Browsing by Author "Eden Berhane"

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    The Utilitarian Dilemma: Ethical Challenges facing Journalism in the Era of Social Media
    (Addis Ababa University, 2024-09-01) Eden Berhane; Tenna Dewo (PhD)
    Social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, among others, emerged in the early 21st century due to technological advancements (Ceron, 2014). These digital platforms provided opportunities for individuals to meet virtually, post and browse contents, interact and communicate making it easy to bring the public together in a global village. Over time, such platforms have become the means in which news is transmitted and consumed and this has threatened the gatekeeping function of traditional media institutions and the professional field of journalism. Although various ethical frameworks can help us understand the ethical challenges posed to journalism. One such framework is utilitarianism, a moral philosophy rooted in maximizing overall happiness or utility. Jeremy Bentham and others classical utilitarianism philosophers, assume that any action is ‘right’ if its outcome is ‘happiness’ and ‘wrong’ if it increases ‘pain’. In this paper I argue this advancement of social media as information outlet has altered the traditional model of journalism, leading to a ethical challenge which can be described as “utilitarian ethical dilemma” where the demarcation between professional journalists and amateur content creators blur, and changing the relationship between journalists and audiences shifts from a hierarchical structure to a egalitarian interaction, challenging the established norms and ethics of journalism.