In this modern world serious minded People are aware of ethical standards. But the young generation as a whole pay less attention to ethical norms and standards. People engage in so many unlawful activities with one thought in mind that everything is fine as long as one is not caught. Faced with this ethical degradation one might even wonder will there be an ethical concerning any field of life at all.
Every field has certain rules and regulations and ethical standards to be followed. This is true of print media too. Let us see some of the ethical norms in print media. Before going further we shall see what ethics is.
Ethics is the moral correctness of a particular conduct. It can be defined as any moral principle that governs persons or group’s behaviors. According to oxford dictionary Ethics is moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior, the moral correctness of specified conduct. Ethics is moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. It is a branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. (Offord Dictionary.com)
However there can be no universal ethical norms can be applied to print media, because certain ethical norms may be different in different place. A particular action can be within the limit of law but it need not be ethical. The emergence of new media has made the news gathering easy and immediate at varying speed. At times this news gathered goes unnoticed by the ethical norms. This is true of the Image, video footages etc.... This same media quicken the news across the world within a fraction of a second. (Global Journalism Ethics/ Journalism Ethics, 2011, July 1)
Press council the official body that deals with ethical norms and conduct says the following. It speaks of the correctness, fairness and pre- publication verification in reporting the news. It gives a warning against harmful and untrue writings and freedom of the press to comment criticise on acts of the public officials. Press council of India has norm for right to privacy including image that should be avoided and how to give an image for publishing under certain situations, how to report legislative recordings and judicial act, corrections to be made in case of mistakes, right of the readers to reply or write to the editor. Press council also has norms to be followed regarding vulgarity, obscenity, violence, communal disparity, sensationalism, confidence, professional rivalry and misconduct, plagiarism and lifting of news without proper permissions and illegal reproductions. It clearly states ethical norms regarding unsolicited materials, advertisement natural calamities, do’s and don’ts of reporting HIV/AIDS etc... (Norms of Journalistic Conduct, 2010,)
Today print media has become a major means of advertisement even at the advent of electronic media. Advertising is a persuasive form of communication. There certain ethical norms to be followed in advertising field. One of the major concerns of advertising is sex and sexuality. It is said that sex appeal makes any product sold. Sex appeal is very much part of advertising. It is subtle at times, and manipulative. Be it cosmetics or any other products sex appeal work for the promotions of the product. This sex appeal to product is subjective and culturally and culturally bound. It often portrayed in fair attractive rich models men/women in order to attract and capture attention of the audience. Many models also project a visible nudity in varying degree. It is at times followed by verbal expression or seductive ways, music, sound effects and even smell.
Women are often portrayed as an object of comfort, pleasure childish and subservient o man. It passes the message to men that women are supposed to be subservient to men. (Gould, September 1994)
Advertising must be within the existing law of the country. It should not offend morality, decency and religious sentiments. Advertisement that brings disharmony, cast, color, creed, divisions should be avoided. Anything that disrupt national harmony, disturb friendly international relationship and incite people to crime must be avoided. Advertising for cigarettes, alcohol, money lenders, funds and saving schemes fortune tellers, Hypnotism etc must be avoided. Any disparaging thing that misleads people is not accepted for advertising. Visual and verbal representation of actual and comparative prices must be accurate. (Advertising Ethics,)
There is no clear cut demarcation regarding true and false advertising unlawful and unethical means are not acceptable. Anything that misguides, misinforms or affects the consumer’s behavior is unethical. In advertising vulgarity, misleading information, controversial products, must be eliminated from advertising. (Prabhakar Bethapudi, 2011)
Advertising is important to make products availability known to the consumers. In the process of product differentiation, minor exaggerations are allowed.
Works Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2012, from Offord Dictionary.com: http://oxforddictionaries.com
Advertising Ethics, Social responsibility and Self Regulation. (n.d.). Advertising Ethics and Laws , 103.
Global Journalism Ethics/ Journalism Ethics. (2011, july 1). School of Journalism amd Mass Communication.
Gould, S. J. (September 1994). Sexuality and Ethics in Edvertising: A research Agenda and Policy. Journal of Advertising, volume XXIII, Number 3.
Norms of Journalistic Conduct, (2010,). Press Council of India. http://presscouncil.nic.in/NORMS-2010.pdf.
Prabhakar Bethapudi, N. T. (2011). Ethical Issues in Advertising - an Indian Perspective. IJRFM, Vol 1, Issue 8 .
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