Final Media-Ethics Philosophy, A. Koddermann, Spring 1997

The test is divided in five parts, each worth 20 points; the first, with short answers, is "closed book". The second part, a case study, leads to a discussion of one case in class. The third part is an essay discussing the moral use of disclaimers on the Internet. For the second and third parts, all materials used in class, including notes, are allowed. What is not allowed: to copy from unnamed sources, to use philosophical dictionaries. You have 75 minutes for the in class part of the final test. After having finished aprt 1-3, you have a choice: the final case study dan be done by group, at a place of your choice. And the final essay may be written at home, or be answered in an oral examination. I wish you GOOD LUCK!

Part 1: Short Answer-Questions:

1) a) Determine the "right way" for a reporter in an Platonic society? Define "virtue" in this context:

b) What is Public Reason according to Kant

c) Neil Postman suggests that Taylor's book The Principles of Scientific Management contains the first outline of the assumptions of Technopoly. The primary, if not only goal of human labor is This means that (Postman
chapter 3)

2)a) Explain: "Technopoly is a form of cultural AIDS."
b) Name a catalogue of "virtue-ethics" in contemporary medias that follows Aristotle's idea of virtue. What is the problem of such a catalogue? Why did virtuous Aristotle not oppose slavery?

c) Explain the concept of "Hermeneutic Circle" and its relevance for Media

Ethics

3) a) What is called the "Deconstruction " and what is the implication for

Media-Ethics? How does it relate to Plato's rejection of scriptures as
dangerous?

b/c) We followed the discussion about the best way to regulate the Television via V- Chip. According to Postman (chapter 5), after the decline of regulating traditional institutions, "bureaucracies, expertise, and technical .................." become the principal means "by which Technopoly hopes to control ...................Why can this NOT WORK? Give one example from both chapters on "The Ideology of Machines" and explain it.

4) Milton describes a Paradise Lost. In which sense does this relate to Gutenberg, Copernicus and Galileo?


b) How does this relate to Hans Jonas' "imperative of Responsibility"?


5) a)Which thesis is defended when Neil Postman claims that we are "Amusing ourselves to death?"

b)Kant's Categorical imperative claims ............................


c)Which fundamental RIGHTS are linked with media ethics?


d)The principle of utility claims ...................

e)Plato warns that writing is dangerous because.

Part 11: Analyze either case 16 (bad medicine, related to chapter 6 in Postman) or 17 (privacy, in relation to reader analysis of loss of trust in politics and the media).

Part III:

Write an interpretative essay about the excerpt from the net: write an editorial for or against the position defended, then answer it with a second essay from the opposite position.

Discuss one of the three questions:

Why is the liberty of expression:
primarily part of the sphere of the
individual?
Can we define "Truth?"
What is the role of a journalist?

Part IV: Discuss as group: case 18 or 19, virtual success or His Private Lab.

Part V: Essay. Can we teach media ethics? How has the image of the media changed over time?