Media Usage In Broadcasting Field: Ethical Issues In Broadcast Media
Broadcasting Media
Broadcasting is the simultaneous transmission of the same message to multiple recipients. In networking, broadcasting occurs when a transmitted data packet is received by all network devices. Technically, broadcasting is an action of transmitting audio and video via electronic mass communication medium such as television, radio, internet to the mass audience. “Broadcasting began with AM radio, which came into popular use around 1920 with the spread of vacuum tube radio transmitters and receivers”.
Furthermore, to broadcast is to cast or throw forth something in all directions at the same time. Commonly, mass media such as television, radio and internet broadcast is a program that is transmitted over airwaves for public reception by anyone with a receiver tuned to the right signal channel. Broadcasting can be described as the systematic dissemination of entertainment, information, educational programming, and other features for simultaneous reception by a scattered audience. The first broadcasting media appeared was the sound broadcasting which was started about 1920s, while television broadcasting began in the 1930s. With the advent of cable television in the early 1950s and the use of satellites for broadcasting beginning in the early 1960s, television reception improved and the number of programs receivable increased dramatically. Then continues the era of internet broadcasting which gave unlimited access to the users and audiences. People can watch movies, listen to musics, watch live news, read online newspapers, prerecorded sports, kids can watch cartoons, moms can watch cooking shows and the goes on. It is become so much easier and convenient than before when broadcasting media being a part of daily routine of everyone.
Role of Broadcasting in Our Society
Broadcasting plays the major role in our society. It is broadcasters responsibilities to build our society in a correct path and it is our responsibilities as the audience to do not misuse the message, information or content that we received. These are some role of broadcasters in broadcasting media to our society. First, broadcasters must observe, as impartially as possible, the environment in which they find themselves. In reporting, broadcasters must report the content as accurately as possible about what is happening. They must provide the facts of the situation to the public. Since our society’s life does not consist only of politics and scandal, a responsible broadcasting media house must try its best to give as wide a coverage as possible. Furthermore, broadcasting media also plays a role in providing a forum, a meeting place for discussion of all social and current issues. Again, the increase of call-in programs in the past few years has done much to create a greater sense of democratic participation in matters that concern us all. Our government is committed to give freedom to press, to wide, open discussion of public and social affairs to our broadcasters without interfering sensitive issues like religious matters and indigenous rights. The third role of broadcasting media, especially in a developing society like ours is to teach and guide our society to a better lifestyle. Don’t you think that our society needs more education-type programs in our broadcasting fields? The developments in mass communication media technology provide wonderful opportunities for our society to broaden educational possibilities.
Types of Broadcasting
The content of broadcasting can be viewed in two way, prerecorded and live telecast. According to Collins English Dictionary prerecorded broadcasting is something that is prerecorded has been recorded in advance so that it can be broadcast or played later. For example, forums, prerecorded speech, music, and entertainment programs. Apart from that, live broadcasting means, a broadcast of the video and sound of an event over the mass communication medium as it happens somewhere else according to Cambridge English Dictionary. As audiences become more accustomed to watch and listen video and audio content from mass communication media, they will expect the televised awards shows, concerts, and sports events that have cultural significance in their life to be available live. Through live broadcasting, the audience can connect with brands in a more authentic, immediate, and spontaneous way. Even though it is so-called ‘live streaming', it may actually be delayed by a few seconds or minutes to reach the respected audience. It is because the frequencies of the content first need to reach satellites to enable broadcasting to the audience.
Ethics in Broadcasting Field
Ethic, on the other hand, defined as a set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field, or form of conduct. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. “The Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, also known as the Television Code, was a set of ethical standards adopted by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) for television” is one of the reinforcement of the government to reduce ethical issues in broadcasting fields. The code prohibited the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials to avoid major influence to underage people and to others. This includes the sensoring and blurring of certain crimes and murders to avoid people get traumatized and to prevent identities of related people to avoid humiliation in the future.
Eight (8) Principles of Ethics in Broadcasting Field
Generally, there were eight (8) ethic principles in the broadcasting field which is very important according to Basin (2016).
The first principle is gaining the audience's trust. Earning society’s trust through broadcasting attitude and audience’s trust through what broadcast print is the most important value of all.
The second principle was independence, in which employees and management respect their professional position above and beyond any and all relationships based on interest and influence. They may not enter or partake in any activity or organization that could tarnish their organization’s name or their own reputation and should avoid any and all conflict-of-interest situations that would cast doubt on organization’s independent stance.
The third principle was accuracy and truthfulness. The fundamental purpose of broadcasting is to relay facts to the public at large in an objective manner, without distorting, exaggerating or censuring said facts, and without being influenced by any external pressure. The element of speed should never overshadow truthfulness of the content. Broadcasters should never mislead their audience knowingly and deliberately while minimizing any misleading behavior that stems from a lack of information and diligence.
The fourth principle is impartial, pluralism and fairness. The broadcasting content should be pluralist in a manner that reflects different aspects of the truth, and be impartial in the face of ideas that represent different sides of the truth and social actors. The content of broadcasting should be free of prejudice in the course of evaluating opinions and elements of proof that either defend or oppose an idea, attitude or behavior. Broadcasters should be able to place themselves in the shoes of those that are different and measure whether or not they have been acting fairly.
The fifth principle was broadcasting content should compliance with social values. Broadcasters must broadcast content that limits the freedom of speech, conscience, and expression; is in violation of basic human rights; provokes hatred, brutality and animosity; fans hatred and animosity amongst communities and nations; and offends religious beliefs and sensitivities. Broadcasting content should not use monikers or references that mock or humiliate individuals and entities beyond the boundaries of fair criticism.
The sixth principle was broadcasting content must preserve the right to privacy and protect the privacy of the person concerned. Broadcasters should not broadcast secretly-obtained images and sound recordings that violate the sanctity of privacy, or any recordings that violate the freedom of communication, unless required for the greater good, even if such recording was obtained through legal means. Broadcasters should provide equal coverage to the prosecution and the defense, avoid impacting investigations in a negative manner, and take care to not influence the audience.
The seventh principle was the transparency and accountability of the content. Owning up errors openly, and remedying such errors in the most expedient manner is the best action to do. All broadcasting entities must take structural measures and establish mechanisms designed to avoid repetitive errors in broadcasting, and facilitate prompt follow-up on the opinions and complaints stated by the audience with open-minded.
The final principle in the broadcasting field was, broadcasters must prevent corporate dignity. If it is the public’s respect that broadcasters strive to earn, they must first respect their own organization and fellow colleagues. Every employee must exercise care to avoid behavior that would compromise the dignity of the company or their fellow colleague.
Unethical Issues In Broadcasting Field Based on Case Studies
Although there were principles to follow by broadcast media, apparently not every broadcasting media obey the rules and regulations. The unethical issues in the broadcasting field growing day by day along with the development of technologies. When the accessibility becomes wider, the chances of unethical issues to happen also become larger. Based on some articles, journals and researches, found that there are three (3) major unethical issues happening around the world which were misusing freedom of expression, fail in accountability and fail to comply with social values.
Misusing Freedom of Expression
There were two (2) cases regarding misusing freedom of expression. The first case was about broadcasters were paid for broadcasting content related to sensitive political issues which created chaos in the United Kingdom. The case was filed and came to judgement on 22nd April 2013, accusing a broadcasting company of receiving payment to broadcast political content as advertising. The motive was to influence the audience toward the respected party. It was proved that the party has a hidden agenda by revealing news about the opposition party which is super sensitive.
In addition, the second case is issued because of broadcasting content about terrorism without legal permission. This case concerned is about a journalist from the broadcasting company did a live interview with spoke persons of organizations condoning terrorist activities. This case came to judgement on 16th April 2014, where the broadcasting company was sued for harming public safety for their own benefit. This action will encourage and influence young people to involve risky situation which should be avoided.
Fail in Accountability
There were two (2) journals regarding unethical issues in the broadcasting field based on failure in accountability. In the first journal, Kovacs (2017) founds issues regarding the accountability of British broadcasters to their diverse viewing and listening public could be grouped into a number of larger domains. These included issues of representation, and, in part, linked to that, regional concerns, consultation, viewer and listener redress; access to decision makers, decision-making processes, and services; and quality of broadcasting. He also found that the desire for greater representation of diverse groups within society as subjects of programmes, with access to programmes, and as decision makers for those programmes, was a major issue. It embraced the inclusion of the disabled, minorities and disadvantaged, as well as those regions of the UK like the North, Scotland, or Wales that may have been marginalized in comparison to the coverage given to London and the South. No consensus existed about which groups in society could claim to be representative and merit representation. “Hypothetically, access to free-to-air programming and listed (sporting/cultural) events should have been available to all, yet, many citizens lacked the money needed to adopt digital technology or subscribe to pay television. ”
Secondly, in the journal which done by Daramola (2015) said that another unethical issue reported was a Nigerian press company who misusing the freedom and responsibility that gave by its government by revealing private and confidential issue to the public. The Nigerian press exposed the first speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ibrahim Salisu Buhari in 1999 of his financial statements without legal permission. The scandal led to the resignation of the speaker. “In news broadcasting and reporting, broadcasters should put the ethics of the profession and laws guiding the profession at the back of their minds. They should as well understand and respect the national interest of their country. ”
Fail to Compliance with Social Values
There were three (3) case studies found related unethical issues in broadcasting media regarding failing to compliance with social values. The first case study titled ‘New Media - Ethical Issues' by Nadrljanski, M. , Nadrljanski, D. , & Buzasi, Z. (2015) was studied about present problems in the field of broadcasting media ethics, which could possibly increase the critical awareness of the effects of this problem. They found that broadcasting media life which we all live in, is ruled by anarchy instead of democracy and that the codes and laws are obeyed and sanctioned rarely. Furthermore, broadcasting media have "no mercy" in presenting and broadcasting anything that they stumble upon, persistently and successfully escaping from ethics, driven by the desire for wealth and fame. “On the other hand, the "purist" media, in an effort to clean up the contents from the sin of immorality, make a tasteless creation without any "spicy" element, making it simply unpleasant. ”
The second case study was about the content of pornography in the broadcasting field. Carlsson (2016) found that a greater number of television channels, some distributed via satellite and cable, and the Internet have meant a greater incidence of scenes and programs that are pornographic or explicitly sexual. In that case study, the researcher found that sex scenes and sexist messages are encountered not only in television programs and on the Internet, but also in advertising, music video clips, the tabloid press, and magazines. “It is increasingly as sexual beings that we are addressed, whether the message has to do with our choice of bank, shampoo, shaving cream or television program. ” Also, in that case study, it was stated that majority respondents believe that pornography and explicit sex scenes have a negative influence. A majority feel that these kinds of media content lead to a distorted conception of women’s and men’s sexuality, and bring changes in young people’s sexual behavior, and increase sexual violence.
The third case study was about televised violence which studied by Cohan (2015) in his journal Broadcasting Industry Ethics, the First Amendment and Televised Violence. He studied about copycat cases involving imitations of televised violence. In his research, he found that one method by which televised violence promotes violence is by simple imitation. Two surveys of young American male violent felons found that 22-34% had imitated crime techniques they watched on television programs. “An area distinguished from the aiding and abetting situation discussed above involves a theoretical tort in which children imitate situations they see on television and they or others sustain damages or death as a result”. Another case, also involved by parents for the death of their son, who hanged himself after watching a hanging stunt on a popular television comedy and talk show said Cohan (2015) in his research.
Critical Analysis Based on Case Studies
Generally, the unethical issues in the broadcasting field are still existed until now. This report was referred the case studies, researches and article journal in the time frame of 2015 to 2018. Based on the researches and case studies, it can be concluded that most occurred unethical issues around the world in the broadcasting field was fail to comply with social values which had more studies done in the past 5 years. There were two (2) studies conducted in the year 2015 and one (1) study conducted in the year 2016. The rest of the unethical issues have the same number of references which is two (2) case studies and journals each. Apart from that, the unethical issue in broadcasting media, misusing freedom of expression, both pieces of researches were conducted in the year 2016. Meanwhile, the last issue was discussed, fail in accountability issue was studied by two (2) case studies in the year 2015 and 2017. There was no research conducted regarding other unethical issues or these three (3) issues in the year 2018 yet.
Conclusion
In the nutshell, ethical issues are something that should be taken seriously in the broadcasting field from now to the better future of our society. While taking all of this issues into consideration, we should also keep in mind that ethical values in the broadcasting field should help guide the society in a positive way. It was shown that the most common ethical issue happen was unable to compliance with social values. This ethic is one of the most important principles in the broadcasting field. If the broadcasters fail to obligate social values in their career, they might face major consequences as well as the society. So, it is everyone’s responsibility to obey ethical principles in our life. Everyone must play their role in building an ethical society and not only broadcasters. Even people as audience and consumers and government also should play their role in being ‘watchdog’ for the broadcasting media. The society must aware in every situation to avoid any immoral issues influence our kids in the future.
