PERSPECTIVES ON JOURNALISM ETHICS JRNL 6202 SUMMER II 2015

• Instructor: Bill Mitchell • 3 August 2015 | Northeastern Univ.

PERSPECTIVES ON JOURNALISM ETHICS JRNL 6202 SUMMER II 2015

• Instructor: Bill Mitchell• Bmitch (at) gmail dot com• 727-641-9407• 3 August 2015 | Northeastern Univ.

WHAT WE’LL DO TONIGHT• Discussion of your final paper snapshots

• Introduction to Media Economics

• 10 minute break (at about 7:30 p.m.)

• Review of assigned readings

• Working the ethics of a business case

• Upcoming assignments, etc.

CLASS PARTICIPATION & ITS RELEVANCE TO ETHICAL

DECISION-MAKING• If you’re not inclined to speak up, consider doing so

• If you speak up a lot, consider encouraging others

• Do your best to stay on point

• Try to make your point briefly

FINAL PAPER SNAPSHOTS

• Summarize your idea for a final paper

• Describe a dimension of media ethics that needs work and that can have impact on the focus of your final paper

• Describe the research you’ll do in support of your thesis

• Explain how this reform or rethinking fits with your personal ethics guidelines

• What questions do you have for the group (and/or me)?

THERE’S ECONOMICS, AND THEN… THERE’S MEDIA ECONOMICS

• Economics (in general) as “the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different groups.” (Samuelson & Nordhaus)

• Media economics as “the study of how media industries use scarce resources to produce content that is distributed among consumers in a society to satisfy various needs and wants.” (Albarran)

MEANING OF SCARCE RESOURCES?

• Idea of finite resources

• Examples of finite resources in media production?

• Public goods vs. private goods (in economic terms)

• Free-riders (and the ways in which web-surfers and midnight drivers are alike)

• Ah, but what about the formerly finite resources known as space (in newspapers) and time (on TV or radio)?

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “SCARCITY” AND “VALUE”

• Economists define value as “the worth of a particular product or service. It is a subjective process that is linked to individual satisfaction… based on individual wants and needs.” (Albarran)

• And the scarcer that such a needed and wanted product or service may be, the higher the value.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINING AN ENTERPRISE

WHEN ITS CORE PRODUCTS ARE LESS SCARCE & BECOME WIDELY

AVAILABLE?•

A DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA INDUSTRIES:

“DUAL PRODUCT MARKETS” (PICARD)

• Content provided to individual consumers

• Space/time (& access to potential customers) provided to advertisers

• But what’s happening to those markets?

“Creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” -- Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, 1942

“NEWS ORGANIZATIONS TODAY ARE EXPERIENCING A CONTINUING CRISIS OF VALUE DESTRUCTION …THEY MUST FIND WAYS TO CREATE NEW VALUE TO REPLACE THAT WHICH IS BEING DESTROYED. IF THEY DO NOT, THEY RISK THEIR DEMISE.” -- AMERICAN ECONOMIST ROBERT G. PICARD, 2006

THE CORE PROBLEM FOR MEDIA WORKERS

• “The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place… That is what real revolutions are like.”

-- Clay Shirky

THE ADVERTISING LANDSCAPE• The shopper model

• The Consumer Reports model

• The advertising-as-valuable information model

SHOPPER MODEL DECONSTRUCTED• The journalism draws an audience

• The journalism company “rents” that audience to advertisers, who will then:

• Interrupt the journalism

• Promote products rather than inform people

• Advantages?

• Limitations?

CONSUMER REPORTS MODEL DECONSTRUCTED

• The content itself promises sufficient new value to readers to charge higher-than-usual subscription fees

• The avoidance of advertising supports the independence of the magazine’s product evaluations

• Advantages?

• Limitations?

ADVERTISING-AS-VALUABLE-INFO MODEL

ADVERTISING-AS-VALUABLE-INFO MODEL DECONSTRUCTED• Advantages?

• Limitations?

HOW TO RESPOND TO ALL THIS DESTRUCTION & DISRUPTION?

•

10 MINUTE BREAK

BUSINESS ETHICS VS. JOURNALISM ETHICS

• Any essential differences?

• Fundamental purposes

• Key principles

• Stakeholders

POSSIBLE ETHICAL ISSUES IN NEW MEDIA VALUE CREATION

• Sharing profit with advertiser (Los Angeles Times/Staples)

• Paid appearances on news/entertainment shows (WFLA-TV)

POSSIBLE ETHICAL ISSUES IN SUSTAINING MEDIA VALUE

• Staff reductions (almost all news organizations)

ECONOMIC (& JOURNALISTIC) STEWARDSHIP

• Stewardship of most companies involves at least two responsibilities:

• Sufficient ongoing return on investment

• Sufficient investment to increase future return

• Third responsibility for journalism company:

• Serving the public interest by providing people with news & information they need to govern themselves

ETHICS OF HARVESTING (OR MILKING)

THE PROCESS OF VALUE CREATION

• Select an audience to be served

• Select a need or want to be satisfied

• Imagine a produce or service representing new value

• Explore possible ethical tensions

ASSIGNMENTS: • For all assignments, see bit.ly/EthicsAssignments• Reading: Chapters 14, 15 & 17 in Foreman book• By 7 a.m. Friday 7 August: Final version of your personal

ethics guidelines • By 7 a.m. Sunday 9 August: A post to your blog (if helpful,

it can be related to your final paper)• By 3 p.m. Monday 10 August: A comment about a

classmate’s post• By 7 a.m. Friday 21 August: Final version of your final

paper