Business Ethics Introduction Homework Do the case again—this time, by giving roles to students and asking them to act out those roles and to interact with each other

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Introduction

…and the First Class Meeting

avid Lee Roth once said that the first five minutes of a Van Halen concert should be like

a pornographic movie—it had better have some action. Our virgin eyes have never seen

porn, of course, so we can only surmise that the band’s original lead singer meant that

the first part of an event should energize an audience, or else they’ll be bored or

We are realistic enough to assume that few students read the preface to a textbook, and

course, as stated by the Hastings Center and restated in the preface to Doing Ethics in

Media: Theories and Practical Applications. Those five goals are to help students:

1. Recognize moral issues.

2. Develop analytical skills.

Learning Objectives

The first class meeting can provide an opportunity to introduce students to the topic of

media ethics, to engage in casuistry as help them develop analytical skills, to deal with

others, and to be energized by the topic and see a glimpse into the wide range of

thinking needed to build their moral imaginations. With your help, they can begin to

Teaching Suggestions

We suggest three activities during the first class:

1. Immediately launch into a case.

2. Introduce the course, with an explanation of differences between moralizing

and “doing” ethics. (This is where the first PowerPoint can be used.) This also is a good

Those plans in detail:

1. Immediately launch into a case.

We suggest starting the first minute of the first class session with a case study, not with

a course introduction or talk of syllabus, assignments, grade expectations, or anything

that takes the focus off the case study.

questions on it, and write your summary under those questions.)

You’ll likely have students with different ideas about “what’s the problem?” Some will

reach immediate conclusions, based upon gut reaction or “why not follow the rule”

Praise them for working and playing well with one another—or, if needed, gently

suggest the need for improved civility in their conversations.

2. Introduce the course. The key slides on the PowerPoint lecture include:

a. The objectives for an ethics course, as stated by the Hastings Center (and at the

start of this chapter in the Instructor’s Manual.)

c. The distinctions between moral philosophy and moralizing. (See “Moral

Philosophy vs. Moralizing,” below.)

d. A quick definition of “applied ethics, which goes beyond navel-gazing and

leads to decisions that are do-able, proper, and justifiable.

case. In going back to the original case, this time ask students to take on roles of

individuals in the case. In advance, create a list of stakeholders. In class, ask students to

list all the stakeholders (they may come up with one you missed.) Then assign roles to

students (or allow them to pull roles at random) and allow stakeholders to interact with

each other.

When the discussion is complete, again summarize what you heard—and how it

differed from the first discussion in terms of moral philosophy and empathy vs.

moralizing and egoism.

Moral Philosophy vs. Moralizing

As we begin our study of mass media ethics, we remind ourselves that our decisions are

Moral Philosophy Moralizing

1. General advice, not limited 1. Specific advice, covering only one

to one situation particular situation

2. Always search for consistency 2. No value on consistency; ad hoc advice

in the advice given given at a particular time, nothing follows

c) consistency between saying c) hypocritical actions and words;

and doing (don’t be hypocrites) no apparent consistency between what

but be sure that any inconsistency is you say and what you do.

not just prima facie (on first glance).

Doing Ethics in Media: Instructor’s Resource Manual

Moral Philosophy (cont’d) Moralizing (cont’d)

3. Dialectical (challenging, open); 3. Dogmatic; unwilling to discuss your

welcomes the response “Defend rationales; operate on the assumption

your advice,” or “Why should we that the foundations of your beliefs and

do it?” Demand that people who theories are solidly based on some truth,

4. Analytical; in philosophic and 4. Pragmatic; overemphasis on practical

logical senses, makes use of rigorous consequences of thought and behavior as

argumentation and proofs. determinants of truth, value and meaning.

————-———————–————–————————————————-

Sidebar: You Might Be a Moralizer if …

You’re unwilling to hear perspectives on how someone else is working

through a problem to get to a solution.

You get stuck on power relationships, or in lower levels of Charles Peirce’s

fixing of beliefs.

You get stuck on the rules without an understanding of why the rules were

developed and how they might not apply in your situation.