Lessons in Media Ethics: Popular Culture, Religion and Digital Media

Abstract

Over the past year, I rarely worked in my campus office due to mitigation protocols to limit the spread of COVID-19 on our campus. When I returned in late spring, I was delighted to find two new books on media ethics in my pile of mail. Not only do I see both of these books being adopted at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in communication programs; I also see them appealing to journalists, media critics, working professionals. In Entertaining Ethics, Chad Painter and Lee Wilkins, explore how popular culture explains media ethics and the key philosophy to solid ethical thinking. The book focuses on core philosophical concepts of media ethics – truth telling, loyalty, privacy, public service, media economics, social justice, advocacy, and accountability. Painter and Wilkins use the lens of narrative film, television, and music to teach ethical lessons since many of us spend thousands of hours with popular culture. They explain, “Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks knew that if you want to tell a moral lesson and have it remembered, then embed it in a play – one that audiences are fond of seeing” (p. 173). In Ethics and Religion in the Age of Social Media: Digital proverbs for responsible citizens, Kevin Healey and Robert H. Woods, Jr. provide a critical and original take on our digital dilemmas. They explain, “To assist in the prophetic imagination of new alternatives, throughout this book, we pair a clear rejection of Silicon Valley’s catechism with specific practices, policies and products that may steer the ship in a more sustainable direction” (p. 12). Since the authors address the structural and ideological biases of current platform architectures, algorithms, user policies, and advertising models, this book is a must read for communication and media scholars and students. Painter, C. & Wilkins, L. (2021). Entertaining ethics: Lessons in media ethics from popular culture. Rowman & Littlefield. While reading Entertaining Ethics by Chad Painter, assistant professor of communication at the University of Dayton, and Lee Wilkins, professor emerita at Wayne State University in Detroit, and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, I was immediately reminded of my most memorable class as an undergraduate student at Saint Louis University. I saw myself in the classroom sitting in the front row listening to the music Dr. John Pauly was playing for us in that popular culture and communication class. We had the most interesting discussions about the intersection of popular culture (radio, TV, film, and music) and communication. While my class almost 25 years ago was not an ethics class per say, this text would have perfectly complemented our required textbooks because it explains media ethics through popular culture, including the philosophy that is key to solid ethical thinking. Each chapter focuses on a key ethical concept, anchors the discussion of that concept in a contemporary or classic yet accessible film or television show, analyzes decisions made in that work with other popular culture artifacts, and grounds the analysis in appropriate philosophical thought. Painter and Wilkins begin the book with a chapter on media ethics and popular culture that provides central concepts including definitions of culture and popular culture, critiques of popular culture, the role of imagination in ethical thinking, and definitions of ethical principles. They immediately had my attention when they acknowledge that Mr. Rogers’ four rules of professional living are the reason for the book and the approach they take to ethics: (1) journalists are human beings not stenographers, human beings not automatons; (2) point out injustice when you have to; (3)