PressEthic

Breaking news ups network ratings – that’s obvious. But what happens when there isn’t any news to break, when competition is tough and when ratings are falling? According to a study presented in 2005 by Andrea Miller and Lesa Hatley-Major from Louisiana State University, it just becomes a matter of definition.

Flicking through Sunday’s New York Times, I was astounded by the way news had quite literally been pushed into a corner. On page two of the main news section, Gucci, Chanel, Rolex, Movado, Mikimoto, Tagheuer, Barneys New York and Perles de Tahiti all headlined, while the news summary nestled inconspicuously in the top right hand corner.

“Jesus is a master of love, and Mohammed a master of hate.” These words were published in an article (translation) by Robert Redeker, on 19th September, in le Figaro, one of France’s largest dailies. The next day, the author, who is also a philosophy teacher, received so many death threats that he and his family had to go into hiding, where they remain today. As the Republic of France is in uproar over this threat to the democratic right to free speech (and rightly so), I wonder: what were editors at le Figaro thinking?

If you type marijuana into YouTube, 2732 results come up. Wading through home videos such as “Cooking with marijuana”, “Marijuana Truths”, and “Start to smoke marijuana”, you will also come across films from the U.S. government’s National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

By nationality, I’m a Brit, and on September 11 I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I watched Loose Change, a documentary about the direct links that can be made between 911 and the American Government, which made me wonder if I should be doing more of my own research.

Exploring the ethics of making web links to extreme right-wing websites.

Based on the book by John le Carré, the film The Constant Gardener was deservedly lauded this year for revealing the bad doings of pharmaceutical companies in contemporary Africa, a subject that has hitherto hardly been considered in mainstream fictional media. As I walked out of the cinema, however, one glaring question remained unanswered: where was contemporary Africa in the film?