Lesson 7. Question Analysis: What are the Ethical and Legal Considerations?
KEY CONCEPTS
- Media message creators work within a set of social, legal and ethical expectations and responsibilities.
- Anticipating potential ethical or legal issues will help ensure there are no issues when the message is created.
- The interpretation or relevance of particular ethical standards will vary in different organizations.
- Communicators must understand how to operate within an organization’s particular culture in order to be successful.
- There are laws and regulations that affect both the gathering and the use of information in media messages.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this lesson you will be able to:
- recognize the social constraints under which communicators work.
- identify the characteristics of ethical thinking and the forms of ethical decision-making that guide mass communication professionals.
- identify the positive and negative obligations that communicators weigh in their work.
- consider the cultural climate within an organization.
- articulate some of the legal and regulatory standards that must be considered by communicators as part of an information strategy process.