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The Media and its responsibilities
Introduction to Ethics and Social Responsibility (SOC120)
Aron Scott
Instructor: Shelia Farr
June 1, 2015

There has been a lot of controversy as of late surrounding the media’s focal topics and its responsibility to the public. According to Keith Davis, “Social Responsibility is the obligation of the decision maker to take decisions which protect and improve the welfare of the society as a whole with their own interest.” However, the simple function that we evaluate is media provides the public with a bunch of news, information and entertainment. These news stations take a story that they feel will increase their ratings and the stories that they feel will big about a bigger controversies. The media’s main function should be informing their viewers about all the current events going on around the world and also in the state that they based in. When the media decides to expose a particular issue they should do so in an objective, fair and accurate way, but that is not always the case in most circumstances. Utilitarianism suggests that there is an obvious solution that is fair, and it may be one that appeals to common sense as well. If you look at the responsibilities of the media from a utilitarian point of view the media should inform people about issues that are related. For example the big uproar about white police officers shooting black individuals that have made the public turn against the police departments. However, there is another side to these number in reality white officers shoot white suspects more than they do black individuals. Statistics from the CDC show that between 1999 and 2011 the number of white individuals killed by police was 2,151 that’s compared to a total of 1,130 black individuals killed. This shows that the media uses their positions to stir the pot and cause more problems. If they truly wanted to make sure all sides of an issue were addressed they would expose these numbers to the public. However, they do not their main concern is to report the parts of a story that will increase their viewers. When the media does this they only thing they accomplish is stirring the pot and creating even more violent situations like riots. A big uproar is created with only half factual information and this is the reason that there have been death threats against law enforcement officers. When all they do is go out and put their lives on the line to try and make sure that our communities are a safe place to live. It is unfair to them that they have to only deal with the negative side of their job and be afraid even more now than ever if they will return home to their families. The media’s main focus should be to inform the public about all aspects of the current news going on in anyone place. So when it comes down to it the Utilitarian view point would ensure that every piece of relevant information would be exposed to the public instead of just certain bits and pieces that would make it look one sided.
Emotivism see our moral evaluations as simply the expression of whether we respond to a given act by liking it or not liking it. If we look at the media’s coverage of police shootings that involve black individuals from an Emotivism view point we would see that this is mainly how the media operates today. The media chooses its stories based on what will increase their audience and what will bring about the more exposure. This style would only show one side of a problem and that’s the side that will bring about more controversy at that given time. For example the riots that were going on in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, after all this happened the media focuses on all the vandalism and looting that was going on in the city. It wasn’t until the single picture of the little boy (who was also black) was walking around giving different police officers hugs to try and lighten a very wrong situation on Facebook went viral was anything positive reported. When looked at from this point of view the only thing being accomplished is making the police departments look bad and uncaring. When in all actuality the only thing these officers care about is keeping the community a safe place for younger generations to grow up in. When the media portrays these departments as bad people and only reporting negative issues they make these younger individuals grow up thinking that they should at all cost stay away from the officers and deal with their problems on their own. This in return drives up violent crimes, because they feel that the better option would be to handle the situation themselves without caring about what consequences they will have to face because of their actions.

References:
Basu, S (2011). Social Responsibility: The Obligation of Mass Media. Global Media Journal. Indian Edition. 1-6.
Mosser, K. (2013). Ethics and social responsibility (2nd ed.) San Diego, Ca: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
http://libertynews.com/2014/12/facts-cops-kill-whites-at-almost-double-the-rate-that-cops-kill-blacks/

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