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Ethics examination of materials

Examining a message's content and form in light of the complete material and the circumstances of its presentation.

from RUB 45,000

Subject of examination

Examining a message's content and form in light of the complete material and the circumstances of its presentation.

  • The complete text and publication
  • Visual and audio elements
  • Context and addressee

Examination questions

  • Which ethically significant ideas are expressed in the material?
  • How does an individual passage relate to the whole?
  • Which features may support an interpretation?

The suggested wording is a starting point. Before agreeing the task, establish which objects are available, which features can be examined and the result format needed. An excessively broad question is better divided into several verifiable tasks.

What to prepare

  • The complete material and its source
  • Date and circumstances of dissemination
  • Specific questions and disputed passages

Scope and limitations

Examination is not reduced to personal approval or disapproval. Legal classification, guilt and every reader's actual reaction cannot be established through analysis of the material alone.

Missing materials should be identified in advance. If they are insufficient, this may change the scope, require additional objects or prevent an answer. A disputing party's assumption is not itself a specialist examination result.

Before work begins

The subject, questions, object access, personnel, result format, timing and cost are agreed separately. Before work starts, you receive the agreed question list, cost and timeframe.

Prepare draft questions

The basis for assessing a message's ethical aspect

Before assessing an individual statement, define the basis for comparison. One enquiry may concern a professional code, another an organisation's stated communication rules, and a third how a participant in a public debate is portrayed. These bases require different materials and must not silently substitute for one another.

If the question mentions a code or regulation, attach its full text and information about the version in effect during the period concerned. Separately explain why the document is relevant to the situation analysed. The word 'ethics' in a document's title does not yet explain which roles and circumstances it applies to.

Three parts of an examination question

  1. Material: which publication, remark or sequence of messages is being considered.
  2. Context: who is addressed, in what role communication takes place and which preceding circumstances are supplied.
  3. Criterion: which ethically significant relationship, principle or form of reasoning needs examination.

Such a formulation can be checked against the material itself: which words and visual elements present the position, how participants are identified and which grounds for assessment are named. It separates description of a message from a general judgement about a person's character.

If participants use different criteria, show this in the assignment. Professional propriety, the acceptability of criticising a decision and assessment of distress caused, for example, are different questions. Joining them in the broad question 'is this person ethical?' is insufficient for a substantive examination of a particular publication.

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