When one thinks about
laws and ethics, it may seem natural to think that they are the same thing.
They are not. Instead, they are separate ideas that are like two sides of the
same coin. Laws come from the idea of what people do, based on rules codified
in constitutions, statutes, common practice, et cetera (Moore & Murray,
2012). On the other hand, ethics are based on “ought talk”, or “what is good,
both for the individual and society” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 4). In
other words, laws are rules that govern what people actually do, while ethics look at what people should do. When it comes to digital media, sometimes an action can
be both legal and ethical, sometimes it can be one but not the other. That is
the biggest difference between law and ethics: the law (usually) is pretty
clear, ethics are not so clear.
An example of a situation where law and
ethics combine is the case of Boston
Herald photographer Stanley Forman. In the process of photographing a story
of a fire, he took pictures of two girls falling from a collapsing fire escape,
seconds before they would have been rescued. One died (Patterson & Wilkins,
2014). It was legal for the paper to publish the story; freedom of the press
allows for the publication because it was part of the news story. Also,
according to Moore and Murray (2012), two aspects of the media are agenda
setting and to be a watchdog. As a result of this story, the city of Boston
very quickly changed the way fire escapes are inspected, and this improved the
safety of the city. The question is if it was ethical. Yes, it was. Even though
the paper made money off of the photograph, and the photographer won the
Pulitzer Prize, the greater society is safer as a result; more lives were
saved.
Law and ethics also diverge. Moore and
Murray (2012) reports on a situation in which a female reporter began dating
the mayor of Los Angeles. The mayor’s marriage subsequently ended, and the
reporter filed stories on the breakup without making it clear that she was
dating the mayor. While it was technically legal for them to date, and for the
reporter to withhold information on her relationship with the mayor, it was not
ethical. As people, they were both being
unethical as he was a married man, and she was dating a man she knew was
married. It was also unethical for her to not disclose their relationship while
reporting on his marriage.
This is why law and ethics are important
for media professionals. One has to report the story, but one has to do it in a
way that is ethical. The reporter discussed above didn’t want to lose her job
(although she ultimately did), so she was looking out for herself. The Code of
Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) states that “Ethical
journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s
decisions to the public” (SPJ, n.d.). She did not do this. This ethical
statement is one of the most important in media. The law is just as important
because without the constitution, there would be no freedom of the press. In
the end, while law and ethics are not the same thing, they work together to
guide the media into making ethical and legal decisions. From all sources of
law, there are rules that are guideposts for the media-not just the First
Amendment, but also, for example, in administrative law, such as rules laid out
by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as to which frequencies a
particular media outlet may use for radio and television. Ethics come into play
concerning more personal decisions as to how to do the job, such as the SPJ
code of ethics.
References
Moore,
R.L. and Murray, M.D. (2012). Media Law
and Ethics. 4th Ed. New York: Routledge.
Patterson,
P. and Wilkins, L. (2014). Media Ethics:
Issues and Cases. 8th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill
Society
of Professional Journalists. (n.d). Code of Ethics. Retrieved from: https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
