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Media Ethics is independent. It is editorially eclectic, and the sponsors are not responsible for its content. It strives to provide a forum for opinion and research articles on media ethics, as well as a venue for announcements and reviews of meetings, opportunities, and publications. Media Ethics welcomes any and all contributions. All submitted manuscripts are subject to editing at the discretion of the editor.
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News
SHIFT HAPPENS: ETHICS AT PTC 2006 More than 1,000 media professionals, academics, policy experts, lawyers, and others from more than 40 countries attended the January 2006 Pacific Telecommun-ications Council annual conference in Honolulu. Under the umbrella theme of "Shift Happens: Transition to IP," PTC experts and guests focused on the transition from traditional wired and high frequency radio telecommunication to the new influx of Internet voice and image communication in the Pacific region.
Book Review BriefEthics at Work: Creating Virtue in an American Corporation
Daniel Terris (2005). Ethics at Work: Creating Virtue in an American Corporation. (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, published by University Press of New England). 160 + xi pp. ISBN 1-58465-333-7. $24.95 (hardbound). Notes. Daniel Terris, director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, has provided an intriguing description and assessment of an ethics program at one of the world's largest defense contractors, Lockheed Martin.
Book Review BriefThe Prime-Time Presidency: THE WEST WING and U. S. Nationalism
Trevor Parry-Giles & Shawn J. Parry-Giles (2006). The Prime-Time Presidency: THE WEST WING and U. S. Nationalism. (Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press). 221 + x pp. ISBN 0-252-07312-6 (paper) $25.00 0-252-03065 (hardbound) $50.00. Episode and character directory, notes, bibliography and index.
Book Review Brief Defending the First: Commentary on First Amendment Issues and Cases
Joseph Russomanno (ed.)(2005) Defending the First: Commentary on First Amendment Issues and Cases. (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) 212 + xvi pp. ISBN 0-8058-4925-4. $79.95. Table of cases and index. Following an introduction by Nadine Strossen (NYU professor of law and president of the American Civil Liberties Union) that ably points out the current relevance of Defending the First's content, the book is divided into nine independent chapters that cover cases, events and analysis from the latter half of the 20th century to the near future.
Book Review BriefGlobal Entertainment Media: Content, Audiences, Issues
Anne Cooper-Chen (ed.) (2005). Global Entertainment Media: Content, Audiences, Issues. (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). 267 + xi pp. ISBN 0-8058-5169-0. $29.95 (paper). Contributors' backgrounds, chapter references, grids showing prime-time programming in 10 countries, author and subject indices.
Book ReviewThe Moral Media: How Journalists Reason About Ethics
Lee Wilkins and Renata Coleman. (2005). The Moral Media: How Journalists Reason About Ethics. (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). xiii + 164 pp. ISBN 0-8058-4475-9. $19.95 (paper). Appendix (survey questions), references, author and subject indices.
Book Review BriefMedia and the Make-Believe Worlds of Children: When Harry Potter Meets Pokemon in Disneyland
Maya Gotz, Dafna Lemish, Amy Aidman, & Hyesung Moon (2005). Media and the Make-Believe Worlds of Children: When Harry Potter Meets Pokemon in Disneyland. (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates). 229 + xiv pp. ISBN 0-88058-5192-5. $24.50 (paper). References, indices (child, media text, author, subject), illustrations, authors' backgrounds, CD.
Book ReviewThe Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism.
Upton Sinclair (2003, reprint of 9th edition, Long Beach, CA, 1928). The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press). 446 + xxxiii pp. ISBN 0-252-07110-7. $19.95 (paper), $39.95 (hardbound). Index, new introduction by Robert W.
Ethicalia: A Compendium of Global Ethical Minutia
Good Business Practices The publisher of Namibia's German weekly, Plus, told BBC News last Fall that his newspaper erred when it published an advertisement celebrating the death of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The ad, which Hans Feddersen, the paper's publisher, said was placed by the "International Action Against Forgetting," a group he thought was based in Germany, expressed "joy and satisfaction" at Wiesenthal's death.
Book Review BriefTragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy
John Nichols & Robert W. McChesney (2005). Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy. (New York: The New Press; distributed by W.W. Norton). 212 + xii pp. ISBN 1-59588-016-6. $23.95 (hardbound). Illustrations by Tom Tomorrow, foreward by Tim Robbins, sources and acknowledgments.
Book ReviewInvestigated Reporting: Muckrakers, Regulators, and Struggle over Television Documentary
Chad Raphael (2005). Investigated Reporting: Muckrakers, Regulators, and the Struggle over Television Documentary. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press). 304 + x pp. ISBN 0-252-03010-9. $45.00 (hardbound). List of abbreviations, notes, index. For those who are interested in the myriad relationships between content, ownership and regulation, or even those who merely believe that the documentary is both the highest form of television programming and the prime example of the "watchdog" function of journalism, this is a book for you.
A Practical View of the Ethics of Speech Ghostwriting
Once you have become a speech ghostwriter, writing speeches to be delivered by someone else who will take credit for your work, you will become a target of attack from two sources: from yourself, when you question whether what you are doing is ethical; and from people who accuse you of confusing history by inserting your own writing style and ideas into the style and ideas of the speaker.
John C. Merrill and Clifford G. Christians Take Opposite Views on Communitarianism
CLICK HERE to read John C. Merrill's Ethical Problems: No Exit or CLICK HERE to read Clifford G. Christians' Communitarianism: A Third Way
A Call for Creativity
Professor Starr admirably recognizes that plagiarism is bad journalism, bad morality, and bad news for reader, writer and victim alike. Creativity must be celebrated and nurtured, and that which is inspired by others must be made our own.
