Data Mining, ethical or unethical?

So I got to be discussion leader this week in class...Woo Hoo! It was super fun and I'm actually quite happy that it is over.

With in regard to both the Target article that I read & the article from the Boston Globe, selling data about someone and they don't know is unethical. I can fully understand sites like Amazon sending out weekly emails with subject lines reading "Because you bought this, you might like these..." but now places are using it to send you things that you don't even consider buying. Within regards to Target sending out baby product coupons to young teens, I can understand why people would consider that to be unethical, especially if your teen is not pregnant. But isn't it a parents job to discuss sex and the consequences to their teen? Shouldn't parents educate their young teens on how unprotected sex can cause problems? If Target had a way to send coupons to people by age and gender, this would be wiser and easier.

Targeted marketing happens every day, we are just so desensitized to it that it doesn't appear to us with an affect anymore.  How many times have we gone to the grocery store and had coupons printed out at the register for a product that we've never used before? I know from past experience that a coupon printed out for my 19 year old brother for condoms. Marketing happens on a daily basis, and like we talked about in class, sex sells.

I don't really think the Target manager had an ethical obligation to the customer, but then again, it depends on some things. Did this Target manager have a child? Would he have been upset if his teen daughter got ads from other stores for baby products? Was the Target manager offended by this? However, the manager couldn't have done anything about it since it was the company he worked for. Companies usually have guidelines for customer service, especially this kind of customer service. The manager had to really just apologize and go to his superiors about what to do. However, the father was right by apologizing when he found out that it was his mistake and that he knew his daughter was pregnant. That was the right thing to do, both ethically and morally.

Target mixing up their coupon ads is still targeted marketing. I got a coupon book from Target a few weeks ago and now it's put by section, Mom, Dad, Daughter, Son, Pets, etc. It's still targeting certain people of the home. Of course, this also happened a lot when I was younger. Toys R Us used to send out their big toy catalog every year. This was fun and exciting but it was always by section, Girls Toys, Boys Toys, Teen Toys...You would never see a Barbie on the same page of a Hot Wheels car. Gender roles also play into marketing as well since society thinks girls should act differently from boys.

In the PRSA Code of Ethics, The Disclosure of Information struck me for this news story. Granted, the father didn't know at first that his daughter was pregnant, but when he apologized when Target called him, he disclosed that his daughter was pregnant. Would this make Target send her more coupons related to her pregnancy? Any data that anyone discloses is usually put into some sort of date base, as proved by the Boston Globe article.

Ethical perspectives for this story are hard to come up with and discuss. Kant's Categorical Imperative is the first thing that comes to my mind. Kant focuses on the action and if the action is considered ethical. Is Target being ethical by sending out baby coupons? Well, did they know that the girl was under the age of 18? It's hard to tell. Communitarism would be another ethical tool to solve this issue. Communitarism is when the community interest tramps individual interest and brings social justice. Would not shipping out coupons to people under 18 hurt Target in the community? In my opinion, Target is so widely known and popular with so many age groups that I don't think it would hurt them at all. Aristotle's Golden Mean would work best for me in this situation though. Is Target trying to be the best they can be? Yes, Target is trying to use marketing to help their customers save money, but not ethically. They are trying to sell items to people who may not use it or may not feel that those coupons may be needed.

Looking at this story from a privacy point of view is important though. Since this girl is considered a teen, why would she be getting coupons for baby products anyway? In chapter 10 of our book for class, Newton explains that he believes privacy needs to be redefined to say "Privacy is the right of an individual to keep thoughts and information to him or herself". Did this young girl need to tell her father that she was pregnant? Since teen pregnancy can be a controversial issue, was this young girl trying to protect her privacy? The sad thing about this is that stores and media live and thrive by invading people's privacy and taking that away from them.

Personal story here about when I worked in a grocery store. When I worked at the A&P for a little while, we would hand out coupons. These coupons would print from the register at the end of a customers order for use on their next shopping trip. My brother is now 19 and he came in to buy razors, but instead he was printed a coupon for condoms. Would it be ethical to give someone under the age of 18 a coupon for condoms? Would it even be ethical to consider selling condoms to someone under the age of 18? How do we prevent these issues?

Ethical Secrets & Private Information

First off, let me say, I really hate snow & winter and cold in general. My ethics class was cancelled this week because winter storm Janus dumped 12 inches of snow on us and right now, it's -10 outside!!

In my future career, hopefully on E! or Access Hollywood, the ethical secrets that would probably come across would be small things like a celebrity baby gender or how a star is doing after plastic surgery. I don't really see why those things matter, but in the world of celebrity news, it's all about who gets the exclusive interview or who gets the story out first. However, I wouldn't consider it to be hard news, and is it really all that life changing for the public to know if Jennifer Aniston is going to be having a baby boy or baby girl?

However, in the field of celebrity gossip, I think the biggest story was Michael Jackson's death. Dr. Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter of Jackson for not properly monitoring the dose of propofol he had given hours before he died. Was that ethical? No, but it took months for the investigation to find out about Dr. Murray's actions. Should the way that Michael Jackson was killed been kept a secret?

One of the reasons in my opinion as to why it should have been kept secret is because of just how many people want to see Conrad Murray dead. While I agree that losing the King of Pop was a huge loss to the music and entertainment industry, I don't think it is right to have the man who killed him executed. This again, takes us back to morals and values. Ethically, his doctor should have kept things like the nightly injections of propofol confidential.

I feel that the best method to solving this kind of an issue would be through the use of Bok. Bok faces three questions, number one being, what is the gut reaction? My gut reaction to Michael Jackson's death was shock, while many others were outraged, surprised, upset, even angry. Secondly, is there another option? News was going to spread eventually that Michael Jackson was killed, but the timing was a huge factor. Entertainment news outlets were on the scene of his house not even 20 minutes after the phone call went to dispatch for an ambulance. Thirdly, how will the public react? The public reaction to the death of Michael Jackson was all over the place. Many people were crowded outside the hospital waiting on the verdict of wether the King of Pop was dead or not. Days after, people were shaken up and still not handling the stress of it all. The biggest factor in this story though, is how did the children handle it? Was this the right way to report that something had happened to someone's father, son, brother? The final step in Bok's process is to look at the best choice from the outcomes and to go with that, but is there really a best choice here?

Another route that one could go with this story would be Mill's Valuation Hedonism. Mill's Valuation Hedonism is, in basic terms, what outcome will give the most pleasure or least pain? Dr. Murray was sentenced to four years in prison, but got out only after two years due to jail overcrowding. This brings up another ethical issue. Why do celebrities seem to always get off the hook easier than your average person? Paris Hilton served a small amount of her time as well. Why do we allow people who make obscene amounts of money and who are in the public eye get off from crimes that are not acceptable if you or I were to commit one?

Aristotle's Golden Mean makes the most sense in this ethical case. Aristotle focuses on happiness being the ultimate good and picking the middle of two extremes. Aristotle focuses on the actor and wants to know if the person is being the best they can be. Was Dr. Murray only just doing his job or were there outside sources that wanted to kill Michael Jackson? Of course, we have no idea.

I think criteria wise, I would try to decide if the information goes for or against all six of the competing values, transparency, justice, harm, autonomy, privacy, and community. The biggest issue in this case is privacy. Were there moments that Michael Jackson and Dr. Murray had that they didn't get along? Were there those behind the scenes incidents where Dr. Murray had something against Michael Jackson? Did Michael Jackson want to die? These are all questions that right now are unanswered, but they are in fact ethical issues. The way that information comes out these days, especially in tragic events, becomes spewed at us for no reason other than that news outlet wants to be the first outlet to break the story. Think about this, when Michael Jackson died, many news outlets were reporting that it was suicide, someone had killed him, he died of natural causes, he was sick...nobody knew the truth. What needs to happen is the media should only report on what they know to be the truth and only the truth.

As a media professional, I think getting entangled in secrets is just inescapable. The media will always have someone who gives them information and then decides that they want it to be off the record or not spoken about. As a media professional though, sometimes secrets have to come out for the good of the story. It's like the things that our parents told us when we were younger. If someone you know tells you that they are hurting themselves or someone is hurting them and you promise not to tell, you should anyway. It's for the better for them, and they might not thank you for it right away, but someday they will. The same theory should be applied to secrets in the media.

Codes of Ethics, Helpful or Harmful?

So in class this week, I got to learn about philosophical ethics theories. Sounds boring, right? Well, they are actually really simple to understand! I can relate to all of the theorists points of view and understand why they think the way that they do. Who would have thought?

For my dream job, I want to be a reporter with E! News, which in a round about way, I would consider that to be a journalist. So using the Society of Professional Journalism Code of Ethics, or the SPJ, I will be discussing a case study from Chapter 8 in Media Ethics, Issues & Cases by Phillip Patterson and Lee Wilkins.

To summarize this really quick, for those of you who want to know about the case study, this is a case study about using graphic footage in news casts. For this example, the news outlet was waiting for a kidnapper to be escorted by sherifs from his flight in the Baton Rouge Airport. Things went routinely until a man turned from a bank of telephones and shot the alleged kidnapper. The man was later identified as the father of the boy who was kidnapped. The issue behind this case though, is should that video have been showed on the news? Was it too graphic?

Personally, the media puts a lot of violent stuff on the news these days, but I would rather know fully what is going on in a situation than have no idea just how horrible of an event that we are looking at. For instance, when the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School happened, nobody knew anything. The news outlets were reporting that there was more than one gunman and that they didn't know anything about survivors. It wasn't until much later that evening that we found out that Adam Lanza acted alone.

In this case study, being evaluated by the SPJ Code of Ethics, minimizing harm is one of their biggest ethical standards. The SPJ Code of Ethics says that to minimize harm, a journalist should be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief. How does this relate to this case study? Well, what if the family of the boy who was kidnapped had no idea that the shooter was planning this attack? They know now from the media running this story with the video clip of the shot and the victim dying that this person is the killer.  On the opposite end though, what about the family of the victim? They were expecting him to be coming home to stand trial for what he did, but now they will be planning a funeral instead. However, the morality of the issue is the justification of why the shooter did what he did. Was his son kidnapped? Yes, but does that make it okay to kill?

This Code of Ethics is not helpful when studying this case because it mainly focuses on non-emergency situations. In my opinion, this case study is an emergency situation. I feel that any shooting should be considered an emergency situation, especially these days with how it happens almost every day. However, one of the issues or questions from the case study is the question of even if there is a disclaimer for graphic video, is it ethical to use it? I don't really know how I feel about this, but if it was a big enough incident where mass amounts of people were affected, I guess I could understand the use then.

When thinking about this case study, the ethical perspective of relativism comes through. Relativism is a rule that can be broken or applied in different cases. Relativism is context based. Based off the context of this story, if I were the one in charge of this, I would have found a different story to use, rather than show violent and graphic content as depicted in this story. I feel that the most ethical way to solve this would be based off of Mill's Utility Principle. Mill's focuses on the outcome, where the best outcome would be the ethical decision. I also feel that Bok's Ethical Decision-Making principle would work well for this study too. Bok uses 3 steps, 1 being how does the person feel and their gut reaction? 2 being, trying to find a different option? 3 being, how will the public react? After going through the 3 steps, picking the best outcome is the choice, ethically, that you would use. I think that the SPJ needs to think about how the public will feel when they find out about a particular event or issue.

In this particular case, I feel that Mill's Utility Principle would be the best outcome. How will this affect what we are doing? Will this affect our credibility? Will this affect our future newscasts? If more people thought like Mill's, I feel that our world would be a better place.

Morals & Respect

I'm really confused because in my house, it seems like our morals and values are all over the place....Before starting at Sacred Heart, I was working 4 part time jobs, just to barely be able to make ends meet for myself. I knew things had to change when I started getting behind on bills, school loans, and barely had time for myself. So the search for graduate school begun, but it took a lot of convincing on my parents part to even begin to let them think that graduate school was the right decision. Morals and respect people, morals and respect.

So first of all, I feel like my family has set unattainable goals for me...For example, this weekend, I came home to babysit so my parents could go on a cruise with some friends who have younger children. I did that because I know how much my family needs to get out and do things. They come back and I get told immediately of all the things that I didn't do, and we aren't just talking one thing here...I didn't do the laundry, the dogs weren't let out, the animals weren't fed, the house wasn't vacuumed...but the thing is, I WASN'T HOME!

However, my younger brother gets let off the hook more than anyone else. Megan works 4 jobs, but Daniel works 0 and somehow he gets treated with far more respect than myself. I mean, far more. They look at me and it's like I don't do enough so that I do more and more and more and more and finally feel stressed enough to have just an ounce of respect. I don't understand why?

What does someone have to do to gain some respect when they are the oldest? I'm so well behaved, I don't party, I don't do drugs, I don't drink (even if it is legal) and I'm not out all night with my friends. So why treat the one who does all those things differently? I mean, hello, I finished college and he didn't, I'm in a freaking masters program for Gods sake. Where is the respect? I feel like it never ends.

Do you say something? I've tried and they just tell me to grow up and stop acting like a baby. Well, I don't know how that is possible when all I ever do is get treated like a piece of dirt and I'm not trusted or viewed as an adult. Does anyone else out there deal with this problem? Does it drive you crazy? Comment and let me know...I really hope nobody else struggles with this, but just know that you aren't alone! I know it feels like I'm complaining but sometimes this blog will become about personal issues and how to solve them.

Let's Talk About Me

Thanks for coming to my blog, fellow Hollywood lovers!

I thought I would take a minute to introduce myself & talk a little bit about my blog.

My name is Megan Roche and I am currently a graduate student at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. My life has constantly and always will revolve around celebrities. I am an addict to award shows, doesn't matter which, but I love watching them. One day, I hope to win the People's Choice Award for Favorite Humanitarian. I care about many different charities and I am a very giving person. I enjoy living the life I do because I work so hard to be where I am. During my undergraduate studies at Mitchell College in New London, CT, I was heavily involved in the radio field, working on both my college station and doing internships at radio stations, both private and corporate. I love radio, but TV is where my heart is.

I'm a reality TV show addict, but I am a massive fan of Scandal and I'm a little too obsessed with Candy Crush Saga. On a daily basis I check my Facebook page a little too often, and I live by inspirational quotes and sayings. BUT I am me, and I love it that way. Currently, I am working toward an internship in California for 8 weeks...that would be a huge dream come true. I would love a chance to work for Ryan Seacrest or E! News.

This blog has been created as part of my course work for CM 503, Media Ethics in a Professional Context, Dr. Lori Bindig. I will be writing throughout the next 8 weeks about mostly ethical problems in the field of communication and how they affect those around us. If there is a specific issue that you want me to discuss or a specific dilemma that you are facing, let me solve it! I consider myself to be just like Olivia Pope from ABC's Scandal, a fixer.

Feel free to leave comments & follow me on twitter @MARMC2013 where you'll find some of my craziest thoughts!

Ethical Dilemma, no right or wrong answer!

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACCESS. In the media profession that I want to be in, which as corny as it sounds, is a combination of Giuliana Rancic, Billy Bush, Meredith Viera, Ryan Seacrest, Perez Hilton, and a writer for People Magazine, I know I will face a lot of ethical issues. My life has always been about Hollywood. I have always been attracted to the limelight and the flashes of paparazzi cameras. I want to be the next "it" girl, and believe me, with the time and dedication I put into everything, I know it's going to happen.

In the media, a lot of the focus right now is on teenage girls (and boys!) who deal with the struggle that is body harm or body issues. This is especially true with airbrushing, as well as young girls dealing with the affects of body distortion, just to be like their favorite actress. This is a worldwide issue. The way the media portrays girls in commercials or television that are this version of skinny, shows them having fun, finding boys, going to the coolest parties, finding themselves their dream jobs, so in turn, young girls (and boys!) think that if they become that skinny or find their way to an eating disorder or finding out a new diet, that they can become those girls who get everything that they have ever wanted out of life. 

Let's discuss one of my favorite movies, Mean Girls, (which I'm sure everyone my age can recite word for word), in Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan's two friends in the film are trying to crack the bitch in the school to show her that she isn't perfect. In the middle of the film, the girls or "The Plastics" go to the mall so Regina can show them the dress she has picked out for the Spring Fling. She goes to a store called 1, 3, 5. Naturally, since Lindsay Lohan's character has been feeding her Caltene bars, which help a person gain weight. Regina is under the impression that these bars help lose weight. Regina's friend Karen asks the sales woman if they have it in the next size up, to which she responds, "Sorry, we only carry sizes 1, 3 and 5."

What you should know about me, is granted, I am a Paula Abdul FREAK. I love everything that she does and everything she stands for. I've been lucky enough to meet her tons of different times, and it's all because I wanted to personally thank her for everything she has taught me. She has taught me to love myself and nobody else can take away my happiness, but most importantly, to always always always think positively. The thing about it though? She suffered through the media too. Yes, she has suffered with drinking and drug allegations, sleeping with contestants from American Idol, and also being accused of not singing on her records, but the hardest thing?  She is a victim of Bulimia. Bulimia is an ever popular growing eating disorder but it isn't just physical harm, it's psychological as well. In all honesty, any eating disorder is emotionally and physically draining. I would know, because I am personally a survivor of an eating disorder.

So, what has the media done to shed light on the issue of body image? Well in 2004, Dove launched the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. This campaign was introduced to show girls that being a little bigger or a little smaller is OKAY. You can still get everything you want out of life, because you are YOU and that is what ultimately matters. Dove did a study in 2011 with 1200 girls ages 10-17 where 72% said they felt tremendous pressure to be beautiful, but only 11% of girls around the world feel comfortable using the word "beautiful" to describe their looks (from A Bold New Vision: The Dove Movement for Self-Esteem).

This is one of the most popular photos from the Dove Campaign.

These women were put on billboards across the world in hopes that young girls

would find themselves beautiful. 

Has the media gone to far when the topic of body image comes up? Of course it has. The media effects so many people, both young and old. Am I going to face this? Absolutely. The pressure to be that perfect size 0 is clearly evident in California. Personal story time!! I went to California this summer and went to Dash (Yes, I love the Kardashians!) and I fell in love with a shirt that I found, naturally I look for my size, and I can't find it. My first thought was, "Okay, it must be out of stock", so I asked the cashier if they had it on order or if it was scheduled to come in. I was told they don't make their clothes in a size large because it sends the wrong message. Of course, I am offended, but I left the store. 

Since this is my first crack at Media Ethics, I don't really think I have any tools to solve ethical dilemmas, except my personal experience. I know that it hurts to be called fat or ugly or to go clothes shopping and have to buy in the double digits. I'm wired the way I am and I'm one person who hates making fun of others. I have never stood for it and have been a victim of it for most of my life. I'm hoping that in this ethics class, I will learn about the different ways to handle ethical issues and how to deal with media attention while doing it.