THE MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS

Running head: MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS
Media Law and Ethics
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1MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS
Abstract
Ethical and legal practices in media has been the source of much debate. Media houses has
been accused of endorsing unlawful and unethical practices in order to serve their own
financial interests. There have been numerous accounts of fake news and violation of
intellectual property when it comes to media discourse and presently, since the election of
2016 in America, the issue of fake news and censorship of media through regulations have
become a common exercise. While the financial interests of the media houses cannot be
rejected, it is also important to note that media channels have worked as the machinery to
promote free speech and expression and fair use of intellectual properties. The history of
development of media shows that in one form or another, the influence of media has
increased gradually and presently, media influences and shapes the opinion and buying
decisions of present generations. In this essay, it is argued that due to the digitalization and
internet use, the influence of media has increased gradually, reaching its zenith with the
influence of social media on the lives of people and world scenarios. Due to the increasing
influence of social media, the need for ethical and legal compliance has been propagated by
many politicians. It is understandable here that their interest may lie to the censorship of
content that clashes with their personal political interest and thus, imposing more regulations
on media, especially journalism is likely to stifle the voice of free expression and criticism.
The study concludes that the increasing violence on journalisms show that journalists need
more freedom and power to survive in the profession. It is also suggested that the practice of
journalism or any other form of media should be guided by the basic ethical and legal
standards without violating the free expression.
Keywords: media- journalism- free and fair use- intellectual property- law- ethics- politics-
censorship.

2MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS
The media has been one of the most influential and popular factor of the modern
society, politics and change. The first use of media started with the intention of circulation of
information, a noble approach which led to the renaissance (Bertrand, 2018). The book was
Bible and the attempt led to print revolution which can be attributed as the root of all media.
In the beginning, the focus of media was to inform people about recent affairs and
entertainment. In the past twenty years that has changed significantly. The use of media has
been different through the generations (Twenge, Martin & Spitzberg, 2019). The earlier
generations like the baby boomers or the generation x had limited access to media and media
till then had influence over people. People followed the news, stayed updated, followed
fashion of the actors. Before millennia, the popular media were television, newspaper,
advertisements and radio.
With the introduction of television and cable system, there was a huge transformation
in the digital media. Television started to reach more people and channels showing programs
all over the world changed people’s perspective (Luo, 2017). People started to become more
informed about the world affairs as they could see live feed of various incidents. The post
millennial era saw the emergence of social media and the influence of media increased ten-
fold. Evidently, media earlier was mainly for informative and entertainment purpose while
media now has become an inseparable part of the present generation. This surely begs the
question as to how powerful really the media is and whether there should be regulations to
control the power and influence that the media has developed.
The changes in media use, consumption and usage history can be traced back to the
growth of internet (Espinoza, Cevallos & Tusev, 2017). With the advent of the internet age,
the media usage changed completely. New media platforms like YouTube, Netflix and social
media platforms started to influence people. The major shift that came with it was that media
by then had become so influential that they were controlling the lives and choices of the