The Truman Show: Ethically Speaking

by Alex Dodds

The Truman Show is a fantastic movie with a great storyline. The film has received high praise from critics, with an 8.1/10 rating and a Top 5,000 rating on IMDb. For those who have not had the opportunity to watch the film, take a look at the trailer:

What a lot of people do not think about when watching The Truman Show is the ethical implications that arise throughout the movie’s 103 minutes. Things like secrecy,  harm, and the principle of humanity all come to the surface in a truly creative film.

Christof, the producer of the show known as “The Truman Show”, first and foremost was blocking information intentionally from Truman to prevent him from possessing, learning, or using it–otherwise known as secrecy. By doing this, Truman did not have a fair chance to make an informed decision. Christof has a responsibility to Truman to reveal as much as is necessary to afford him this decision. Due to the lack of transparency and the secrecy between the cast and crew, Truman was put at serious risk.

Truman was harmed in the making of “The Truman Show” as he had to struggle with the idea that his whole life was a lie. Christof was guilty of wrongful acts that “set back” interests and undermined the dignity of Truman. If Christof had non-maleficence and had avoided harming Truman, the producer would have upheld his obligation to minimize harm.

One framework Christof could have used to make more ethically correct decisions is The Principle of Humanity. The Principle of Humanity suggests that we cannot use people as a means to an end. This goes along with the Theory of Human Dignity, which states all humans require a certain amount of respectful treatment. If Christof had followed either of these two ideas he would have been under much less scrutiny from those viewers who did not agree with what he was doing to Truman.

All of the ethical issues discussed above really take away all sense of autonomy for Truman. While this is a wonderful film I would suggest anyone to watch, I also strongly urge you to think about the ethical implications of the film and relate it to the media today. It is crucial for us as consumers to think critically about what we are consuming. However, those creating the content have an obligation to do everything in their power to be as ethical as possible and abide by the principle of humanity.

References:

The Truman Show [Motion picture]. (1998). Paramount Pictures.

The Truman Show. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/

Code of Ethics for Bloggers: Satiric Bloggers

By Alex Dodds, Maria Kangas, Ash Monks, Dan Pelzar, and Anah Pignatelli

Transparency:

1. Readers should be made aware that exaggeration is used to incite entertainment, but ultimately serves the public interest by providing information that is based on facts.
   1. This is based on the Advertising Code of Ethics, as represented in Plaisance (2014), because advertising uses similar amounts of exaggeration as satirical blog commentary might be expected to use.  Thus, the audience would be faced with similar expectations to interpret the context.
   2. “The issue is empowering audiences with information through disclosure so that we can make our own judgment about whether the ‘creative’ work we are seeing is reduced to a vehicle for products to an unreasonable degree” (Plaisance, 2014, p. 91).
2. Establish mutual understanding between the blogger and the audience regarding the represented perspectives of the blogger. Personal biases, external influences, and sponsorship should all be announced.
   1. Based on transparency concepts as represented by journalists, public relations professionals, and marketers.
   2. Protects against claims of libel and minimizes harm.

Be Accountable:

1. Use of specialized knowledge and experiences to benefit the public.
   1. Based on Public Relations Code of Ethics, as extracted from Plaisance (2014): “Expertise: We acquire and responsible use specialized knowledge and experiences” (p. 49).
   2. Additionally based on the idea of corporate social responsibility, wherein professional entities that are being paid for their services must return some service that benefits the public, whether by social action (i.e. aiding in disaster) or the provision of information (i.e. journalism).
2. Bloggers must address any confusion caused by their blogs so as to keep their audience fully informed.
   1. Based on PR’s code of ethics to keep the fixing of problems above board (Plaisance, 2014).
3. Materials must not cause unreasonable public panic or distress.
   1. A responsibility to minimize harm.

Credibility:

1. As a news source/distributor of information, it is important to be perceived as being credible.
   1. If an information source is not credible, consumers will no longer be interested in relying on the source due to that fact that the information provided is not beneficial or truthful; thus, the news source clearly lacks responsibility and professionalism, and the news source will not be successful.
2. Other reasons why it is important to have credibility are:
   1. To avoid misrepresentation, to be a part of a fair competition, and to keep the advertising industry in a safe state/maintain a good reputation.
3. Related to ethical decision making and moral claims.

Plagiarism:

1. Plagiarism is the act of taking/stealing another individual’s work and using it as your own (without giving that individual credit); a form of stealing and theft.
2. Relates to ethical values and morality.
   1. Like credibility, it is ethical to remain truthful, honest, trustworthy, and professional.
3. Examples:
   1.  Copying and pasting information from an online newspaper article into your paper for class.
   2.  Taking information that an individual said and not including quotation marks when writing it down.
   3. Giving false information about who a quote is from (this relates back to credibility).
   4. Using copyrighted music, videos, and any other content that is owned by another individual.

Minimize Harm:

1. According to the Society of Professional Journalists (2015), “Minimizing harm means letting your humanity show through. Show a little compassion for the people who are affected by what you write.”
2. The creator of the blog should always be clear that he/she is purposely not trying to disrespect anyone.
   1. The creator needs to establish respect with his/her viewers.
3. The creator of the blog needs to establish that the content are his/her own opinions.
4. The creator needs to treat his/her viewers as human beings.
   1. Based on the Code of Ethics for Journalists, pulled from Plaisance (2014), ethical journalists treat sources, subjects, and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.
5. The creator of the blog must understand possible consequences from content in his/her posts.

Independence:

1. The Society of Professional Journalism (2015) says, “the highest and primary obligation is to serve the public.”
2. To provide objective counsel to those represented and accountable for all actions
3. Bloggers should:
   1. Avoid conflicts of interest.
   2. Refuse all gifts or bribes and special treatment.
   3. Prominently label sponsored content.
   4. Resist internal and external pressure.
   5. Tell stories without influence from advertisements.

 

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References:

Is Plagiarism? (n.d.) Retrieved from http://plagiarism.org/citing-sources/whats-a-citation

Plaisance, P. L. (2014). Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice, 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Society of Professional Journalists Citation. (2014). SPJ Code of Ethics. Retrieved from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Product Placement: Is it Ethical?

By Alex Dodds

Product placement has played a key rule in the production of many films in recent history. There are thousands of films that would have never made it to the screen without the help of product placement. Not only is product placement great because it helps films actually be produced, but it also brings a sense of “believability for us as audience members” (Plaisance, 2014). While product placement may seem like a good thing at a rudimentary level, one must ask how ethical it truly is.

The audience is not aware they are being advertised to with product placement. This can create many problems, especially with kids. The issue arrises when we can’t tell if a brand is being used for an artistic purpose or a financial agreement. Plaisance (2014) says, “For most of us, product placement is of little concern, but critics argue that behind-the-scenes deals impose artistic constraints to ensure that the film or TV show provides a ‘friendly’ environment for the brand.”

One of the most infamous scenes in history regarding product placement is the dinner scene from Talladega Nights. This is quite an extreme example of product placement, but it is product placement none-the-less. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is another great example of product placement in films.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a documentary by Morgan Spurlock that exaggerates the presence of advertising in films. Spurlock is known for his controversial filmmaking, especially in his film Supersize Me. In The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Spurlock attempts to shed light on the presence of branding in films by creating a film that is completely funded by the presence of branding in the film. While it may seem confusing, it is one of the best documentaries out there. Throughout the film Spurlock struggles to get brands on board with the idea and demonstrates the ridiculous contracts with each brand that does agree to support the film.

Plaisance (2014) speaks to this idea when he says, “The imperative of corporate branding threatens to dominate even our artistic endeavors–especially when audiences can’t tell the difference between art and ads.” While The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is completely exaggerated and the audience is aware it is one massive billboard disguised as a documentary, Spurlock gets people to think about product placement and its effect on filmmaking.

In the trailer, Spurlock asks a guest what should be done about product placement–it is important to note that this interview is taking place in one of JetBlue’s new locations, which Spurlock was contractually obligated to do. The guest suggests that the audience should be warned they are being advertised to with a watermark or some sort of text. While there are many solutions to the problem, I do not believe this is one of them. To have a watermark or text pop-up in the middle of a TV show or movie would be completely distracting and take the audience out of the story. It would no longer be believable and no filmmaker would agree to do it.

Plaisance (2014), discusses some other ways filmmakers have tried to make product placement more ethical. Some films put what brands sponsored the TV show or movie in the credits. While this may be a way of informing the audience of the advertising, you must ask yourself if it is too late at that point. You could also argue that many people do not even look at the credits.

There are no foolproof solutions to the ethical issue of product placement in films yet, but it is important to consider the role brands play in the production of films. For now it is crucial for audience members to be self-aware of what they are watching on the screen and not fall victim to the ideas proposed in cultivation theory.

References:

Plaisance, P. (2014). Media ethics: Key principles for responsible practice (2nd ed., pp. 13-14). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

The Media: Serving Public Interest or Ratings?

By Alex Dodds

The media have pushed ethical boundaries for many years now. It seems as though this behavior is beginning to catch up with them. According to Cooper (2008), media bias, media dishonesty, and invasion of privacy are the largest concerns amongst the American public. The study also found that 19% of people have no concerns with the media. In general, however, “perhaps three fourths of Americans’ primary reported irritations about a medium or a genre seemed to be based on ethical concerns” (Cooper, 2008).

In a series of five interviews, I found the general feeling toward media ethics is fairly negative. With that said, Mike DiMichele felt, “The media is a joke to most professionals. They think of them as guidelines that you don’t have to follow.” Megan Yawor, who works in community access television, thinks “the media are continuing to push the limits as to how far they can go and it’s deteriorating what the original intent was.” As you can see, the interviews did not differ much from Cooper (2008). Sarah Moir stated she believed “journalists are the most unethical” in the media. Two people who had little problem with media ethics are Dana Boudreau and Trevor Dodds. While both mentioned the bottom line for theses media outlets is how much money they make, both believed the media were ethical for the most part. Trevor Dodds mentioning, “if it was that big of an issue people wouldn’t go to the media.”

Recently, ESPN has showed they are no exception to Cooper’s findings. The NFL, a business who has an extremely close relationship with ESPN, had a fairly tough year as far as their popularity due to off and on-field issues. The two stories that hurt the image of the NFL most were the Adrian Peterson child abuse and Ray Rice’s domestic violence cases. While we can all agree the NFL did an absolutely terrible job handling both situations, ESPN shouldn’t be let off the hook either. ESPN assisted in keeping both of these news stories under wraps. Not only did they try and hide the two major stories, but when the story finally leaked, ESPN acted as though they were just finding out for the first time. While they did report on both cases for a few days, it was back to business as usual with hardly any mention of the two cases after the original reports.

While at face value this may not seem so unethical, it became a huge issue when the New England Patriots were accused of allegedly deflating footballs during their AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. While this is certainly newsworthy for a sports news station such as ESPN, the story was reported on just about once an hour for two weeks straight. Keep in mind, this is with no proof the Patriots actually deflated any footballs. There is no justification for ESPN’s choice to give more attention to deflated footballs than domestic violence or child abuse.

Those asked about the ethical decision made by ESPN all agreed that ESPN made their decision as a business, not as journalists serving the public interest. “ESPN is a business. That’s the bottom line.” Trevor Dodds said, “The NFL is one of their biggest supporters. It doesn’t make business sense for ESPN to hurt that relationship.” The other four interviewees all mentioned the influence the ratings have on ESPN’s decisions.

While there are multiple decisions by the media similar to the case above, it is important to understand that this is not necessarily the case in every situation. There are many circumstances where journalists do every possible thing they can to remain ethical and get the story right. With that said, it is important that the general public remains aware of the problems with ethical decisions made by the media and continue to keep the media in check.

References:

Cooper, T. (2008). Between the Summits: What Americans think about media ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 23. 15-27. DOI: 10.1080/08900520701753106

John Stuart Mill

By Alex Dodds

SOURCE: Hulton Archive

John Stuart Mill was born in London, England on May 20th, 1806. The eldest son of James Mill–a “British historian, economist, and philosopher”–John Stuart Mill was “educated exclusively by his father, who was a strict disciplinarian” (Anshutz, 2014). James Mill had the biggest influence on John Stuart Mill because of James’ rigorous education methods.

One thing that John Stuart Mill may have suffered from because of his father is “the lack of natural, unforced development” (Anshutz, 2014). With that said, John Stuart Mill did not have an unhappy childhood.

John Stuart Mill played a key role in the development of Utilitarianism–though it has been pointed out that some of his his writing could not “tell more strongly against Utilitarianism” (Anshutz, 2014). The principle of utility already had a long history before Mill was involved, with supporters such as John Gay, John Brown, and WIlliam Paley (Heydt, n.d.). While relgious utilitarians were popular until the 1830s, secular utilitarianism is what inspired Mill in the 18th century–particularly from the work of Jeremy Bentham (Heydt, n.d.).

Mill argued that all actions must be evaluated by “how much overall pleasure they produce” (Plaisance, 2014). Mill believed that the moral worth of an act lies in its consequences. In more simpler terms, we should choose the act that will create the greatest good for the greatest number of people–otherwise known as the aggregate good (Plaisance, 2014). He also contends that while we may appear to value virtue we are actually only valuing virtue as a part of happiness. Mill supports his claims by pointing out how we all can develop a natural desire to be united with fellow beings (Heydt, n.d.). Mill differed from Jeremy Bentham in the sense that Mill looked at the intensity of pleasure and pain versus Bentham who simply looked at pleasure and pain at the rudimentary level.

Utilitarian ethics is used by many of us on an every day basis. If we were to be asked why we performed a certain action, we often point to the harm we prevented or the good we caused as a result of our action. A great example of this is when we decide to approve a new drug. Many people make this decision based on the harm it may cause or the good it may create if approved. As a utilitarian, we would vote to approve a drug if we believed it would help people more than hurt people. Of course, we would vote against the approval of a drug if we believed more harm than good would be done.

Utilitarian ethics demands that we look beyond ourselves and instead look at the good of the community as a whole. As he aged, Mill “did not relax his laborious habits or his ardent outlook on human affairs” (Anshutz, 2014). He turned to writing and published a series of books on ethics and politics. John Stuart Mill passed away on May 8th, 1873 in Avignon, France. He was 67 years old (Anshutz, 2014).

Sources:

Anshutz, R. (2014, August 24). John Stuart Mill. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/382623/John-Stuart-Mill

Heydt, C. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/milljs/

Plaisance, P. (2014). Media ethics: Key principles for responsible practice (2nd ed., pp. 13-14). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.