Customer Reviews

Mass Communication Ethics: Decision Making in Postmodern Culture (2nd Edition)

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It give reader point discussions of contemporary controversies. It contains may articlues and essays that present conflicting opinions on the most fundamental controversies in the mass communication field. Learning aids are available to help readers, whether they be students or people seeking knowledge, develop critical thinking skills and formulate reasoned opinions on issues.

The book came in about a week and it was in great condition. Very happy A++

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People who write Communication Ethics books often lead with a bias: that we aren't as Ethical as we used to be. This is an old theme, and one can find it in the introductions of books from 100 years ago. It is probably a valuable theme, as it causes people to try to rectify the situation by writing Ethics books. Leslie's introduction suggests that he is writing from that same bias.

The book can be usefully thought of as two entirely seperate books. In the first half Leslie takes us on a tour of "Ethical Philosophies", turning each of the 20 odd philosophies discussed into a compact ethical decision making tool. Each tool gives the reader with another way of thinking about the complex problems that we face when making difficult decisions. Some might argue with some of the selections (both those put in and those left out), but the result is a rich set of ethical perspectives that help people to make better decisions. This half of the book is very strong and well worth reading for communication decision makers.

The second half of the book is devoted to a broad range of mass communication contexts in which problematic decisions will need to be made, each illustrated by a series of ethical cases. This half of the book is not as strong as the first. The cases are excellent, if brief, but the divisions among contexts sometimes seems a bit haphazard and the discussion is sometimes very weak. Indeed, the discussion here sometimes centers on issues that seem more a matter of personal preference than ethical behavior.

Perhaps the most interesting element of the book is its profiles of various ethical philosophers, most of whom would not be considered particularly ethical by today's standards. It may well be that we can benefit from instruction in morality and ethics, but the behavior of the ethical philosophers suggests that our the much bewailed increase in unethical behavior may be more a matter of headlines than reality.