COMM 431: Mass Media Ethics
Final Project
Instructor: Ross Collins

This capstone project is worth 300 points, about 30 percent of your course grade...the time you spend on it ought to reflect that. I've tried to offer you a choice of options to match your interests and to give you a variety of approaches to research in ethics.

Note: please have your choice (explained in writing) approved by me before you begin. I'm pretty flexible, but choices must clearly have something to do with the mass media, and must not be a case we already covered in class. I can't be blamed for poor grades I give on projects because, though well done, they have nothing to do with mass media ethics!

Yes, spelling, grammar, and writing quality count. If you're unsure, find a good editor, or share your work with other students from before handing in. While not required, the instructor will critique a rough draft of your work if submitted at least a week before the deadline listed on the syllabus.

Due date: 4:30 p.m., last day of class as noted on the syllabus. I'll accept late projects, but grade will suffer depending on how late, so don't leave everything until the last week, please!

Group option: I've discovered that many juniors and seniors prefer to work alone, so I have decided not to require a group project in this class. If you really would prefer to do a group project (no more than four in a group), submit your proposal, and I'll let you know if it meets expections for a capstone.

Option 1, Case study using ethics worksheet.
a. Identify an actual media case which includes ethical considerations. The case may involve national or local news media, advertisers, public relations practitioners, or media entertainment in magazines, movies, books, etc. The sweep is broad, though the case must in some way involve one of the media: newspapers, magazines, books, TV, radio, movies, records or the web. It may involve advertising, public relations, or journalism. Try to choose an issue you're already interested in, or something based on a personal experience. It will make this project more fun to do. The choice must NOT be something we already used for a class case study.

To find ideas, read, read, read, listen, listen, listen, or watch, watch, watch. Get ideas from your textbooks, or from class discussions. You can find oodles of ethically-sensitive cases out there, if you're looking. I won't give you possible choices here--as this is an advanced-level class, it's time for you to take the initiative!

b. Identify the ethical issue posed by the case, and collect background information on this issue from library sources and interviews with experts. You'll need to explain:

c. Complete the ethics worksheet, decide how you would, or would have, handled the case. This part of the assignment is similar to previous class exercises.

Length: Using the ethics worksheet as an outline, description of the case should be at least one page. Research on the case should total at least five to seven pages, and a good eight sources, books and articles included--not only web sites! You'll probably have to rely on the library's on-line databases, perhaps interlibrary loan.

Your paper should be set up using the ethics worksheet questions, with each question number indicated. Your answer will probably be both in narrative and bulleted form, as you think works best. This means your description of the case will fit into, perhaps, questions two and three. Your consideration of how ethical theories relate to your case will fit under question 11, etc. Your ethics worksheet analysis will be similar in size to those you've turned in for class projects, but longer, about 10-12 double-spaced, typewritten pages.

Objectives: To recognize an ethical issue based on an actual situation; to understand how ethics philosophers and writers have considered your chosen issue; to critically analyze a case, acknowleding ambiguities. At the end of your work, you'll be the expert on this issue, so I expect to read in your work a lot that I don't know already.

Option 2, Informal content analysis
a. Choose a recent event or issue that's received wide coverage in the media, and that clearly suggests ethical considerations. It may be an event in the news, such as some aspect of a presidential campaign, wars, violence, or local, such as a political campaign, abortion protests, race issues, etc. If you prefer doing research in public relations, you might choose material supplied by a particular organization. If you prefer advertising topics, you might analyze a series of ads on one topic. Your choice should reflect your interests, but needs to be something that's been covered enough to give you material to analyze. On the other hand, be specific enough so that you don't have huge amounts of material to plow through. You might even choose an issue currently being covered in the media, and monitor coverage for the next few weeks.

b. Read, listen to, or watch every story on that subject, gathering at least 10 or so stories. You'll likely have to limit your monitoring, say, to only coverage by the Forum, or only coverage by one or two television stations, a couple web sites, or a source such as Newsweek magazine, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, etc.

c. Analyze coverage emphasizing important ethical concerns, such as bias, truth, fairness, economic considerations, competition, deception, emotional and rational approach, etc. You may also wish to count certain words or phrases used, if useful. Don't forget also to analyze images shown in photos and video.

Note: Although I don't expect a full-blown research project here, I do expect you to at least be familiar with the approach, based on work you may have done in theory or comm analysis classes. If you're not sure you remember that, don't choose this option.

d. Write the results of your content analysis. Results should be 10-12 pages, double-spaced typewritten, with graphs and illustrations, if necessary. Include at least a page or two of introduction to the general ethical issues raised in the study.

Objectives: to recognize ethical issues in actual media coverage; apply critical skills of reason and analysis to an actual ethical problem; tolerate ambiguity in treatment of ethical issues; apply ethical theories to a case study. You'll gain insights into the media decision-making process. Your results may reveal a surprising bias in treatment of an issue.

Option 3, Ethics focus group
a. Choose a case study clearly raising ethical issues related to the media. This may be an actual case, or a hypothetical case from your text or another source.

b. Set up a group of at least six persons from outside ethics class somewhat at random who can meet to discuss the case. Please try to avoid choosing all your friends or five other mass comm majors, not exactly a random choice. This is an informal study, not graduate-level thesis research, but I'll need the names of your group members. Names will be kept confidential; they need not appear on your final report.

c. Carefully construct at least a half dozen questions based on the case. Ask the group each question, and record and/or take notes on answers given, and discussions.

d. Write the results in the form of a report, analyzing answers using your knowledge of ethical approaches (utilitarianism, egoism, relativism, etc.), legal and professional concerns. Length: about 10-12 pages, typewritten, double-spaced. Include in your report at least two pages of introduction, describing the case, and briefly reviewing other research done by philosophers and writers on this issue. Your introduction will likely require library and on-line research.

Objectives: to apply critical skills of reason to ethical discussions; analyze responses of a small group and relate them to ethical theories; recognize and articulate ethical issues in media case studies; tolerate ambiguity and disagreement in ethical reasoning. Focus groups form a common way to gather opinions on a topic, and are commonly used for marketing research. This exercise will give you an informal opportunity to study the dynamics of the group as it relates to the differences of opinion common in ethical considerations.

Alternative: You may complete this project as a web site instead of a traditional term paper. For help, check out this student web paper guide.

Note: a strong project may certainly enhance a future professional portfolio, and may even be of publishable quality, so try to do your best! I'll publish a worthy project as part of my web site student portfolio, guaranteeing you a larger audience.