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Abstract
This article presents an analysis of virtuous journalism as demonstrated in the award-winning movie Spotlight. It analyzes Spotlight using key concepts from virtue ethics theory – arête (virtue), phronesis (practical wisdom), and eudaimonia (happiness), revealing an in-depth understanding of the regulative ideals embedded in the movie. The article discusses major virtues exemplified in the movie, journalists’ practical wisdom, and how the journalism profession can contribute to human flourishing through its professional goals. By informing a theoretically grounded understanding of the moral lessons in this movie and its values for the profession, this article also aims to benefit ethics educators.
... Scholars in this area emphasize the persuasive power of visual representations as "powerful tool [s] for thinking about what journalism is and should be" (Ehrlich and Saltzman 2015, 1). Popular culture portrayals of both journalistic virtue and journalistic vice reinforce notions of how journalism ought to be practiced, serving as teaching tools that encourage reflection on journalism's role in society and on the efficacy and ethics of its practices (Ehrlich 2006(Ehrlich , 2010Ehrlich and Saltzman 2015;Feng 2022;Ferrucci 2018;McNair 2009). ...
... The literature on depictions of journalists in popular culture skews significantly toward the study of visual media. The majority of this work has focused on how journalists have been rendered in movies (see, e.g., Ehrlich 2006Ehrlich , 2010Feng 2022;McNair 2009) and on television shows (see, e.g., Ferrucci 2018;Ferrucci andPainter 2016, 2017;Painter 2017;Painter and Ferrucci 2017;Peters 2015), for example, with other visual forms such as comic books, cartoons, and advertisements attracting far less attention. AI-generated images provide an alternative and conceptually innovative way of studying the visual representation of journalists, not least because of how they complicate the notion of authorship in terms of who (or what) is doing the work of representing. ...
... Understandings of journalism are typically examined in narrow and discrete ways, such as how specific types of journalists see themselves (Moon 2021;Willis 2009), how audience members perceive journalists (Rauch 2019), or how journalists are represented in a specific medium, such as film or television (Feng 2022;Ferrucci 2018). Exploring how AI "sees" journalism provides a unique perspective by combining genres, media, and conventions to present a composite view. ...
The question of “who is a journalist?” has animated much discussion in journalism scholarship. Such discussions generally stem from the intersecting technological, economic, and social transformations journalism has faced in the twenty-first century. An equally relevant aspect, albeit one that has hitherto been less studied, is what a journalist looks like. Some studies have tackled this through, for example, examining depictions of journalists in popular culture, but artificial intelligence understandings of what a journalist is and what they look like have yet to receive research attention. While AI-enabled generative art has existed since the late 1990s, the ease and accessibility of these processes has greatly been boosted by providers like Midjourney which emerged since the 2020s and allow those without programming skills to easily create algorithmic images from text prompts. This study analyzes 84 images generated by AI from four “generic” keywords (“journalist,” “reporter,” “correspondent,” and “the press”) and three “specialized” ones (“news analyst,” “news commentator,” and “fact-checker”) over a six-month period. The results reveal an uneven distribution of gender and digital technology between the generic and specialized roles and prompt reflection on how AI perpetuates extant biases in the social world.
Resumo
An international orientation has been a primary goal of media ethics, especially since the MacBride Report (1980), as can be seen in cases, issues and codes of ethics that have been adopted in different countries. But work in ethical theory has also been increasingly committed to an international perspective, and three examples of it (besides the classical Habermas’ discourse ethics) are discussed in this essay: feminist ethics of care, African communal ethics, and Confucian media ethics. All these theories emphasize, in their specific ways, three major ethical principles – truth, human dignity, non-violence – that emerge from a common protonorm, a kind of first belief that can be found in all religions, philosophies, and cultures: the sacredness of life. Given the dilemmas and moral issues that the media face in today’s volatile world, a commitment with these universal values will give communication education and practice long-term vitality.
This article argues that strong versions of the situationist critique of virtue ethics are empirically and conceptually unfounded, as well as that, even if one accepts that the predictive power of character may be limited, this is not a fatal problem for early Confucian virtue ethics. Early Confucianism has explicit strategies for strengthening and expanding character traits over time, as well as for managing a variety of situational forces. The article concludes by suggesting that Confucian virtue ethics represents a more empirically responsible model of ethics than those currently dominant in Western philosophy.
In this chapter, we seek to define, classify, and characterize moral courage. Moral courage is defined as brave behavior, accompanied by anger and indignation, intending to enforce societal and ethical norms without considering one’s own social costs. Social costs (i.e., negative social consequences) distinguish moral courage from other prosocial behaviors like helping behavior. Similarities between moral courage and heroism and between moral courage and social control are discussed. We also mention research about classical determinants of helping behavior which do not affect moral courage followed by findings about determinants which promote moral courageous behavior. Models for moral courage as well as measures are presented. Finally, moral courage trainings are briefly discussed as possibility to foster moral courage in our society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This book provides an indispensable basic introduction to textual analysis. McKee starts from the most basic philosophical foundations that underlie the practice and explains why texts are important and what they tell us about the world they represent.
Textual Analysis guides students away from finding the `correct' interpretation of a text and explains why we can't simply ask audiences about the interpretations they make of texts.
Textual Analysis:
- points to the importance of context, genre and modality
- uses excellent examples drawn from popular culture
- provides students with a solid grounding on many of the important concepts underlying media and cultural studies
Written in an accessible and straightforward style Textual Analysis: A Beginners Guide will be essential reading for all students of media, cultural and communication studies.
Philippa Foot (1920-2010) is widely regarded as one of the most important Anglophone moral philosophers of the 20th century. She pioneered a distinctive approach to philosophical treatment of ethics using the tools of analytic philosophy. She defended the objectivity of moral judgment and took controversial positions on abortion and euthanasia. She was also a leading figure behind the revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics in contemporary philosophy. This book represents the first comprehensive and accessible introduction to Foot’s work. It offers a complete chronological and thematic overview, emphasising the role Foot played in the development of contemporary virtue ethics. It situates her thought in the context of the historical development of analytic moral philosophy and discusses the various objections to her views. Foot’s writings take the form of essays that take up small problems within moral philosophy. Yet John Hacker-Wright argues that there is nevertheless a coherent, systematic moral perspective throughout Foot's work that she does not make fully explicit. This is the ideal introduction for students seeking a synthetic grasp of Foot's moral vision.
A new volume of philosophical essays by Bernard Williams. The book is a successor to Problems of the Self, but whereas that volume dealt mainly with questions of personal identity, Moral Luck centres on questions of moral philosophy and the theory of rational action. That whole area has of course been strikingly reinvigorated over the last deacde, and philosophers have both broadened and deepened their concerns in a way that now makes much earlier moral and political philosophy look sterile and trivial. Moral Luck contains a number of essays that have contributed influentially to this development. Among the recurring themes are the moral and philosophical limitations of utilitarianism, the notion of integrity, relativism, and problems of moral conflict and rational choice. The work presented here is marked by a high degree of imagination and acuity, and also conveys a strong sense of psychological reality. The volume will be a stimulating source of ideas and arguments for all philosophers and a wide range of other readers.
Philippa Foot sets out a naturalistic theory of ethics, which she calls ‘natural normativity’ and which is radically opposed to the subjectivist, non‐naturalism tradition deriving from David Hume and to be found in G. E. Moore and modern theories of ethics influenced by Moore, such as emotivism and prescriptivism. Natural normativity involves a special form of evaluation that predicates goodness and defect to living things qua living things, and Foot argues that this is the form of evaluation in moral judgements. Moral evaluations thus share a conceptual structure with evaluations of the characteristics and operations of living things, and can only be understood in these terms. The thesis of the book, then, is that vice is a natural defect, and virtue goodness of will; therefore propositions to do with goodness or badness in human character and action are not to be understood in psychological terms. In Ch. 1, Foot discusses and criticizes the subjectivism and non‐cognitivism that has dominated the past 60 years of analytical moral philosophy. Ch. 2 provides a sketch of an account of natural normativity in plants and animals, while Ch. 3 applies this to human beings, including a discussion of Elizabeth Anscombe's discussion of promising. Ch. 4 exhibits the constraint that this account of natural normativity imparts to any adequate view of practical rationality. Ch. 5 attempts to dissolve any meaningful distinction between the domain of practical rationality and the domain of morality. Ch. 6 deals with the connection between goodness and happiness, while Ch. 7 discusses Nietzsche's immoralism.
Professionals, it is said, have no use for simple lists of virtues and vices. The complexities and constraints of professional roles create peculiar moral demands on the people who occupy them, and traits that are vices in ordinary life are praised as virtues in the context of professional roles. Should this disturb us, or is it naive to presume that things should be otherwise? Taking medical and legal practice as key examples, Justin Oakley and Dean Cocking develop a rigorous articulation and defence of virtue ethics, contrasting it with other types of character-based ethical theories and showing that it offers a promising new approach to the ethics of professional roles. They provide insights into the central notions of professional detachment, professional integrity, and moral character in professional life, and demonstrate how a virtue-based approach can help us better understand what ethical professional-client relationships would be like.
Textual analysis is a methodology - a way of gathering data - for researchers who are interested in the ways in which people make sense of the world.
Using a methodology inspired by structural narratology and by James Hamilton’s [2016. Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism. Cambridge: Harvard] economic analysis of investigative journalism, this paper identifies a set of 14 recurring structural and formal elements (plot events, character types and functions, visual iconography) that constitute a fable about investigative journalism. The fable structure is applied to analyze six diverse films about investigative journalism produced in the US in the last 40 years. The films include two instantiations of successful investigative journalism (All the President’s Men, Spotlight), two cases where conflict between journalists and corporate managers diminished the impact of the investigation (Good Night and Good Luck, The Insider), and two instances of a counter-fable of failed investigative journalism (Truth, Kill the Messenger). The paper argues that the films’ representation of investigative journalism influences public perceptions of investigative journalism. It also speculates about the factors that will influence investigative journalism and its representations in the current political context in the US.
This chapter puts forward a form of moral realism which we call ‘anthropological realism’. We argue that this is an important tool in the construction of a global ethics, and a global media ethics.
This work establishes a contemporary profile of virtue in professional media practice. Author Patrick Lee Plaisance examines the experiences, perspectives, moral stances, and demographic data of two dozen professional exemplars in journalism and public relations. Plaisance conducted extensive personal "life story" interviews and collected survey data to assess the exemplars’ personality traits, ethical ideologies, moral reasoning skills and perceived workplace climate. The chosen professionals span the geographic United States, and include Pulitzer Prize winners and trendsetting PR corporate executives, ranging from rising stars to established veterans. Their thoughts, opinions, and experiences provide readers with an insider’s perspective on the thought process of decision makers in media. The unique observations in this volume will be stimulating reading for practitioners, researchers, and students in journalism and public relations. Virtue in Media establishes a key benchmark, and sets an agenda for future research into the moral psychology of media professionals.
This chapter aims to help readers understand their responsibilities as persons and as journalists, and to provide them with a framework for addressing the ethical issues that routinely arise in the practice of journalism. The approach, which is informed by the basic tenets of Western ethical traditions and which borrows from Ozar's and Elliott's previous works, develops from the abstract to the concrete. That is, it moves from a discussion of the purpose of journalism, and the specific values that emerge from that purpose, to ideal relationships and practice rules, and ultimately, to a recommended method.
New media has caused drastic changes in the reporting of current events and shattered the old boundaries of region, nation, and traditional deadlines. While journalists have quickly adapted to a world where a story is instantaneously accessible across the globe, a new code of ethics to deal with reporting to a globalized world is beginning to emerge. Reformulating the basic aims and principles of journalism, Global Journalism Ethics offers a systematic philosophy for this new era of reporting news in a technologically connected age where stories and ethics cross borders. Stephen Ward argues that present media practices are narrowly based within the borders of single country and thus unable to successfully inform the public about a globalized world. Presenting an ethical framework for work in multimedia, the author extends John Rawl's theories of justice and the human good to redefine the aims for which journalism should strive and then applies this new foundation to issues such as the roles of patriotism and objectivity in journalism. An innovative argument that presents a necessary corrective to contemporary media practices, Global Journalism Ethics is a theoretically rich study for journalists on the air, in print, and on the internet.
This essay compares Aristotle's conception of virtue with Confucius' key notion of ren (which has also been interpreted as "virtue") against the background of the revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics in the West and of Confucianism in the East. It argues that while Aristotle's virtue hinges on practical wisdom, Confucius' ren focuses on filial love, and on this basis interprets the respective theoretical merits and weaknesses of these two philosophers. The study is intended to show how Confucius can contribute to contemporary virtue ethics.
The neo-Aristotelian virtue theory of Philippa Foot is presented here as an alternative framework that is arguably more useful than deontological approaches and that relies less on the assertions of moral claims about the intrinsic goodness of foundational principles. Instead, this project focuses more on cultivating a true ethic; that is, a set of tools and propositions to enable individuals to negotiate inevitable conflicts among moral values and challenges posed by cultural contexts and technology use. Foot's “natural normativity” connects the conditions of human flourishing and objective reasons for acting morally, providing a framework for a digital media ethic to address three critical categories: virtuality and authenticity, privacy and autonomy, and exchange and discourse.
Recent events demonstrated to the world a growing sense of interconnection and interdependence that will call for universal values and ethical behaviors on the part of journalists. In this article I look at journalism, likening this profession of inquiry to that of scientists, and I look at journalism ethics as a body of knowledge before identifying universal characteristics and suggesting that because of the many universal values that bond humans at whatever location, journalists should be able to agree on common ethical principles.
Journalism has been a continual source of fascination for Hollywood. This article analyzes how the journalism movie genre has portrayed the news media over the years. It explores whether these movies criticize journalism or celebrate it. The article suggests that the movies’ relationship to the press reflects a fundamentally ambivalent relationship between the press and the broader culture. It also suggests that Hollywood explicitly portrays institutional and cultural tensions within journalism which the news media often downplay or ignore.
This essay outlines an account of virtue ethics applied to the profession of journalism. Virtue ethics emphasizes character before consequences, requires the “good” prior to the “right,” and allows for agent-relative as well as agent-neutral values. This essay offers an exploration of the internal characteristics of a good journalist by focusing on moral virtues crucial to journalism. First, the essay outlines the general tenets of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Second, it offers arguments touting virtue ethics in comparison with other popular normative theories such as Mill's utilitarianism and Kant's deontology. Finally, an original account of journalistic virtue ethics is offered, with an emphasis on the virtues of justice and integrity.
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 4.1 (1997) 1-11
The virtue of courage exhibits different forms in human life. Types of courage can be broadly differentiated in terms of the fear which must be faced and the goal to be attained. Two forms of courage have been discussed at some length in the history of ethics. "Physical courage" is characterized by overcoming a fear of death or physical harm. The goals to be achieved by its exercise are traditionally defined by society or by the requirements of survival. The paradigmatic example is Aristotle's (1987) brave soldier who faces death to defend his city (1115a25-35). Another example would be bravely defending self and family against a threat from nature such as a flood or dangerous carnivore. The second form, "moral courage," also has some allusions in Aristotle (1115a12-13; 1115b1-2), but Plato's portrayal of Socrates is in many ways the archetype for moral courage in Western philosophy. While Socrates is also said to have displayed physical courage in defending Athens, it is his fearlessness in defending a deeply held greater moral good against society which has inspired untold numbers of Plato's readers, from the Stoics to today's students. In moral courage the major fear is loss of ethical integrity or authenticity, but moral courage is also tied to dealing with social disapproval (Martin 1986, ch. 4; Walton 1986). The person confronting her peer group over a racist joke displays moral courage. In acting courageously the individual maintains moral integrity while at the same time overcoming the fear of being rejected by friends. Other examples abound: the whistle-blower facing ostracism from colleagues for calling attention to injustice in the workplace, or the Quaker or Buddhist protesting against a manufacturer of armaments. Examples of physical and moral courage often overlap. Gandhi (as well as Socrates) exhibited moral courage while facing death, and a soldier in battle may have to deal with peer rejection of his heroic actions. However, the distinction, while imprecise, does speak usefully to quite different forms of courageous experience.
In this paper I want to introduce a third form of courage almost never discussed in the literature. Best called "psychological courage," it is a form of the virtue which millions of human beings have to possess and exercise on a regular basis. The fear to be faced is not usually that of physical harm, nor is it fear of social ostracism. Nor is loss of moral integrity a major concern. The fear centers around a loss of psychological stability. I speak of the courage it takes to face our irrational fears and anxieties, those passions which, in Spinoza's terms, hold us in bondage. These can range from habits and compulsions to phobias. Aristotle would have classified many of these under lack of temperance. A drinking habit or an irrational fear of open spaces reflects a lack of proper balance regarding the pleasures of life. But facing and working through these habits or anxieties can involve courage for several reasons. First, to admit the problem is to face the possibility of being stigmatized by society. In this sense psychological courage has some similarities to moral courage. Second, a great deal of pain, physical and psychological, can be involved in confronting the anxiety or changing the habit, and the individual knows this beforehand. Third, and most significant to this form of courage, the stability of...
This pedagogical essay explores the tendency of undergraduate media ethics students to do what Bernard Gert calls “morality by slogans” and their tendency to misuse Aristotle's golden mean slogan. While not solving the dilemma of morality by slogans, the essay suggests some ways of rectifying the misuse of the golden mean and encouraging its more authentic application.
This article proposes 3 principles and 3 imperatives as the philosophical foundations of a global journalism ethics. The central claim is that the globalization of news media requires a radical rethinking of the principles and standards of journalism ethics, through the adoption of a cosmopolitan attitude. The article explains how and why ethicists should construct a global journalism ethics, using a contractualist approach. It then formulates 3 "claims" or principles: the claims of credibility, justifiable consequence, and humanity. The claim of humanity is developed further by the formulation of 3 imperatives: to act as a global agent, to serve world citizens, and to enhance nonparochial understandings. The article concludes by considering some implications of a cosmopolitan attitude for the practice of journalism.
Facing an enemy in battle, defending a friend’s reputation in the face of social pressure, overcoming a powerful addiction; these are all examples of courage. Though we often do not realize it, small decisions involving courage, often concerning family, friends or career, permeate our lives. Starting with Aristotle through the Stoic philosophers and into the modern world of existentialism, courage has been the subject of centuries of philosophical discussion and analysis. A look at the history of the philosophical analysis of courage reveals why courage is such a central virtue in human life. Three types of courage—physical, moral, psychological—and the thinking of some of the best philosophers in Western history (as well as the East) provide the foundation for the empirical study of courage in psychology (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Standard bioethics textbooks present the field to students and non-experts as a form of “applied ethics.” This ahistoric and
rationalistic presentation is similar to that used in philosophy of science textbooks until three decades ago. Thomas Kuhn
famously critiqued this self-conception of the philosophy of science, persuading the field that it would become deeper, richer,
and more philosophical, if it integrated the history of science, especially the history of scientific change, into its self-conception.
This essay urges a similar reconceptualization for bioethics, arguing that the analysis of moral change ought to be integral
to bioethics (and to ethics generally). It proceeds by suggesting the sterility of the ahistoric, rationalist applied ethics
model of bioethics embraced by standard bioethics textbooks. It also suggests the fecundity of alternative conceptions of
the bioethics that focus on the history of successful and failed attempts to negotiate moral change, and the history of multifaceted
relations between moral philosophy and practical ethics.
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