Media: Morality and Ethics

Media plays a vital role in our life. From the invention of the radio to the World Wide Web, it has been the source that connects us to other parts of the world. It also gives us a great opportunity to get closer to each other, and by that I mean, having similar thoughts, our awareness to what is happening to the mankind became shared and therefore strengthen the ties between different cultures and races. However, in order to accomplish the goals of the media, there are certain rules that have to be followed, and the key word here is credibility. A spoken or written massage has to have some sort of accuracy in the writhen contents.

As students of media and journalism we have been taught for many generations about the ethics of our career and responsibility we carry towards the societies. Many ethical codes have been applied by “a high reputation academic schools and by a well known experts in the field”. Yet the question that we should as ourselves as journalists is “Do we really follow what we have been taught?” “ Do our cameras captures what we see or what someone else sees?” when I think about media in the present day I would relate it to the government and how the media is actually manipulated according to what the government wants. Yet, there is much more that I didn’t realize until last class. In the case of hala sarhan, the blame wasn’t on the government or another kind of a powerful system; the blame was on her and her credibility and integrity as famous T.V reporter. To be honest, I never watched any of her shows but I have heard about her great work and her daring attitudes toward different unique social issues.

I realize that it is still an investigation and no one is to blame but let’s assume that what is said is the true. Hala Sarhan is considered an investigative journalist, which deals mainly in creating a social awareness to a certain issue or proves a point of view that is misunderstood by most people. These journalists have been exposed to certain rules and codes that deal with morality and have taken an oath that the message should be delivered in its most accurate level no matter what it takes. Therefore, a fabricated story is considered unethical and disgraces the essence of the media. I don’t know what reasons make a reporter pays create a fake massage including fake characters and fake information. Is it just to be become famous, or is it always about the money. If Hala Sarhan wanted to tell us something about prostitutes, she could have taken many different “legal” ways to tell us that and I agree that there are certain issues that are sensitive especially in the Arab world but yet it is still illegal to bring fake actors to act as prostitutes as well as failing in keeping them anonyms.

I just hope that Hala Sarhan is innocent, not because I am a fan of her, but because I want to know that if there is an area where journalism is practiced in a professional manner, it would be the Arab world