Introduction
Mass communication plays a very important role in modern society. According to Hackley (2014), the mass media has been tasked with the role of educating, informing, and entertaining. They shape public opinion. It is for this reason that the business community has come to value mass communication as a way of promoting their brand and products in a given target market. Leslie (2004) says that mass communication and advertising have a standard code of ethics that they need to follow to ensure that they uphold values and principles within society.
They need to understand that society looks upon them to ensure they get educated and informed. The kind of messages they present to the audience, how they present these messages, and how such messages influence society, especially teenagers and young adults is very important. In this paper, the researcher will review ethical issues in mass communication and advertising.
Ethical Issues in Mass Communication and Advertising
According to Biagi (2016), media ethics differs from media laws and regulations. Sometimes the two are closely tied together that it becomes almost impossible to separate them. Media ethics are the moral obligations that media stations have when presenting their content to the public. These moral obligations may be specified in the media law or not, but they are the responsibilities that media stations have towards their audience. The following are some of the primary ethical issues that mass communication and advertising need to observe in modern society where media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion.
Truthfulness
According to Leslie (2004), mass communication and advertising must uphold the principle of truthfulness at all times. According to Hackley (2014), mass communication is trusted by the public to provide information that is very accurate based on what they observe. Whether it is the issue of politics, socio-economic, science, or cultural factors, the public looks upon mass communication for the right information.
Through mass communication, the public gets to be convinced over various issues that matter a lot to their life. If the content presented to them lacks truthfulness, then the public is denied the opportunity to make rational decisions based on the realities that exist. They get to be misled by such untruthful content and may end up acting from a point of ignorance.
Advertisers are often keen to promote their products to their target audience. Given that every other firm is advertising its products on the same platforms, what often matters is the value that each product promises to offer. As Biagi (2016) says, it is an ethical responsibility of every firm to ensure that the content of their adverts is accurate in terms of what they promise to the customers. Some firms are often tempted to promise more than what they offer in their advertisements. When an advert promises what a firm cannot offer, then that is considered unethical advertising practice. In many countries around the world, laws are governing this ethical practice. Such laws prohibit firms from promising what they cannot offer.
Fairness
Mass communication and advertising should be fair in whatever content they present to the public. Fairness in this context may be broad, but Leslie (2004) defines it as media practices that do not negatively target a section of the society because of their race, religion, gender, age, social status, or any other factor that may have a negative influence on them. For a long time, mass communication has been used as the tool of propagating racism and prejudice against a section of society. This happens in news reporting and entertainment. In news reporting, the reporters are often keen to present a section of the society as violent and criminal minded. A good example is the Black communities in the United States.
Whenever a journalist goes to the Black neighborhoods, their primary aim is often to cover criminal incidences or acts of violence that claimed the lives of people. They forget that such acts also exist in White neighborhoods. Given that such negativities are only investigated in a section of the society, the public gets convinced that indeed it is true that violence and criminal acts only take place in such communities. All the good things in such communities are often ignored.
That is media bias, one of the main unethical practices common in mass communication today. When it comes to films, the same narratives apply. A decent officer who respects the law and abides by it is often white. A delinquent who disregards rules and regulations and engages in drugs is often a Black (Leslie, 2004). The advertisers also have their share of blame in terms of fairness. It is unfair when these advertisers use a section of the society, such as Blacks, to advertise harmful products such as cigarettes and alcohol. They need to be seen to be fair in the content of the message they present. There should be no form of prejudice at all.
Standards of decency
Standard decency is another major ethical issue in mass communication and advertising. According to Shimp (2007), mass media and advertisements are often accessible to people of all ages and as such, care should be taken to ensure that the minds of the minors are not polluted by adult content. For instance, in mass communication, some contents cannot be aired during the watershed period when minors are still awake.
This is a requirement that should be observed at all times. For the advertisers, standard decency is a guiding principle that defines how they have to package their promotional information based on the target audience. The depiction of sex is often a major issue when it comes to the advertisement. The primary aim of the advertisers is to convince the public, irrespective of their age, that the product they offer is the best. It becomes very difficult to ensure that a given advert only remains convincing to a given market segment- defined by their age- and not to the other segment. The national government has policy guidelines that restrict advertisers from having adult content in their advertisements.
The issue of decency also comes when advertising products such as alcohol and cigarette. These are products known to cause several health problems including liver cirrhosis among others. Presenting them as very healthy products fit for consumption without clearly stating to the audience the dangers involved is lack of decency.
Social responsibility
According to Shimp and Andrews (2013), mass communication and advertising must also consider the issue of social responsibility. These media stations must realize that they are socially responsible to the public. In this context, they should try to ensure that their desire to make profits do not cloud their judgment to do the primary responsibilities of informing, educating, and entertaining. In most cases, the educating programs may not be as popular as spreading gossips and giving the audience the content that they want. Sometimes such educative programs may not be as profitable as those that are purely focused on entertaining.
However, mass media stations may sometimes need to make an important sacrifice. They need to remember that they have the responsibility of inculcating positive practices among the public. For the advertisers, they ought to realize that they also have a social responsibility to the public. The desire to make more money is always strong. However, these advertising firms need to understand that the sustainability of their businesses largely depends on how the young generation of today is protected and provided with what they need to become responsible citizens of tomorrow. As such, some of their programs should be focused on educating teenagers on how to become responsible citizens.
Conclusion
Ethical issues in mass communication and advertising should always be treated with the level of seriousness that they deserve. Mass communication informs, educates, and entertains the public. These three primary functions should be done with truthfulness, decency, fairness, and a sense of responsibility. Mass communication and advertisement should avoid any form of deceit or misleading messages that may direct the public to act in a harmful manner. There should be a deliberate effort to protect the public and to promote cohesion in society. Meeting these ethical requirements promotes sustainability in mass communication and advertising.
References
Biagi, S. (2016). Media/impact: An introduction to mass media. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Hackley, C. E. (2014). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Leslie, L. Z. (2004). Mass communication ethics: Decision making in postmodern culture. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Shimp, T. A. (2007). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Mason, OH: South-Western Publ.
Shimp, T. A., & Andrews, J. C. (2013). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.