The Media and Its Responsibilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Media and Its Responsibilities - Essay Example The media has continued to crusade for rights of the minority, better healthcare, improved education standards, environmental conservation in ways that seek to improve the welfare of communities and groups. To this extent, the media remains a formidable force for positive social transformation for the present and future generations. On the negative side, the media has incurred criticisms from groups, individuals, and sections of the society for practices considered generally unethical or harmful to consumers (Ward, 2011). Claims of explicit content reaching children and individuals with sensibilities continue to affect the positive aspects of the media. Moreover, there are increasing concerns of unethical professional practices among journalists and media houses with calls of increased regulation coming from religious organizations and other facets of the society’s leadership. It is important to consider the fact that some of the criminal activities in the society have been blamed on the loose regulations of the media content particularly with regard to uncensored exposure of pornographic materials and violent media content (Ward, 2011). The negative aspects of the media have tended to increase with the increasing regulation of the airwaves and the growth of the information communication and technology i nfrastructure across the globe. Philosophically, a comprehensive analysis of the media and its responsibilities could incorporate the theories of utilitarianism, virtue ethics and deontology. Both the positive and the negative aspects of the media could be assessed in terms of the ethical underpinnings on which the various actions are based. According to the theory of deontology, people should adhere to their obligations and duties, whenever they make decisions and judgments that have the nature of a moral dilemma (Shafer-Landau, 2012; White, 2009). According to this theory, the moral rightness or wrongness of an action

A comparison of the environmental effects of using nuclear energy and Essay

A comparison of the environmental effects of using nuclear energy and coal energy - Essay Example A comparison of the environmental effects of using nuclear energy and coal energy Since the year 1974, there has been no new ground breaking for setting up new nuclear power plants although a number of nuclear reactor units have been constructed at these plants. However, there has recently been a revival of interest in nuclear energy and this new interest has largely been fostered by the Nuclear Power 2010 Program, which was established in the year 2000. There has been an increase in the number of nuclear reactors being constructed since 2010 in existing power plants, such as the one at Watts Bar, Tennessee. In spite of the resurgence of interest in nuclear energy, most of the projects, which have been set up for the construction of nuclear reactors have been recently cancelled. This is mainly due to the economic challenges that are currently gripping the nation as well as the negative reaction that came in the wake of the recent nuclear accidents in Japan. Officials in the nuclear industry state that they only expect about five new nuclear reactors to be working in the next eight years because of the hindrances, which have made most of their projects to stall. Since the beginning of its usage, there has been a lot of debate about the use of nuclear power in the United States and this has recently intensified due to talk of a coming renaissance in the use of nuclear energy (Terzo 1). Some of the most hotly debated issues concerning the use of nuclear energy have been matters concerning the public safety.