Ethics for Public Communication [Paperback]

Focusing on one historic episode per chapter,Ethics for Public Communicationis divided into three parts, each dedicated to one of the three major functions of the media within democratic societies: news, persuasion, and entertainment. Authors Clifford Christians, Mark Fackler, and John Ferr?, three trusted scholars in the field, discuss media ethics from a communicative perspective, setting the book apart from other texts in the market that simply combine journalism with libertarian theory. Classic media ethics cases, like the publication of Rachel Carson's 1962 bookSilent Spring, are covered in tandem with such contemporary cases as the creation of Al-Jazeera English and the controversy surrounding Ice-T's protest song, Cop Killer. FEATURES-A new communitarian approach to ethicsthat breaks from other texts in the discipline-A focus on classic and current casesthat are culturally relevant today-A thorough and comprehensive grounding in the theory of media ethics-Longer and more universal case studies than those included in other texts, in order to provide more real-life, ethical dilemmasPREFACEINTRODUCTION: Communitarian EthicsPART I: NEWS1. Edward R. Murrow and Public Information2. Al-Jazeera English3. Drudgereport.com and Civil Society4. Surveillance after September 115. WLBT and Hearing the PublicPART II: ADVOCACY6. Supersize Me and Marketing Fat7. Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring8. Stormfront and the Ethics of Hate9. Edward Bernays and Public Relations as the Engineering of Consent10. United Negro College Fund and the Advertising CouncilPART III: ENTERTAINMENT11. Deep Throat and the Ethics of Mediated Sex12. Russell Means: Oglala Sioux Activist13. Norman Lear's Comedic Commentary14. Reading the Romance and Popular Art15. Art, Rage, Violence, ProtestEPILOGUE: Three UnderliningsCliffolS