Taught In English

There is no language prerequisite for courses at this language level.

Objectives:

After this course, you should be able to:

-Have a general insight in what ethics and applied ethics are about, and how they relate to specific domains in society, i.e. business and media related problems.
-Have an insight in the main ethical traditions in the history of philosophy
-Discuss the problems contained in each of those traditions
-Discuss the main problems connected with the domains of media ethics and business ethics
-Show your ability to detect ethical problems in different cases in the domain of mediaethics and business ethics
-Show your ability to use models for ethical decision making and apply ethical insights to specific cases, thereby showing critical attitude

Course Content:

A course about media and business ethics basically deals with those problems that arise in our strongly mediatised and business based culture, more specifically those problems that are of an 'ethical' kind. In order to detect these problems, and in order to evaluate them as ethical, an insight in the specific nature of ethics is necessary, followed by a general situation of those applied ethical domains in the broader scheme of all ethical thinking.

For that reason, this course starts with a broad introduction into the nature of ethics, albeit directly connected to the domains under concern. This introduction is followed by an overview of the main ethical traditions that have been predominant in the history of philosophy. These traditions (utilitarianism, duty ethics and virtue ethics), are not dealt with for tradition's sake, but because they are of crucial importance for tackling any ethical issue in the domain of media and business.

After having discussed the main ethical traditions – their function, their strengths and weaknesses – we point at the main problem of applying these traditions in specific fields of interest. This will give us the occasion to point at 'models of decision making' that intend to solve the difficulties of applied ethics. Thereupon we will focus first on general themes in business ethics such as 'bureaucracy' and 'global capital', but also on some more specific issues such as 'trust', 'whistle blowing' and 'responsibility'. In a second part, we will concentrate on the specificity of media ethics. Relying on similar ethical traditions and models of decision making, we will focus on such themes as 'impartiality', 'privacy' and 'violence' in mediatised contexts.

All in all, this course intends to impart an ability to critically reflect upon problems in the fields under concern and to stimulate discussion on several cases and issues that will be presented during the courses.

Course Materials

Required:

1. Campbell, J.; Parker, M.; ten Bos, R. (2005) For Business Ethics, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-31135-7 (textbook used in lectures)

2. Kieran, M. (1997) Media Ethics. A Philosophical Approach, Praeger, ISBN 0-275-96694-1 (textbook used in lectures)

3.Christians, C.G.; Rotzoll, K.B.; Fackler, M. e.a. (2008) Media Ethics. Cases and Moral Reasoning, Longman, New York & London, ISBN 0205579701 (selected use)

4. Other texts that will be commented upon will be distributed in class.

Requirements:

The students will be evaluated on the basis of their performance as follows:

-Midterm examination 30%
-Assignments 20%
-Final examination 40%
-In-class participation 10%

-Midterm examination: Oral exam based on material covered in the lectures.

-Assignments: Short in-class presentations on a topic or case

-Participation : 10 % of the overall grade will be based on the creative and flexible participation during the sessions. This is NOT just attendance, but participation and value added to the class discussions will be evaluated. Do not consider this an automatic portion of your grade.

-Final examination: Final oral examination at the end of the term, based on the whole of lectures given during the term

Grading Criteria

The following criteria will be applied in assessing your knowledge:

-Evidence of understanding of the concepts, theories and ideas developed in the course.
-Ability to apply these concepts on specific cases.
-Clarity of explanation and attention to the focus of your answer.
-Capacity to structure your answer logically.