Essay, Research Paper: Media Ethics

The purpose of the media has become an ongoing question since the large amount of
conflicts between the consumer and media. Why is the original purpose of the media so
damn hard to figure out? It is time to confront this issue instead of blowing it off by
saying, "We can never change the media, so why bother?" What kind of chickenshit
statement is that?! If there are so many people with so much power, surely one of
them realizes the downward spiral of the ethics of the media. I feel my sole purpose of
this paper is to tell everyone my ideas and viewpoints on censoring the media.
Ooooooo, censor. What a bad word that is when used in the same sentence with
media. So many people believe censorship is a bad thing, but there is no other solution
in stopping the "bad press." When I sit back and look at the stories about stories that
are bad and offending to someone, I realize something needs to be done. The media is
out of control. True, there are many informing and needed stories, but, my god, how
many times a day to we need to hear and read about how much money O.J. Simpson
has to pay the family of Ronald Goldman? We, as consumers, need to sit back and ask
ourselves, "What was the point of hearing or reading that story?" Back to the censor
issue. I, as an aspiring journalist, do not believe in total and complete censorship of the
media, but also, as an aspiring journalist, I am embarrassed of some of the stories that
are run, for instance, when the crime scene photos of Jon-Benet Ramsey were run in
Globe magazine. Was there not anyone, an editor, a writer, or even a custodian at
Globe who thought, "Uh, oh. These photos may get us into some trouble." Was there
not a single sole who had enough ethics to try and stop these pictures from being
printed? This is where censorship comes in. If I could do anything in the world, I would
first, stop world hunger, and second set up some guidelines and laws that the media
must obey.
Guidelines such as, no digging through peoples trash and no peeking in windows. Of
course, we know that by law, there is to be no peeking in windows, or over fences, but
there is no one at the editors desk to implicate these laws. There is supposed to be
someone there to prevent these stories from running, but remember, their paycheck
depends on how many copies are sold or how high the ratings are. This "censor person"
needs to have a set wage. If there was someone to stop these types of occurrences,
half of my problems with the media would be taken care of. This may sound like a lame
solution, but we need to start somewhere.
Obviously this is not a complete solution to these problems with the media, so the next
step would be to start using the editors for weeding out the stories that are not giving
some type of information that the consumer wants and needs to hear or read. This is
also easier said than done. This solution also brings up questions like, how does the
editor know what stories the consumer wants to hear or read about? That is the
responsibility of the media. Let them take polls and give every effort to find out what
we want. Journalism will only survive if it establishes a more valuable and clearly
defined mission, (Morality of Mass Media , Ellen Hume.)
I could write a book about all the things I want to see changed in the media before I
become a part of it, but I will not. There should be a line drawn so that the media can
be punished for their wrongdoing. Many people agree that there should be a line drawn
and like it or not, that line is called censorship. Our founding fathers did not want
censorship on the media, but they probably did not think that the media would be doing
such a crummy job. I do not want to say that all media is doing a bad job. Overall, they
are doing a fairly good job, but there is still a large amount of dirty press that needs to
be cleaned up.