ABSTRACT
E thics is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with issues of right or wrong.The ethical issues that are most often appropriate to media professionals comeunder the heading of ‘applied ethics’: What do I/we do in a particular situation? Should I take a photograph of this starving mother and child? Is my photograph going to help them and others like them? Am I taking advantage of their situation, exploiting them for my art or for my personal financial gain? Is my act of photographing them altruistic or voyeuristic? It is also the task of applied ethics to examine general social questions usually concerning controversial subjects: the rights and wrongs of abortion, collateral damage in war, nuclear power, etc. To help with these moral dilemmas, the philosopher might turn to the subjects of ‘metaethics’ and ‘normative ethics’. Metaethics is concerned with the origins and meaning of ethical issues. It deals with more conceptual issues such as: Why should we treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated? Are moral codes of behaviour universal values or are they determined by their cultural and historical context? Normative ethics has a more practical task but one which aims to establish moral standards. These are often the subject of drama and are played out in the movies. For example one of many such
dilemmas occurs in Michael Curtiz’s film Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). The film features two childhood friends: one who has grown up to be a gangster, one a priest. The priest is trying to keep a gang of teenage boys out of trouble and the gangster offers him money to aid him in his task. Should Father Connelly accept the cash, even though he knows it has come from a questionable source? Or would its use in helping the boys contribute to the greater good of the community? Does he take the practical route or does it compromise his own moral standpoint? However, like most systems of categorisation, the boundaries are blurred and issues in applied ethics will have metaethical and normative ramifications.
