Popularity vs Ethics: Mutually Exclusive Ideals for the Media?

Abstract

Across the ages, the media has evolved to become a critical tool of mass communication through its focal objectives of information, entertainment and education. With globalisation and the mixing of diverse cultures came the challenge of ethics. This arose from the fact that what is right for one culture might be wrong for another. This necessitated the need to take a second view on ethics in relation to popularity and see how these two concepts can intertwine in promoting a healthy media ecosystem. Leveraging an exploratory approach and relying on a critical review of relevant literature as well as narrative analysis of observation of contents of the Big Brother reality TV show, the study concludes that the media should be aware of its impact on the lives of its audience and make its content as humanly positive and uplifting as possible. The paper further posits that an ethical and morally upright media will cultivate a conscious and knowledgeable audience/consumer group. Finally, the study confirms that social responsibility is central to cultivating an engaging and active audience, and when the media perform their functions in a way that respects and upholds the dignity of the audience, media consumers will better understand themselves and the society they live in, and they will, in turn, appreciate the media more.