Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies (with InfoTrac) [Paperback]

Louis A. Day (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0534562353 | ISBN-13: 978-0534562359 | Edition: 4

This text's strength is its extensive use of case studies throughout each chapter. Accessible writing style and coherency between chapters allow for coverage of advanced topics such as morally offensive content and media and privacy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Louis A. Day is an expert in media law and ethics. His background includes experience as a television and radio news reporter, writer, and editor, and two years in public information with the U.S. military. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at Louisiana State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; 4 edition (May 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534562353
• ISBN-13: 978-0534562359
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,259,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Painful, April 16, 2007

By 

Richard Nelson (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies (with InfoTrac) (Paperback)

Maybe it's not possible to write an interesting or engaging book on this topic. Maybe the muddle that is media ethics doesn't lend itself to a presentation in straightforward, punchy language. Maybe it's impossible to separate one's deeply held beliefs from laying out all sides of an ethical issue.

Whatever the reason, this is not an engaging text, and it isn't very helpful, either. Each chapter begins with a wandering narrative about the chosen topic. Day hems and haws for a dozen pages or so without ever really saying very much, although as you move from chapter to chapter an impression will likely build in your mind: The world would be a very boring place if Day decided what the media should include and exclude from publications and the airwaves.

The chapters end with several scenarios to consider. These are overwritten to the point of farce, littered with meaningless adjectives that appear to be intended to convey gravity but actually betray Day's opinion about each scenario. By the time you're asked what you would do, you can have little doubt what he would do.

Some textbooks simply need an update to be brought back to relevance. This book needs a new author who, instead of lamenting everything that has happened in the world since 1963, is prepared to engage with it and help young media practitioners make decisions in it. If you're about to be forced to read this book in class, prepare to be annoyed!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An awful, awful text, June 30, 2008

By 

Jacob King (South Bend, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies (with InfoTrac) (Paperback)

Ethics was a required subject in my major of Telecommunications, which deals with electronic and broadcast mass media. This text is a very poor way to instill the importance of ethics within TCOM.

Louis Alvin Day often rambles on for paragraphs at a time about abstract philosophical ideologies. Only occasionally will something useful be mentioned, such as the SAD (Situation-Analysis-Decision) formula. Day has chosen quantity over quality with his phrasing, like a college undergrad who has mastered the art of stretching a concise, one-page discourse out to five pages of superfluous fluff to meet the trivial page minimum assigned.

Telecommunications is one of today's most visual industries. Consequently, those who choose this field are visual thinkers. Unfortunately, this text has absolutely no visuals. Instead, the book is 480 pages of text, presented in two columns per page, never once straying into creative territory; never a single chart, graph, or even a small inset for sub-topics.

The hypothetical ethics case studies were somewhat intriguing, but too fantastic to draw useful parallels to real-world scenarios. Moreover, The presentation of facts tended to favor one course of action over the other, thus failing its mission to stimulate discussion and debate.

This book was painful to read, and even more painful to try to study. If you are an instructor searching for a suitable TCOM Ethics text, please do your students a favor and look elsewhere.

2.0 out of 5 stars Long-Winded, February 12, 2012

By 

Michael - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies (with InfoTrac) (Paperback)

Reading this book will probably be satisfactory for supplementing whatever class you're taking, but God is it boring. The author takes 5-6 pages to get around to saying anything at all, so by the time you've finished reading a thirty page chapter you realize the good bits could have been explained in four pages.

The book's biggest hinderance is that the author reflects a less than satisfactory understanding of ethics. I may be wrong, but it seems that in order to write a book about ethics as they pertain to the mass media one should have at least a fair understanding of ethics in general. You'll find a better explanation of historically influential ethicists and their teachings on a poorly written wiki article.