STUDY GUIDE for MIDTERM

For the Media Ethics midterm (March 21), you should know:

– the ethical philosophies of Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Ross, Royce, Rawls, Gilligan; and the basics of communitarianism as an ethical philosophy
– Kant's Categorical Imperative
– difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism
– what the Potter Box is and how to use it
– what cognitive dissonance is and how it’s used in advertising and public relations
– all the ethical values of journalism
– Sissela Bok’s principles for ethical decision-making
– the difference between law and ethics, and between ethics and morals
– how to make an ethical justification of a decision you make
– what journalism’s responsibility is to society
– what the major problems with Royce’s definition of loyalty are
– the history of thinking about truth, from Plato to the present
– what credibility is
– what the SPJ code of ethics says about journalism’s duties
– ethical problems with advertising
– what the TARES test is
– the balance and cognitive dissonance theories of persuasion
– advertising’s ethical problems with regard to vulnerable audiences
– how public relations professionals help journalists function
– why there is tension between PR and journalism
– what advocacy is and how it can be used as an ethical justification for public relations
– what constitutes a justifiable lie (and how to justify it ethically)

Be able to answer the questions in boldface at the beginning of the chapters 1-5 of Patterson and Wilkins, and be prepared to work out ethical justifications for problems raised by the three films we’ve viewed thus far.