Читать книгу The Ethical Journalist - Gene Foreman - Страница 33

Through the centuries, societies have passed down ethical precepts from one generation to the next. Over time, through a process called socialization, the new generation absorbs the values of the community. Louis A. Day identified four main conduits for transmitting values, in this chronological sequence: family, peer groups, role models, and societal institutions.

Think about how each group influenced you as you grew up. You should be aware, too, that the process continues throughout adulthood.

Consider the influence of family. When parents urge toddlers to share with their siblings or friends, they get their first exposure to the idea of considering the needs of others. Not all lessons learned in the home are positive, of course. Day points out that a parent who writes a phony excuse to a teacher saying that “Johnny was sick yesterday” signals to the child that lying is permissible, even though the parent would never state such a thing.

Next are peer groups. As children grow older, the values instilled in the home are exposed, for good or ill, to the influence of friends in the neighborhood and in school. There is a powerful urge to “go with the crowd.”

Then there are role models. They could be famous people, living or dead, such as athletes or musicians. Or they could be people one knows personally, such as teachers and ministers, or drug dealers. What these disparate individuals have in common is the fact that they occupy a prominent place in the minds of impressionable young people who want to emulate them.

The fourth source of influence is societal institutions. Drama, television, and the cinema transmit ethical standards – as well as standards that some would say are nonethical. When you graduate and go into the workforce, you will find that companies, too, are influential societal institutions. “Within each organization there is a moral culture, reflected both in written policies and the examples set by top management, that inspires the ethical behavior of the members,” Day wrote. ¹³

In the process of socialization, members of the new generation learn that benefits flow from living in a society in which people generally behave morally, meaning they treat each other civilly, they keep promises, they help a person in distress, and so on. These are moral duties that the young learn to embrace. They also become aware that there are consequences for violating the group culture. These consequences, depending on the seriousness of the violation, range from being snubbed to being criminally prosecuted.

Though they still have moral duties that other humans have, people in certain occupations are permitted to function by different standards in some respects. The rights of the individual prevail over the needs of the community in conversations between lawyer and client, doctor and patient, minister and parishioner. In making the exceptions, society recognizes that those conversations need to be extremely candid. Indeed, through “shield laws” adopted in nearly every state, journalists are given similar protection to keep secret their conversations with confidential sources. This protection, however, is far from absolute, and it does not exist in federal law.