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Media Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Governance

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Handbook of Global Media Ethics

Abstract

This chapter explores the importance of media business ethics, why digitalization and globalization increase ethical issues, and why lack of internal accountability leads to loss of reputation and legal jeopardy. It introduces the concept of business ethics, why and how concerns developed, and the development and implementation of ethics in business and business education. It explains the ideas of corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, why good practices in corporate governance emerged, and the extent to which media firms conform. The chapter shows that many issues of business ethics are encountered in media businesses, including deceptive advertising, poor sales practices, consumer fraud, data privacy violations, employee relations, and employment discrimination. Finally, the chapter addresses what media educators and companies can do to promote and protect ethical behavior in media business practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Excellent discussions of the development of the field are found in Calabretta et al., “Uncovering the Intellectual Structure of Research in Business Ethics,” and Abend, “The Origins of Business Ethics in American Universities, 1902–1936.”

  2. 2.

    Carroll, “A History of Corporate Social Responsibility.”

  3. 3.

    Cheffins, “The History of Corporate Governance.”

  4. 4.

    Weiss, Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach.

  5. 5.

    Weiss, Business Ethics.

  6. 6.

    Sama and Shoaf, “Ethics on the Web: Applying Moral Decision-Making to the New Media.”

  7. 7.

    For discussions of the needs for business ethics, see Trevino, Managing Business Ethics; Rasche et al., Corporate Social Responsibility; and Collins, Business Ethics: Best Practices for Designing and Managing Ethical Organizations.

  8. 8.

    Negative attention can affect share prices and company reputation. See Brickey, “From Boardroom to Courtroom to Newsroom…”; Barkemeyer et al., “A Longitudinal and Contextual Analysis of Media Representation of Business Ethics”; and Carroll, Corporate Reputation and the News Media.

  9. 9.

    See Benediktsson, “The Deviant Organization and the Bad Apple CEO: Ideology and Accountability in Media Coverage of Corporate Scandals,” and Allen and Savigny, “Selling Scandal or Ideology? The Politics of Business Crime Coverage.”

  10. 10.

    Chernov and Tsetsura, “Building a Bridge between Corporate Reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Ukrainian Print Media.”

  11. 11.

    Barkemeyer et al., “A Longitudinal and Contextual Analysis of Media Representation of Business Ethics.”

  12. 12.

    Bednar, “Watchdog or Lapdog? A Behavioral View of the Media as a Corporate Governance Mechanism.”

  13. 13.

    Borden, “The Role of Financial Journalists in Corporate Governance.”

  14. 14.

    Picard, Corporate Governanceof Media Companies, and Olkkonen, “Separation or Integration of Journalistic and Business Responsibilities?”

  15. 15.

    Gerum and Stieglitz, “Corporate Governance, Ownership Structures, and Corporate Strategy of Media Companies.”

  16. 16.

    See Arrese, “Corporate Governance and News Governance in Economic and Financial Media.”

  17. 17.

    Gokah et al., “Brown Envelope Journalism, Policing the Policeman, Conflict of Interest and (Media) Corporate Governance.”

  18. 18.

    The scope of the issues is so broad that they inspired an encyclopedia to address them. See Kolb, Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society.

  19. 19.

    Bayot, “Vivendi Pays $50 Million in Settlement with S.E.C.”

  20. 20.

    Angwin, “SEC Fines Time Warner $300 Million.”

  21. 21.

    Merle, “Yahoo Fined $35 Million for Failure to Disclose Cyber Breach.”

  22. 22.

    Sikos’ Shades of Black and Skurka’s Tilted provide accounts of the events and prosecution.

  23. 23.

    A definitive account of Maxwell and the scandal is Greenslade’s Maxwell: The Rise and Fall of Robert Maxwell and His Empire.

  24. 24.

    White, “Google Fined $1.9 Billion over Advertising Market Abuse.”

  25. 25.

    Kang, “FTC Approves Facebook Fine of About $5 Billion.”

  26. 26.

    Ofcom, “EE and Virgin Media Fined for Overcharging Customers.”

  27. 27.

    See, for example, Folkenflik, “Circulation Fraud at Tribune Papers Triggers Arrests.”

  28. 28.

    Media coverage of the case paid significant attention to the fact that he was the son of one of the leading newspaper industry leaders. See Carey, “Son of Ex-Knight Ridder CEO Sued over New Job.”

  29. 29.

    Picard, “Corporate Governance: Rating Leading Public Media Companies.”

  30. 30.

    Golum, “Disney Whistleblower Tells MarketWatch Disney Revenue was Inflated.”

  31. 31.

    Innis, “Australian Company Crocmedia Fined for Not Paying Interns.” Use of unpaid interns in media firms is common, even when they are not receiving academic credit for their work.

  32. 32.

    Rau, “‘Bobby Jones Show’ Fake Alerts Cost iHeartMedia $1 million.”

  33. 33.

    See Dunwoody and Bryer, “Patent Infringement Issues Affecting Media Companies.”

  34. 34.

    Use of content produced by others without compensation or attribution remains an ethical challenge across digital media, and most ethical lapses are never challenged in legal forums. For information on the Aereo decision, see Bachman, “Aereo Loses Copyright Fight.”

  35. 35.

    The culture of entertainment industries tolerated harassment and assault at the highest levels in firms. See Roxborough, “How the #MeToo Movement is Changing Showbiz Culture Worldwide” and Finn, “Why Hollywood Won’t Ever be the Same after the #MeToo Movement—Because it Can’t.”

  36. 36.

    Picard, “Monitoring Corporate Governance in U.S. and European Media Firms.”

  37. 37.

    Three notable models are presented in Svensson and Wood, “A Model of Business Ethics”; Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, “Making an Ethical Decision”; and Rotary International, “Guiding Principles: The Four-Way Test.”

  38. 38.

    Svensson and Wood, “A Model of Business Ethics.”

  39. 39.

    Collins’ Business Ethics: Best Practices for Designing and Managing Ethical Organizations is a useful guide for establishing ethical practices within firms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Reuters Institute in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Robert G. Picard

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  1. Robert G. Picard
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UBC Graduate School of Journalism, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Stephen J. A. Ward

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Picard, R.G. (2021). Media Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Governance. In: Ward, S.J.A. (eds) Handbook of Global Media Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32103-5_4

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