After reading the five ethical guidelines in the book Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasons 9th Edition, I was really caught on the third guideline involving Mill's Principle of Utility. John Stuart Mill was a 17th Century British philosopher who said, "Humans should seek the greatest happiness for the aggregate whole." This concept is known as utilitarianism and has two different types: act and principle. Act utilitarianism involoves asking the basic question of what the greatest good could be in a specific case. Principle utilitarianism, the one that Mill's follows, focuses more on the greatest general welfare.
In a recent article in the TCU Daily Skiff, a female TCU student made the front page of the newspaper. The reason for making the paper was that she was charged with a DWI after striking a tree on the university's campus. Not only was half of the front page devoted to this story, but her name was released in the article along with a mugshot on the paper's website "TCU 360."
Was the Skiff right in posting this article? Well yes and no. The Skiff was right to report the accident since it did occur on campus but there was no need to release the name of the student who was involved. Journailists always have the duty to report the news to the public but in some cases, just like this one, some journalists take it past the ethical limits. What greater good was served after releasing both the name and the mugshot of this student? I think Mill's would agree that nothing good became of this with regards to the greater good.
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