ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter gives an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Media professionals often mistake functional obligations to their clients or audiences for moral obligations to affected third parties. They coined the phrase "moral myopia" to describe a state of almost literal blindness to ethical problems. Blindness to moral issues allows media practitioners to avoid having to deal with the balancing of obligations to their various claimants. Ethical relativism is the view that all moral claims are inter-subjective. Since different societies have different moral codes, there can be no objective standard separate from society by which to judge these codes. Ethical relativism is the view that all moral claims are inter-subjective. Every time a journalist refers to the public's right to know as a reason for violating someone's privacy, she is using an ethical argument.
