neglect that has led to press insolvency, staff unemployment and J-school misdirection. They believe print journalism will be the strongest form of journalism well into the future - although the "print" will not be on paper. It will be on what the authors call an "s-slate," silicon slate, and they believe that every individual from kindergartner to senior citizen will a personal s-slate in the future to retrieve and read books, magazines and newspapers. Merrill and Lowenstein assert that readers of the s-slate will pay for everything they read. The co-authors observe that journalism education's ties to professional journalism are more problematic than at any time in their mutual history, and that there is an unfortunate lack of self-examination about this tragic disconnect in both academe and the mass media. One remedy they suggest is the addition of a half-year to the undergraduate curriculum in which students immerse themselves in an intensive practicum involving print, radio and television. The reward at the end will be a meaningful "certification," in addition to their bachelor's degree. The co-authors also suggest that faculty should serve the media better and teach university administrators better about the true worth of journalism education to the political system.

In a previous book, John Merrill and Ralph Lowenstein were the first journalism academics in America to predict, correctly, that newspapers and magazines as we know them would soon disappear, to be replaced by digitized products. Drawing on their long experience in journalism and journalism education, they lay out in this book their observations, suggestions and predictions - not only for the American media, but for the education of future journalists. They believe many media moguls have abused their fiduciary responsibility to maintain the financial strength and credibility of the press. They believe few university presidents understand the important relationship between journalism education and political democracy. They describe the chain of neglect that has led to press insolvency, staff unemployment and J-school misdirection. They believe print journalism will be the strongest form of journalism well into the future - although the "print" will not be on paper. It will be on what the authors call an "s-slate," silicon slate, and they believe that every individual from kindergartner to senior citizen will a personal s-slate in the future to retrieve and read books, magazines and newspapers. Merrill and Lowenstein assert that readers of the s-slate will pay for everything they read. The co-authors observe that journalism education's ties to professional journalism are more problematic than at any time in their mutual history, and that there is an unfortunate lack of self-examination about this tragic disconnect in both academe and the mass media. One remedy they suggest is the addition of a half-year to the undergraduate curriculum in which students immerse themselves in an intensive practicum involving print, radio and television. The reward at the end will be a meaningful "certification," in addition to their bachelor's degree. The co-authors also suggest that faculty should serve the media better and teach university administrators better about the true worth of journalism education to the political system.

This volume offers a historical, philosophical, and practical critique of public and civic journalism--a movement that gained momentum in the final decade of the 20th century. During that period, proponents of the movement have published nearly a dozen books expanding upon and expounding the virtues of journalism, seeking to repair what is thought to be the torn social, political, and moral fabric in America. Although previous works have established a strong practical underpinning for public and civic journalism, none has examined its philosophical roots or challenged its methodology and grounding in neoliberal constructs. This volume does just that, tracing its origins in early philosophy to the current newsroom policies and practices that conflict with traditional constructs in libertarian press theory.
"Twilight of Press Freedom" postulates that institutionalized journalism is fading away and world journalism--prompted by the people--is veering toward more order and social harmony, and away from the traditional idea of the great value of press freedom. The volume provides a critical examination of the trend toward public journalism and considers how press freedom will be impacted by this trend in coming years. Scholars and students in journalism, public opinion, and media studies will find this book insightful and invaluable.

Since the first version of this classic work was published in 1974, major events in which American journalism has played a decisive role have cast the reporter increasingly as the subject for public examination. The newsman has become news. Though there are more serious, responsible journalists today than at any time in America, the less serious, less responsible also have great exposure. The loss of credibility of the mass media is widely acknowledged, and is a considerable concern to serious journalists. For not only is American policy-making hampered by sensational journalism, but also weakened is the philosophical foundation of a free society; a society committed to maximize the freedom of well-informed choice for individual citizens in a period of massification. This book presents a philosophy of journalism that not only relates to a journalist's everyday activities, but also deals with a broad Weltanschauung for journalism which is built largely on the ideas coming out of the Age of Reason. Areas of philosophy are political philosophy and its relationship to journalism, epistemological concerns-primarily journalistic objectivity and truth-seeking, and journalistic ethics.

Proponents of professional ethics recognize the importance of theory but also know that the field of ethics is best understood through real-world applications. This book introduces students and practitioners to important ethical concepts through the lives of major thinkers ranging from Aristotle to Ayn Rand, John Stuart Mill to the Dalai Lama.

Some two dozen contributors approach media ethics from five perspectives--altruistic, egoistic, autonomous, legalist, and communitarian--and use real people as examples to convey ethical concepts as something more than mere abstractions. Readers see how Confucius represents group loyalty; Gandhi, nonviolent action; Mother Teresa, the spirit of sacrifice. Each profile provides biographical material, the individual's basic ethical position and contribution, and insight into how his or her moral teachings can help the modern communicator. The roster of thinkers is gender inclusive, ethnically diverse, and spans a broad range of time and geography to challenge the misperception that moral theory is dominated by Western males.

These profiles challenge us not to give up on moral thinking in our day but to take seriously the abundance of good ideas in ethics that the human race provides. They speak to real-life struggles by applying to such trials the lasting quality of foundational thought. Many of the root values to which they appeal are cross-cultural, even universal.

Exemplifying these five ethical perspectives through more than two dozen mentors provides today's communicators with a solid grounding of key ideas for improving discussion and attaining social progress in their lives and work. These profiles convey the diversity of means to personal and social betterment through worthwhile ideas that truly make ethics come alive.