ABSTRACT
THIS BOOK is based on several premises: 1. Media ethics is not an oxymoron. 2. “Doing ethics in media” should be based on moral philosophy and theory, not mere
moralizing. 3. Students and instructors share the challenge of meeting substantive course objectives.
People who work in traditional and emerging forms of journalism, public relations (PR), advertising, and entertainment media play significant roles in contemporary life. A society that expects its citizens to be informed and its consumers to be discriminating must be served by moral media. The overwhelming majority of media practitioners take their ethics seriously. They may not always get it right, however, in part because commercial and other pressures often complicate their decision making. And they know their decisions will not always be popular. When faced with a choice between doing the right thing and being popular-which are often at odds with one another-ethical media practitioners opt for the high road. They “do ethics.”
