"More is better" in the teaching of media ethics. Few mass media and journalism professors would disagree with this proposition, at least in the abstract. It becomes more problematic, however, when we get down to brass tacks-the difficulty of squeezing a few more lectures and readings into the already-crowded syllabus of a reporting or mass communication course. The proposition gets even dicier when I suggest that "more ethics" also means a heavier dose of historical philosophers. Students are pragmatic, and what does Aristotle have to do anyway with getting that first job in journalism, public relations, or marketing?

This critical essay will not show you how to provide an extra week for ethics in your semester schedule. Instead, it will suggest that ethical philosophy can play a role in most weeks of your semester. And it will offer what I think are some compelling reasons for your students to immerse themselves in ethical philosophy.

I hope you have your own clear understanding of ethical philosophy. However, a particular notion of ethical philosophy and its implications is critical to my arguments. Ethics is here construed as virtuous behavior and as a component of the larger notion of what constitutes a good life. At least since the Socratic dialogue The Meno, the definition of virtue has been a persistent question in western philosophy; so too has the question of what constitutes a life well-lived. Aristotle, for example, begins "The Nicomachean Ethics" with an analysis of human happiness, which he suggests should be the aim of virtuous behavior.

This is not to say that traditional western philosophy and "dead white males" such as Socrates, Aristotle, and their heirs are the only sources of ethical wisdom. But their thinking on ethics and the nature of the individual is a powerful application of reason to questions about our lives, our actions, and our purposes. Socrates and Aristotle placed virtue and other fundamental human questions at the forefront of their thinking, and they used a form of inquiry that attacked "received knowledge," assumptions, and prejudices with rationality.

Most journalism and mass communication professors whom I know take, directly or indirectly, a humanistic approach to their teaching and scholarship; they address the media's potential to serve-or undermine-human values and fulfillment. And they attempt to do so in a rational, systematic manner. Even if the immediate goal is to train inquisitive reporters or persuasive publicists, thoughtful academics understand how these skills can fit within a larger, altruistic framework, i.e., the watchdog role of the press or the marketplace of ideas. Such frameworks, in turn, serve notions of human fulfillment such as political participation, individual freedom, or intellectual engagement.

Continued...

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