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ETHICS AND PROGRAMMING.
CASE STUDY. B.4. (a and b) (a) YOU ARE THE PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
Your station runs a very popular album-oriented rock (AOR) programme. The two presenters have a tendency to play a particular heavy metal group. Recently in America, this group has been sued by a Parents Association for allegedly encouraging suicide among young males thorough subliminal messages on their C.D.'s. Hearing about this in the media, a local group threaten to picket your station and boycott your advertisers if you continue to play this group. Your two presenters, who have been loyal volunteers, threaten to leave if you succumb to these threats to the right to communicate. The last straw comes when a big sponsor phones to say that he has become aware of this issue and suggests that you should dump this programme. The presenters in turn threaten to take their case to the licensing authority on the grounds that to drop their programme would be in breach of the stations obligation to offer a diversity of programmes. Which group do you side with in this dilemma, or is there a 'golden mean'? NB. While finding an acceptable balance is important, it is more important for the participants in this case study to reflect on the 'values' they have brought to bear on solving this dilemma. To observe how they arrived at their decision and to consider from where they got these values.
(b) YOU ARE THE PROGRAMMING COMMITTEE
You have been running a series of 'development 'programmes around human rights issues, in which the team of presenters tend to adopt a left wing, anti-American stance. Some of the other volunteers announce at a station meeting that this rhetoric is getting the station a bad name and should cease. There is no objection to human rights abuses around the world being aired, but too much is a programming 'downer' and it is wrong to blame the Americans for these abuses. The presenters of the programme assert that there is good evidence of American influence in many of these cases. That the station cannot only be about 'entertainment' if it is to have any relevance and they won't tone down their style of presentation. Which group do you side with in this situation, or is there a 'golden mean'? NB. While finding an acceptable balance is important, it is more important for the participants in this case study to reflect on the 'values' they have brought to bear on solving this dilemma. To observe how they arrived at their decision and to consider from where they got these values. |
