Research Ethics Problems Of The Modern Media

In recent years, the rapidly developing Chinese society has facilitated the dramatic change in the field of mass media. Many problems appear in the process of economic development, and each of them has dropped shadows in media life, without exception. However, for a long period, the media field develops under the self-discipline of morality, instead of the restrictions of legislation. Therefore, in order to make up the flaws of media laws with moral self-discipline, the significance of ethical issues in media field is highlighted. Based on this consideration, the current thesis tries to inspect on the existent predicaments in Chinese media field, and answer questions about the construction of ethical ecology considering the ethical issues in modern media field.The thesis is consisted of 10 sections which are concluded into 3 chapters, and a conclusion chapter. In Chapter One:Historical Change of Media Ethnics, the history of media is explored through the exploration of three questions, from which the two tendencies that triggered all the disputes in media theories are discovered, liberty and responsibility. The first question, "whose media", uncovers the fate of media as a tool in the authoritarian era, and discusses the ruling, of "dissimilated" media upon the public. The second question, "what kind of liberty", reveals the charm of liberty. The thesis in this part points out that the greatest contribution of liberalism in media field is to emphasize the importance of individuals. It believes in the rational power and natural rights of human being. Since the freedom of speech and press are parts of natural rights, the era of media liberalism is coming. The third question, "be accountable for whom", reveals the crisis of liberalism. The secret communication between press and power leads to the threats of real liberty, controlling of economic and political motives upon free ideas, and the challenge of the truthfulness of liberalism. Therefore, social responsibility theorists start to amend and remedy liberalism theories, and try to fix their deficiencies in rationality with ethics and morality.In Chapter Two:Practical Dilemmas of Modern Media Ethics, the three dilemmas, namely, "reality and rationality", "indulgence and indoctrination", "liberty and responsibility", are discussed through case studies in the fields of news report, entertainment program, and social media. The dilemma of "reality and rationality" is an universal problem in media circle, since although reality is the first rule of news report, realistic news reports are not always high-valued under the influence of value guidance of media organizations and quality of practitioner staff. How to make a balance between reality and rationality, to make a proper choice between "fact judgement" and "value judgement"? The choice is as hard as the classic philosophical dilemma of "is" and "should be". The core problem of the "indulgence and indoctrination" dilemma is to handle the relationship between "justice" and "benefit". In spite that today’s mass media are seized by the tendency of abused amusement, they still have to shoulder the obligations of bearing social civilization and moralizing the masses. Amusement and moraiitv can coexist but when media vieid to the market and customers, and indulge their vulgar thirst, they have started to abandon "morality" and chase for "benefit". The dilemma of "liberty and responsibility" reflects the disputes in traditional media field with the rapid development of social media. Social media were born to be a platform for free speech, how do they become a platform for rumors? This reveals the struggle of "free will" and "moral obligation":one the one hand, news spreaders emphasize on the free will of human being, on the other hand, no one shoulder the responsibility of rumor storms.In Chapter Three:Construction of Modern Media Ethical Ecology points out the necessity of accomplishing "ecological turn" in construction of modern media ethical ecology with the consideration of the practical difficulties like the dilemmas of "reality and rationality", "indulgence and indoctrination", and "liberty and responsibility". The ecological turn will bring brand new ethical guidance into the dialectical, dynamic and systematical ecological structure. The ecological understanding of media originated from western media ecology theories in the 1960s. With the import of the ecological perspective, media are not only a mediator of information dissemination, but also a kind of circumstance that surrounds human being. Professor Fan Hao has made the earliest comprehensive interpretation on the ecological nature of ethical spirit in his work "Value Ecology of Ethical Spirit". The combination of ecological understanding of media and ecological significance of ethics have constituted the framework of media ethical ecology. On the one hand, when media are considered from the ecological perspective, the difference of types of media only exists in the media ecology constructed by different propagation structures, sign patterns and contextual meanings, instead of in media means like newspapers, broadcasts and televisions. Professor Fan Hao proposed that the value ecology of ethical spirit could be analyzed in the research of "specific ethics-economy, ethics-society, ethics-cultural ecology". Considering the technical features of media ethics, the current thesis points out the necessity of proper adjustments on the logical framework of media. To be specific, we should make a comprehensive understanding of Chinese media ethic conditions in a 4 dimensional system of politics, culture, economy and technology, and work on a media ethical ecology consisted of ethical political ecology, ethical cultural ecology, ethical economic ecology, and ethical technical ecology.In Conclusion Chapter:Embrace New Challenges in Era of Media Convergence, the thesis proposes that with the arrival of the era of media convergence, the horizontal and vertical structure of media ethics in traditional context are broken, and the actual basis of the media ethical core problems in that context is also destroyed. On the platform of "you have me, and I have you", the actual basis of problems considering liberty and responsibility is blurring. With the innovation of media technology, we should adjust modern media ethics timely. How to construct modern media ethics in the new era, in order to achieve harmonious ethical ecology? This is the question that can be further explored.