MEDIA ETHICS

WHAT IS MEANT BY ETHICS?

Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong
that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits
to society, fairness, or specific virtues. ... Secondly, ethics refers to the study and
development of one's ethical standards.

Media ethics is the best division of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical
principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts,
print media and the internet. ... Media ethics promotes and defends values such as a
universal respect for life and the rule of law and legality.

Ethical systems can generally be broken down into three categories:

Deontological, teleological and virtue-based ethics. The first two is considered deontic
or action-based theories of morality because they focus entirely on the actions which a
person performs.