class 5 jrnl 6202
TRANSCRIPT
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PERSPECTIVES ON JOURNALISM ETHICS JRNL 6202 SUMMER II 2015
• Instructor: Bill Mitchell • 3 August 2015 | Northeastern Univ.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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)?
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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)
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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)?
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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.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINING AN ENTERPRISE
WHEN ITS CORE PRODUCTS ARE LESS SCARCE & BECOME WIDELY
AVAILABLE?•
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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?
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“Creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” -- Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, 1942
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“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
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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
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THE ADVERTISING LANDSCAPE• The shopper model
• The Consumer Reports model
• The advertising-as-valuable information model
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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?
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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?
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ADVERTISING-AS-VALUABLE-INFO MODEL DECONSTRUCTED• Advantages?
• Limitations?
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10 MINUTE BREAK
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BUSINESS ETHICS VS. JOURNALISM ETHICS
• Any essential differences?
• Fundamental purposes
• Key principles
• Stakeholders
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POSSIBLE ETHICAL ISSUES IN NEW MEDIA VALUE CREATION
• Sharing profit with advertiser (Los Angeles Times/Staples)
• Paid appearances on news/entertainment shows (WFLA-TV)
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POSSIBLE ETHICAL ISSUES IN SUSTAINING MEDIA VALUE
• Staff reductions (almost all news organizations)
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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
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ETHICS OF HARVESTING (OR MILKING)
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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
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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