Archive for: Ethics of Media

The fundamental changes in the global mode of production occured in the second half of 20th century, with important role of concept of free time and the notion of play. Being structurally decentralized and flexible, digital capitalism moves into the sphere od social networks, massive online games and friend aggregators platform. The notion of play is deeply integrated in micro and macro economies of these interactive environments, by creating social capital, symbolic capital, emotional capital, and last but not least, financial capital.

The works of Paolo Virno and Matteo Paquinelli are helpful in understanding the innovative and competitive aspects of network. Innovative and competitive aspect of social (digital) networks and culture in general, is thus, conceived as inherent “animal spirit” in human that eventually results in “immaterial civil war”. In this sense culture is not something that “humanize” animal in human, but is rather one of many aspects of numerous struggles in society of pure “zoe”. Situationists’ vision of future society as society with minimal necessary work, endless situations of play and interaction, is today materialized through distopian model of massive militant games, network pornography and financialization of libido.

Nick Dyer Whiteford i Greg de Peuter propose models and present some possible artistic approaches that can accurately respond to challenges that digital capitalism and its basis in libidinal economies, are bringing.

Media representation is a process used not only for exchanging of specific meanings and values inside a culture, but also for generating them. My intention here was to found what kinds of woman representation models are supported in Serbian monthly magazines for women and to discuss relations between those representations, stereotypes, and actual questions about media ethics.

The analysis of content indicated that a beauty myth is a dominant axiology for content constitution in four analyzed magazines – Lepota i zdravlje, Joy, Beauty Expert and Top zdravlje. The content of these magazines suggests that women are most interested in topics about fashion, make-up, cosmetic treatments, beauty and carrier, and the role of beauty in relations with men. The representation of woman is not that much reduced on representational figures (housewife, mother, wife, model, super star) as it is on specific model of behavior primarily connected with woman’s body and engagement of all woman’s capabilities in reaching the specific beauty standards.

The must ’be pretty’ which these magazines impose on woman exists as an up-to-date version of the stereotype once characteristic for traditional, patriarchal society – men look and women look good. The function of woman is only aesthetic – she appears as the object of other’s enjoyment in her beauty. That way, the stereotype representation of woman as aesthetic object of man’s pleasure is confirmed. The readers of these magazines should be passive, inferior and incompetent to put forward any other skills except their beauty.

The nature of representations of woman in these four monthly magazines in fact exists as a consequence of putting into effect the consumerism strategies for consumption increase and profit acquiring by the cosmetic and fashion companies. The mechanic of market not only offers products for satisfying consumers’ needs. It also produces the consumers’ need for goods and necessity of this need as real providing the continuity of consumerism.

Their scope being direct and actually global, the ethic responsibility of media is huge, perhaps even far greater than that of other public institutions. Media comprehand reality and present it; this respects always rises a question to which extent they deconstruct that reality, and then in a way and in accordance with someone’s expectations represent the acquired image. The starting point of this essay is the assumption that the media ethics is a phenomenological form of the applied ethics. Following these tracks the author tends to underline the importance of democratic social milieu in pursue of high level of their ethic quality. A precondition of positive changes, at least partly, lies in the evolution of consciousness of political and economic powerful figures who have to change their relation towards mechanism of media functioning and its effects. However, a positive and stimulating ambience alone is not sufficient in pursue of this goal. Without an active participation of media workers, owners and media managers, professional associations and effective engagement of critical and pro-active public high quality, ethical and responsible media activity is impossible.

The article is conceived as a metatext that identifies stereotypes in the local commercials industry and interprets them as a possible reflection of the late capitalism ideology. The chosen commercial stereotypes I consider here as a symbolic representations, based on “active process of selection, presentation, structuring and shaping”. Understood as idea and value, ideology supports basic elements of one’s identity operating with stereotypes, which for their part “narrow, condense, simplify” these elements. The aim was to map concrete individual stereotypes, and in the same time investigate whether stereotypes in commercials are also collective themes, i.e. social processes. I tried to establish a theoretical platform for understanding intentions underlying potential creation of a social tissue, which will eventually suggest a more consistent and ethically more desirable representation.

This paper raises and analyses two theses. First has been put forward with the claim that it is essential to classify media, formally and institutionally, as educational systems. Second treats the contents of media ethics and argues that its continuing and sustainable improvement is to be carried out by continuous action ethics directed towads a particular educational programs for children and youth that categorize learning virtues and learning about virtues as a form of literacy. Strategic learning and informational postulate of action ethics we named Pragmatic Informational Neo-Platonism (PIN). In conclusion we argue that interdisciplinary and simultaneous instrumentalization of educational media and school systems with aim to develop virtues, create substantial and subsequently formal prerequisites that establish the circulation of summary of axiological processes leading to the structural changes in the nature of media and society.