Media ethics and infectious disease

Abstract

The traditional mass media is a necessary safeguard of human security, yet it can also threaten that security. The mass media has been a primary mode of disseminating information and encouraging debate and critique on important social and political issues. It has and does thus possess the potential to encourage public participation in decisionmaking and to encourage civic values such as personal responsibility, law-abiding behaviour and generosity (Hodgetts et al. 2007, Keane 1991). In a time of crisis, such as an outbreak of infectious disease, it offers unparalleled capacity to communicate with the broad span of highly differentiated publics and to swiftly disseminate information and directions critical to reducing harm or resolving the crisis. Yet the mass media as it currently exists can also perpetuate half truths, negative stereotypes and simplistic thinking. It is guilty of major omissions on such a broad scale as to render public and policy responses deeply incapacitated when it comes to confronting complex social problems (Downing et al. 2004, Chomsky and Herman 1988, Curran and Seaton 2009). In worst-case scenarios, especially where the mass media is closely tied to a particular set of political interests, this may profoundly threaten human security