I live my life by three strict rules:
1. Always wear a watch,
2. If it’s unreasonably stressful, avoid it, and
3. You CAN resist the chocolate slice.
In a totally unrelated matter thanks to a terrible segue, journalism and its behavior can be dictated by three
ethical theories.
But first, to distinguish between ethics and taste. In my
JOUR1111 lecture this week we were asked and often confuzzled about the
difference, so I’ll put it simply.
In an advertising context, bad ethics is about making an ad
that criticizes a certain demographic, be it race, gender, culture and so on.
Bad taste is more about making an ad for fruit that, while encouraging you to
get your daily two and five, closely resembles the male… anatomy. But it’s not
an ethical issue to be advertising bananas and plums.
Now, these three theories are as follows:
1. Deontology,
2. Consequentialism (a.k.a. Teleology) and
3. Virtue.
Any ethical theory you can devise, no matter how broad or
specific, will fit into one of these categories. Neat!
Deontology, personally, reminds me of dentistry. Firstly,
the words look pretty similar and deontology sounds rather professional and
toothy. There are other similarities, though, that my absent mind has managed
to detect!
Tooth care’s pretty basic. Brush, rinse, floss, avoid sugar,
and see your dentist. Follow these rules, you’ll do the right thing and have
lovely pearly whites. Deontology is the same. It incorporates the rules,
principles and duties of journalism, and as such all ethics codes. Do the right
thing, to do the right thing.
Well there, I got to the point. No matter how many puns,
analogies and bad images I conjured up along the way, I got the ‘right’
outcome. That’s how consequentialism operates. Never mind how we got there; the
end may justify the means. Although nothing justifies my tacky 13-year-old-boy
humour.
Maybe my courage is what matters – I’m brave enough to crack
these jokes, and that in itself is a good habit of character. A virtue. Virtues are, according to the
virtue theory, good habits that form the ‘golden mean’ of behavior and, as a
result, ethical journalism.
As Neil from the Inbetweeners philosophised, “I’ve got
effics,” and considering he’d find male genetalia made from fruit funny, it can’t
be poor ethics.