Normative Ethics as it Relates to Public Relations and Journalism Communication Issues
Normative Ethics as it Relates to Public Relations
and Journalism Communication Issues (Summary)
BY: IFEDAYO AKINWALERE
Introduction
ETHICS
: According to Omoregbe (1993) cited in Onabajo (2002),ethics is concerned
with fundamental principles of morality
where some actions are regarded as good or bad; right or wrong; ethical or
unethical and the various criteria for making such judgements.
The
purpose of ethics is to avoid doing harm and this is vital in communication
because it strive to build trust.
Communication ethics
is the belief that an individual's or group's behaviour are governed by their
morals which in turn affects communication, such as interpersonal
communication, group communication, mass mediated communication, and digital
communication.
Communication enhances human worth and dignity by
fostering truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and
respect for self and others.
Unethical
communication threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the
well being of individuals and the society in which we live.
Normative ethics
refers to the branch of moral philosophy concerned with how we ought to live
our lives, what things we ought to value, and what practical decisions we ought
to make.
There
are many varieties of normative ethics and many versions of each variety. There
are approaches that appear to be particularly useful and relevant to areas of
application such as business ethics or professional ethics.
The main focus will be
on three sets of theories:
Utilitarian
ethics judges actions by their consequences, assessed in terms of some
measure of utility. Its application typically takes the form of a kind of
cost-benefit analysis, but applied to the utility function for society at large
rather than to that for a particular actor.
Kantian
ethics focuses on the actions themselves and the principles that might be
adopted to guide people in these actions, irrespective of their consequences.
It suggests that people have an unconditional ethical duty to follow principles
that are generic and that treat people as ends not means.
Virtue ethics
focuses on the character of the actor rather than on the actions or their
consequences, and equates the ethical with what a virtuous person would do in
any particular situation.
For
a while, people’s characters are revealed by their actions, they are not
necessarily revealed by individual actions. To judge how ethical a fictional
character is we need to read the whole novel, not just a few pages, and the
same is true of real life.
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Many critics argue that
there can be no ethical public relations because the practice itself is akin to
manipulation and propaganda. The focus question: Is there such a thing as communication ethics
in public relations and journalism?
Theoretical
Framework: Social Responsibility
Theory.
Methodology:
The paper employs content analysis.
COMMUNICATION ASPECTS
Truthfulness is the
opposite of deception
which is a
deliberate intention to
mislead. Half-truths, lying and withholding information are various
forms of deception.
Withholding
information is in violation of the
code as it ''manipulates people
by limiting the
information available to them as they make choices. This is an assault
on one’s personal autonomy''.
A
business with unethical communication
practices is not as effective as one with ethical communication practices.
For example,
a business with unethical communication practices may withhold evidence that it
is harming the environment or breaking a law through a lack of transparency.
A
business with ethical communication practices will immediately issue a press
release to the affected parties. In this example, transparency makes the
business more effective because it notifies its clients, prospective or
established, providers/suppliers, or other affiliates of the potential
environmental hazard or law violation.
This
example, transparency will encourage trust and good faith, that the effective
business will not conceal what is in the interest of its audience.
Public Relations and Tobacco Industry
It
is also morally questionable as to whether
public relations should
be involved with
an industry that
sells deadly products.
Due to
the poor public
image of the
tobacco industry, several
front organisations have been
created to design communication in order to voice
pro-tobacco views and
create the impression
that the public
is supporting the
tobacco industry. PR practitioners
conceal information about the damage tobacco can do to human health.
Deontological,
it is wrong to sell a product that kills.
Therefore, it is
questionable as whether
the tobacco industry
can be a
good corporate citizen
when the product it produces is harmful to society.
Teleology holds
that an action is ethical if
its benefits for
society are greater
than its alternatives.
The emphasis here
is on the
consequences of the
actions which should promote
human well-being for the most number of people.
In addition,
if the half-truth
information is
printed in the media
(and given that
the public expects
truth and accuracy from the media), it is also guilty
of corrupting the channels of communication.
Journalism and
Communication Ethics: Certainly, ethically
based practice of journalism enhances the responsibility of the media. The
ethical imperative of objectivity,
fairness, accuracy and balance has been eroded.
DISCRIMINATION: In
2005, a telecommunication company (MTN) employed advertisement to enforces sex
disparity in the society. The scenario generated heated debate among audience
and stake holders in Nigeria in 2005 when the advert placed emphasis on the
dominance of the male child over the female child. Consequently, MTN was
charged for instigating discrimination in the society. Consequently, the stated
advertisement was withdrawn from circulation.
FAIRNESS
According to
Beli (n.d) in his study of challenging the challenges of broadcast regulations
in Nigeria: a study of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), he
discovered that broadcast stations are
always accused of such violation of what is called standards of broadcasting in Nigeria, and the NBC is
thought to be weak in calling them into order.
Beli cited an example of the Nigeria’s 2003 general electioneering campaign in
which the (NTA) was said to have violated the law provision of the NBC which
compels mass media to give equal chances to political oppositions for political
advertisement.
Section 7.6.5 of
the NBC code (2012) says “no broadcaster shall deny any person, party or group
a right of broadcast of a political advertisement”.
The then PDP Candidate, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, was given a
full coverage and refused the same for ANPP presidential candidate, Muhammadu
Buhari. The NBC could not enforce that law to arrest the stated
situation.
RELIGION
The NBC Code also allows for ten percent
(10%) airing of religious programmes “notwithstanding the above, religious
broadcast shall not exceed 10% of the total weekly airtime of any broadcaster”
(Section 4.3.1 (I) NBC 2012).
However, during
the year 2008, about forty six percent (46%) of the Radio Kano AM programmes
were religious, most especially during the Ramadan Period. The situation
continued like that and NBC could not enforce the law to stop the station from
broadcasting the excesses.
Illegal/Misleading
Advertisement
NBC Code (2012)
says: “an advertisement shall not be broadcast if it contains an offer of a
medicine or product, or an advice relating to the treatment of serious
diseases, complaints, conditions, indications or symptoms, which should rightly
receive the attention of a registered medical practitioner”.
Every day as one
tune to his radio stations, he tends to listen to some traditional medicine
sellers advertising medicine for serious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Gonorrhoea and
so on, Beli stated.
He added that in
Freedom Radio and Radio Kano for example, Islamic medical centers like
Dan-Fodiyo and Ibrahim Khalil Centre of Islamic Medicine are regularly aired
with such information. Section 7.3.5 of the NBC code.
Offensive Images
A responsible
journalist’s intent should be to inform, not to offend.
In
September 2005, Caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad did not result in protest
when they were first published. But when they were republished in early 2006, attention
was drawn to the 12 images; it resulted in rioting throughout the Islamic
world. The consequences were that Embassies were burnt and people were killed.
After
the rioting and killing started, it was difficult to ignore the cartoons. Some
media elected merely to describe the cartoons, not to print them. Yet every
time a major protest broke out, the more likely it was that the cartoons would
be published. Predictably, perhaps, each publication set off a new wave of
protests.
In
our country, it is assumed that a media
station is of high reputation for truth-telling and fairness, and readers
and viewers are curious to see what is driving such outrage.
An
ethical journalist can provide a link to a website
where they could be viewed. Whatever you decide, it is important to have a
serious discussion and a good reason for your decision.
Recommendations
Providing Truthful Information
When a journalist is in dilemma
in respect of ethical challenges, he or she should consider the following principles.
- Consider the utilitarianism of our actions, that is, our action should produce the greatest balance of good over evil.
- Lastly treat people in the same way you would expect to be treated.
Conclusion
The purpose of ethics is to avoid doing harm and this is vital in communication because it strive to build trust. This allows both parties to define what is acceptable to allow for better relations between individuals and different departments, in the case of organizations.
Normative Ethics as it Relates to Public Relations and Journalism Communication Issues
Reviewed by IFEDAYO AKINWALERE
on
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