Module: Ethics & Regulation

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	Ethics & Regulation
Module Code	CM1540 (ITS) / PHE1004 (Banner)
Faculty	Humanities & Social Sciences	School	Communications
Module Co-ordinator	Roderick Flynn
Module Teachers	-
NFQ level	6	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

None
Any missing or failed short essays must be resubmitted prior to attempted a resit on the 2,000-3,0000 word paper

Description

This module engages the question: What ought journalists to do? It has readings in classical ethical theory -- Plato and Aristotle -- Enlightenment thinkers such as Kant and J.S. Mill, and contemporary writers such as Jonathan Haight and Peter Singer. It has a component of democratic political theory and a substantial engagement with journalism as it is practiced today in all media form.

Learning Outcomes

1. 1. Answer the questions, 'What ought I to do?' and 'On whose authority?'
2. 2. Apply classical ethical theory to contemporary professional communication practice
3. 3. Resolve contradictory moral obligations in the field of journalism and other mass communication professions
4. 4. Participate meaningfully and compellingly in group discussion of ethical quandries and connundrums
5. 5. Write thoughtfully and reasonably on matters of resolving moral dilemmas in the field of journalism and other areas of professional communication
6. Place journalistic moral obligation in the context of Western liberal democracies and consider alternative contexts

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Lecture	22	Mandatory attendance
Assignment Completion	50	weekly short essays, subsantial final essay
Independent Study	53	Readings in classical texts, contemporary practice
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Introduction to moral reasoning

The role of the self

The role of the divine

The Telos from Aristotle to Mill

Moral obligation from Plato to Kant

David Hume and the passions

Democratic political theory

The role of a free press in democratic political theory

Impediments and filters: Culture

Impediments and filters: Technology. Journalism ethics in an instantaneous, global world

Impediments and filters: Economics

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
Essay	Substantial inquiry, approximately 2,000-3,000 words, into the ethical dimensions of contemporary practice, drawing upon the texts to bolster deontological or consequentialist argument for the moral rightness (or wrongness) of behavior, and putting the results into a broad ethical context.	50%	Once per semester
Assignment	Short essays, approximately 500-800 words, submitted periodically, expressing increasingly sophisticated understanding of concepts of classical and modern moral reasoning and understanding, and application to contemporary professional journalistic praceiced	50%	Every Second Week

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Steven R. Knowlton: 1997, Moral reasoning for journalists, First, All, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 0-275-94871-4
0-07-247690-7: 2006, Elements of Moral Philosophy, 6th, all, McGraw-Hill, New York,
William Frankena: 1973, Ethics, 2d, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey,
Jack Fuller: 1996, News values, First, All, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill., 0-226-26879.9
Peter Singer, ed: 2005, Ethics Oxford Reader, OUP,
A.C. Grayling,: 0, What Is Good?, 1st, all, Phoenix, London, 0-75381-755-1
Jonathan Haidt: 2012, The Righteous Mind,

Other Resources

11620, 0, A wide variety of news and other related sites,