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Media Ethics (B-KUL-W0ED2A)

4 ECTSEnglish26 First term
Pattyn Bart
This course is not taught this academic year, but will be taught next year. This course is not taught this academic year, but will be taught next year.
POC Philosophy (internationaal)

Aims

The main objective of this course is to enable students to understand how mass media shape the intersubjective awareness of what is of public interest. There are many philosophical concepts that can help us interpret the function of this kind of intersubjective understanding: 'ethos' (Aristotle), public opinion (Tarde), general will (Rousseau), collective consciousness (Durkheim), generalized other ( Mead ), collective intent, (Searle, Tomasello), collective commitment (Gilbert). All of these concepts help us understand how groups and societies motivate people to reason and act morally. In this sense, media ethics addresses the responsibility of mass media for the quality of the moral mindset within a group, society or international network.

- to describe the relation between ethos, general will, public opinion, collective conscience and joint intentionality
- to analyze the relation between the mentality of a group or of a society and the way people think and feel about social issues
- to define what rational communicating means and how it differs from small talk, intimate discussions, propaganda, etc.
- to realize the parallels between classical theories about rhetoric and modern persuasive communication and advertising
- to describe the different moral consequences taking into account the impact of mass media on the mentality and the 'ethos' of a society
- to explain the importance of deontological codes as related to the responsibility of mass media for the quality of the common understanding and the ethos of a society.
- to present and defend the findings of their research and their own standpoint both orally and in a written form, both displaying signs of professional philosophical standards.

Previous knowledge

Knowledge of moral philosophy.
Capacity for abstract and conceptual thinking.
Good knowledge of English.

Is included in these courses of study

Activities

4 ects. Media Ethics (B-KUL-W0ED2a)

4 ECTSEnglishFormat: Lecture26 First term
Pattyn Bart
POC Philosophy (internationaal)

Content

Each lesson we start from a particular text, most of the time fragments of a book.

  • Introduction: ‘Collective Conscience, Joint Intentionality, Public Opinion, Rhetoric and Fake News’
  • Gabriel Tarde, L'opinon et la foule [1901].
  • Emile Durkheim,  ‘L’attachement aux groups sociaux’ Leçon 5, in L’éducation Morale, Paris, Presses Universitaires de Frances, 2012, [‘Attachment to Social Groups’ in Moral Education, New York, The Free Press, 1973]
  • George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, & Society, Chicago, London, The University of Chicago Press, 1972
  • Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, New York, Free Press Paperbacks, 1997.
  • Aristotle, Retorica, transl. R. Roberts in Works of Aristotle, ed. W.D. Ross, vol. XI, Oxford, Clarendon Press,  1971, book II, 1 (1377bb 12 – 1378a30); book II, 12-18 (1388b 31 - 1391b 20); Chaim Perelman, Lucy Olbrechts-Tyteca, The New Rhetoric. A Treatise on Argumentation. Notre Dame, London, University of Notre Dame Press, 1971.
  • Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT press, 1991).
  • Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, The Spiral of Silence. Public Opinion: Our Social Skin, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1986.
  • Margaret Gilbert, ‘Shared Intention and Personal Intentions’ in Philosophical Studies, 144(2009)1, pp. 167-187.
  • Michael Corballis, The Uniqueness of Human Recursive Thinking, American Scientist 95(3) · May 2007
  • Michael Tomasello, ‘Human Morality as Cooperetion-Plus’ in A Natural History of Human Morality, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 2016, p. 135-163.

Course material

Texts will be made available via Toledo.

Format: more information

In each session we discuss an article or an author. Students need to read the particular articles in advance. After an explanation provided by the teacher there is a discussion. Students can be asked questions and are invited to formulate their opinion about the relevance of the topic for the general aim

Attendance is required for this course. The student who is repeatedly and for unfounded reasons absent can be denied further access to class by the teacher of the course.

Evaluation

Evaluation: Media Ethics (B-KUL-W2ED2a)

Type : Partial or continuous assessment with (final) exam during the examination period
Description of evaluation : Oral, Paper/Project, Participation during contact hours
Type of questions : Open questions

Explanation


Examination description

The evaluation consists of 3 parts:

  • Participation (20%): Students should participate in the discussions actively and will be evaluated on this.
  • Paper (40%): Students should write a paper (5 p.) answering the central questions: How is Mass media responsible for the quality of the ethos of a society? Why is this kind or responsibility important and how can it be improved? This paper will be discussed during the final oral examination.
  • Final oral examination (40%): Students will asked questions about the relevance of the different articles discussed during the classes.

Determination of the examination result

If students did not attend the course as required, did not sufficiently participate in group assignments (if applicable), did not give a presentation (if applicable), and/or did not submit all the course work (in time), they will receive the result 'not taken' (NA).

In case students cannot, for well-founded reasons, attend class as required, they need to inform the teacher of the course without undue delay. The teacher can in this case decide to give the student a make-up assignment (for example, a reading report on the material covered in the seminar session which the student missed). In case studentst cannot, for serious reasons and regularly or for a long period of time, attend class as required or in case students cannot, for serious reasons, give a presentation on a scheduled date, they need to inform the examination ombudsperson without undue delay.

 

Information about retaking exams

The second examination attempt is limited to (re)submitting the course work and retaking the exam. Participation and/or presentation cannot be retaken. The student who in the course of the academic year did not attend class as required or who did not give a presentation will again receive the NA result.