Jour 4470: Ethics - Post 1

According to the Webster Dictionary, ethics are defined as a system of moral principles and rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. Who is to judge what is ethical and not? Are they merely up for a vote or someone’s opinion? Humankind has put ethics into separate categories, like Utilitarianism, relativism, and postmodern ethics. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong?

With each decision I make everyday, I run it through an ethical filter with which I determine what is right or wrong for me. What may seem like a positive decision for me to make, may be the opposite for someone else.

While searching through ABC news archives, I stumbled on an article that discussed the ethical debate of embryo screening and whether or not it should be offered for disease prevention. For one party, they may agree with embryo screening to ensure any genetic mutation passed down from the parents was absent in the baby’s DNA. For another party, they may feel that it opens a Pandora’s box of Build-A-Babies everywhere. There are no conclusions as of yet, but Yury Verlinsky, director of the Reproductive Genetics Institute, feels that the public should decide.

"I think the decision has to be in the hand of the patients," says Verlinsky. "We have the technology in preventive medicine to help with the decision. I cannot press my ethics on somebody else and I have two options: to participate or not to participate."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=116970&page=1

The debate between what is good and evil will forever be a battle between moral codes and opinions. Postmodernism argues that what is right for you is good for you and what is right for another is good for them. In the world of strategic communications, there must be certain codes of conduct that we apply to our public relations profession.

If an organization wants you to withhold certain information that would not be beneficial for that organization, yet would be beneficial for stockholders, where do you draw the line? Do you agree to do as your organization tells you or is your loyalty to the organization’s customers?

A constant search for the morally right is an ongoing struggle that will be debated over for many years to come. We have made some ground as public relations professionals by instilling a code of ethics among our profession, but there will continually be gray areas that will stretch our reasoning.

Jour 4250: January 25 lecture

During class today, we were shown a video that discussed news coverage and the bias that can easily seep into stories that are featured. This video started a lot of good conversation of which I was able to take part in. I commented that a possible marketing reason for airing crime stories first was to reel in the audience due to humankind love for self. Questions like why should I care? or how will this effect me? initially enter into our minds. Personally, I do feel that many of the crime stories aired, whether about crimes done by whites or by another minority ethnicity, are put into the media to aid the public in making smarter decisions or to raise an awareness. The media has only a brief moment to capture its audience and they do so by displaying why people should care first and foremost.
Throughout the conversation in our class we were able to touch on the unfair treatment of people, whether white, black, hispanic, female or male, and how it is seen played out in our government and police force. As a white female with blonde hair, I am often labeled as a bimbo or as someone who is more interested in getting attention for my looks than my intelligence. I am aware that these stereotypes are put on me, yet it gives me even more of a reason to grow in my knowledge and wisdom to further downplay these negative schemas. Due to my beliefs in Jesus Christ, I am no longer held to an American standard of which I am to be or act like, but believe that I should fear the Lord and not mankind and what they may or may not think of me. Once I let these accusations and stereotypes go, I am able to focus on who the Lord has made me and how I may glorify His name in all of my words and work. This is not to say that I do not feel these pressures of proving myself and how I am different, only that I should not place my identity in other's eyes.