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Article
Publication date: 18 March 2020

Francisca Greene Gonzalez and María José Lecaros

This paper reviews the origins of the Ethics Council of the Federation of Social Communication Media of Chile (1991-2019) and looks into the historical circumstances surrounding…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper reviews the origins of the Ethics Council of the Federation of Social Communication Media of Chile (1991-2019) and looks into the historical circumstances surrounding its creation, the concept of self-regulation as understood by its founders, and the criteria that initially ruled its operation.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative survey of nine contemporary witnesses and the confrontation with the scientific literature.

Findings

The results reveal a significant coincidence with the academic literature both in the description of the concept of self-regulation and in the origin of the ethics councils and of the system under which they operate. However, a series of nuances not usually considered in the concept of self-regulation are described.

Originality/value

This study will help assess the national and international possibilities of self-regulation and the significance of the Chilean ethics council.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 July 2019

Jessica Roberts

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the shift from citizen journalist to social media user by examining how ethics are addressed on social media sites…

3191

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the shift from citizen journalist to social media user by examining how ethics are addressed on social media sites compared to citizen journalism sites.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper applies the framework of a 2012 study of ethics on citizen journalism sites to social media sites’ guiding documents to compare how they discuss ethics and what they ask of the users, offering suggestions for how social media sites might imbue users with a sense of their responsibilities and obligations.

Findings

The analysis finds that ethics are largely ignored on social media sites, written in legalistic language and framed in negative terms, rather than in terms of responsibilities or obligations.

Originality/value

When citizen journalism was subsumed by social media, much of the language – lacking as it may have been – around users’ responsibilities to each other was lost. This paper suggests social media sites should seek to raise rather than lower the barriers to entry, and imbue users with a sense of the responsibility they accept when sharing information online.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 May 2020

Marcel Mauri-Ríos, Silvia Marcos-García and Aitor Zuberogoitia-Espilla

Codes of ethics are important instruments in journalism, as they promote transparency and self-regulation of media, in addition to monitoring the quality of information. The…

Abstract

Purpose

Codes of ethics are important instruments in journalism, as they promote transparency and self-regulation of media, in addition to monitoring the quality of information. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the perceptions that Spanish journalists have of the effectiveness of codes of ethics and to evaluate the different personal and professional variables which condition this vision.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used in the present study is based on quantitative content analysis using the survey technique. This technique makes it possible to obtain empirical data on various key aspects of the profession that are determining factors in ascertaining Spanish journalists’ views of one of the instruments of accountability that is external to the media: general ethical codes.

Findings

The results show that Spanish journalists are largely confident in the effectiveness of ethical codes in their profession. Likewise, it was seen that variables such as age, professional experience or the media with which they work influence the perceptions that professionals have of such instruments.

Originality/value

If understanding journalism as a profession whose mission is to guarantee the citizens their right to information, then it is essential to be familiar with the tools provided by the profession itself to be accountable to the public regarding this professional mission. Hence the importance of instruments of accountability and the perceptions of the professionals themselves regarding their effectiveness.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 18 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 December 2003

Robert Beckett

Communication ethics, this paper argues, is a discipline ready for application to communication management and is particularly relevant as we enter an “age of information”. With a…

12286

Abstract

Communication ethics, this paper argues, is a discipline ready for application to communication management and is particularly relevant as we enter an “age of information”. With a moral foundation firmly set in the social and human sciences, communication ethics offers managers a means to face unpredictable futures with greater certainty and purpose. This paper outlines an approach in which all decision making and its communication are understood as having an ethical grounding. Such an application empowers managers to act with integrity across the spectrum of their varied communication roles: through management and internal communications, public affairs and marketing; in advertising, media and publishing, and in the use of information technology. Positioned independently from the professional bodies of communication, an interdisciplinary ethics offers practitioners skills and moral frameworks that can be shared across professions and used to compare and evaluate their practice. This paper concludes by presenting a model of communication ethics that individual managers can use to prescribe a more sensitive and dynamic human‐ethical environment.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 June 2021

Yi Chen, Chuanfu Chen and Si Li

The purpose of this study was to investigate the participants' attitudes toward the ethical issues caused by collecting social media data (SMD) for research, as well as the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the participants' attitudes toward the ethical issues caused by collecting social media data (SMD) for research, as well as the effects of familiarity, trust and altruism on the participants' attitudes toward the ethics of SMD research. It is hoped that through this study, scholars will be reminded to respect participants and engage in ethical reflection when using SMD in research.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted social media users as its research subjects and used Sina Microblog, the world's largest Chinese social media platform, as the example. Based on the 320 valid responses collected from a survey, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model.

Findings

The results indicated that altruism, familiarity and trust have significant influences on participants' attitudes toward the ethics of SMD research, and familiarity also influences attitudes through the mediating role of trust and altruism.

Originality/value

This study explored the mechanism underlying the relationship between the determining factors and participants' attitudes toward the ethics of SMD research, and the results demonstrated that the informed consent mechanism is an effective way to communicate with participants and that the guiding responsibility of the platform should be improved to standardize SMD research.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 46 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 May 2023

Oluwafemi David Bodunde, Goodluck Tamaramieye Layefa and Joseph Kehinde Fasae

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between media reporting and violent extremism to explain the ethical and security issues emanating from it in Nigeria.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between media reporting and violent extremism to explain the ethical and security issues emanating from it in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on security and ethical literature, while a multimethod approach consisting of in-depth and focus group interviews was used. Content analysis was also relied upon from the interviews granted by media experts on terrorism, security and ethics.

Findings

Findings revealed that journalists are facing problems in areas of freedom of expression, framing, content selection and personal security. Again, this paper opines that elements of public awareness and issues of relevance also push the media to excessive reporting in which ethics and security must stand to play a restraining role.

Research limitations/implications

The first limitation of this paper is the inability to interview some terrorists and know their reaction to mass media reporting on their activities because nobody is ready to own up that he is a terrorist and to point to an individual as a terrorist is a dangerous phenomenon. Again, not all reporters are ready for interviews because of the fact that they are not prepared for the academic exercise but rather for assignments that can yield fat money such as selling secret information to those who can buy them with huge amounts of money like the politicians.

Practical implications

There is a threat to life on both sides of the government and terrorists. Favoring one side in their report is an offense from another side. There is also a violation of their human rights in freedom of speech as a result of the political situation in Nigeria where the government is faced with insecurity that hinders media from freedom of the press to publish reports. Moreover, where the ethical issue is suppressed, it makes the government unpopular all over the world because of the lack of press freedom.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is novel as being the first of its kind where media experts are involved in research attempts on media reporting and violent extremism in relation to security and ethical issues in Nigeria.

Details

Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, vol. 15 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-6599

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 November 2012

Michael Litschka and Matthias Karmasin

The aim of this paper is to give theoretical and empirical arguments for new forms of communication and structure of organizations within the media and information society…

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to give theoretical and empirical arguments for new forms of communication and structure of organizations within the media and information society. Organizations must legitimate their “licence to operate” through social discourses and stakeholder communication. Possibilities to institutionalize ethics within organizations and possible barriers to such a programme are analysed.

Design/methodology/approach

First, some theoretical arguments as to why mediatisation challenges organizations to prove ethical commitment are depicted, using a rights‐based and social contract approach. Second, empirical examples for structural and communicational barriers in Austrian companies show possible practical constraints.

Findings

Theoretical findings refer to the usefulness of applying business ethical models (especially rights‐based, and social contract models) to reorganize mediatised organizations. Empirical findings concern the lack of institutionalized ethics management in companies and the corresponding problem of “PR‐style” communication instead of stakeholder discourses.

Research limitations/implications

The research reported in one section of the paper relies on the qualitative survey of 14 experts in different branches of the Austrian economy. While interviews can give a picture on how respondents understand the relevant research question and construct the respective reality, they are far from providing a representative picture of communicative ethical problems in mediatised organizations.

Practical implications

Practical consequences should be possible, if companies understand the mediatised and communicative nature of their relationship with society and stakeholders and therefore react to that challenge by building up reputation through ethics management.

Originality/value

The paper gives new insights to the important relationship between organizations and the public and shows how, e.g. enterprises can legitimate their business models and secure their long‐term existence. New empirical research concerns cases from Austrian companies.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 10 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

Somava Pande

New media is reshaping mediated communication. This paper aims to examine whether the online community is concerned about ethical issues in citizen journalism.

Abstract

Purpose

New media is reshaping mediated communication. This paper aims to examine whether the online community is concerned about ethical issues in citizen journalism.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses critical thematic analyses to examine 1,402 comments posted in response to two YouTube videos of teenage girl molestation in India. This method was appropriate, as it will show how public reacts to information disseminated by common citizens and also show whether ethics are related to citizen journalism.

Findings

Results show that although some viewers questioned the cameraperson’s and the passerby’s morality, several supportive comments praised the cameraperson’s presence of mind and courage. Furthermore, it shows that while some viewers vilified the victim, others advocated a more prudent response. This shows ambiguity regarding ethics in cyberspace. The mixed reactions present strong evidence to challenge the idealistic and exceedingly rational original notion of the public sphere as homogenous or integrated on issues of public concern. Instead, result exhibits an emergence of pluralistic, intersecting and contending publics that are created by new communication technologies like the internet.

Research limitations/implications

The study was specific to a particular context thereby lacking generalizability. However, it implies further investigation of social agency and the underlying politics in the move from local to global.

Originality/value

These findings necessitate a reconceptualization of cyberspace ethics to accommodate the new publics that have materialized from new media technologies.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 15 no. 01
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2005

Mike Jempson

The credibility of journalists and public relations professionals took some bad knocks in 2004. This paper examines the recent history of the debate and some of the efforts being…

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Abstract

The credibility of journalists and public relations professionals took some bad knocks in 2004. This paper examines the recent history of the debate and some of the efforts being made within the communications industry to rebuild the public confidence that journalism is a vital part of the democratic process. The NUJ has issued new guidelines to its members in public relations at a time when PR professionals are calling for a rethink about the relationship between journalism and PR. The heart of the matter is the issue of trust – which is also high on the post‐Hutton media agenda. Public trust in journalism and in corporate social responsibility is low; “spin” has been disgraced, and media regulation is under reconstruction. How can media professionals forge new relationships with their publics, to promote healthy and open democracy? It is time for dialogue and commitment to work together on redefining the role of all media professionals in an open democracy.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Anson Au

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the nature, gravity, and consequences of physician use of social media use surpass professional identity, by bringing to attention…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the nature, gravity, and consequences of physician use of social media use surpass professional identity, by bringing to attention the nuanced, potential conflicts between patient-physician interests in current educational policies.

Design/methodology/approach

Analyzing a case study of a physician publicly posting and commenting on many of his patients’ information, conversations, and medical conditions on social media.

Findings

Physician social media use carries many issues that concern ethics and the patient, rather than professional identity and the physician. In response, two sets of ethical standards are developed: one that deals with what constitutes impermissible behaviors online, and another that stipulates appropriate punishments for violations of these codes.

Originality/value

Most medical education policies and the literature have emphasized professional identity- formation with regards to physician use of social media, rather than ethics. Furthermore, no study exists that presents a clear, concrete, insider perspective at physicians’ improper use of social media.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 38 no. 5-6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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