Download Teaching Module - California State University, Long Beach

Teaching Media Ethics in the
General Education JOUR 110
Introduction to Mass Communications
Course
Ethics Across the Curriculum Project
Raul Reis
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
California State University, Long Beach
JOUR 110
 General Education course
 About 220 students per semester (2 sections)
 Main goals of course:
 Students develop and improve their critical thinking, reading
and writing skills by focusing on the relationship between
mass media and society;
 Students analyze the interactions between mass media and
social, economic, political, cultural, ethnic-based, and genderbased issues.
JOUR 110
 Very strong media literacy component, in that it trains
students to reflect critically on their massive
consumption of mass media messages
 Students analyze media issues (e.g., social media) by
reading, evaluating, synthesizing and presenting
conflicting views
 Based on the authors’ perspectives and on the students’
own positions and media experience
Ethics Module in JOUR 110
 Ethics issues faced by media producers and consumers
should become a significant part of the course
 Ethical media issues include:
 Digital photography and digital video manipulation
 Use of unnamed or unreliable sources
 Sensationalism
(cont.)
Ethics Module in JOUR 110
 Ethical media issues (cont.):
 Invasion of privacy
 Government and corporate pressures on the media
 Falsehood and distortion in news stories
 Advertising in an image-based culture
 Public relations ethics and social responsibility.
Ethics Module’s Learning
Outcomes
 Developing a basic understanding of what it means to
act ethically
 Learning the tools to identify and analyze ethical issues
 Learning what some of the most relevant media ethics
issues are
 Developing a basic ability to understand and apply a
variety of philosophical approaches to solve media ethics
issues.
Modes of Instruction
 This 3-hour teaching module will consist of:
 An initial discussion of what is ethics and some
basic ethical principles
 A discussion about ethical decision-making as a
systematic, informed process
(cont.)
Modes of Instruction
 This 3-hour teaching module will consist of (cont.):
 Identifying some of the most prominent media ethics
issues
 Choosing five of those ethical issues for closer
examination
 A discussion of how ethical principles and a systematic
ethical decision-making process would help us to analyze
and resolve those five ethical issues.
Class Activities
 Students read a handout (“Ethical Foundations and
Perspectives”, in Media Ethics: Cases and Moral
Reasoning, by Clifford Christians et al.) prior to the first
lecture
 First lecture would focus on what is ethics, the difference
between ethics and religion, ethics and law, ethics and
morality; ethical decision-making as a systematic
process; the main ethical principles
Class Activities
 Class would segue into a discussion about media ethics,
and the instructor would prompt students to list the most
relevant ethical issues in mass media
 Students and instructor would rank the top five media
ethics issues, based on class discussion
 Small groups would be formed and assigned one of the
ethical issues identified in class
Class Activities
 Small groups would be asked to meet (face to face or
virtually) between the two lectures to discuss the ethical
principles and how they relate to their own media ethics
issue
 Groups will also have to research and find one real-life
media case that exemplifies their ethical dilemma.
Second Lecture
 Second lecture would start with follow up and more detailed
directions from the instructor, followed by the small groups
meeting to discuss the real-life case
 Groups discuss how the ethical principles apply to it; and how
a systematic ethical decision-making process would help them
to resolve the dilemma
 Instructor would assist the small groups in their discussion
 Groups would make a brief presentation about their real-life
case and decision-making process.
Assessment
 Small groups would be asked to turn in a brief summary
of their case and discussion (for the beginning of
following class)
 A follow up classroom discussion could ask students to
describe and explain how much they learned about
media ethics
 The midterm or final exam should include a short essay
question about media ethics and ethical decisionmaking.
Bibliography
 Christians, Clifford G. et al. “Ethical Foundations and
Perspectives”, in Media Ethics: Cases and Moral
Reasoning. Pearson Education. Boston, 2009.
 Patterson, Philip, and Wilkins, Lee. Media Ethics: Issues
and Cases. McGraw-Hill. Boston, 2008.