that the gap between 'fact' and 'fiction' is not closing as much as our imaginations dare to suggest.
The main ethical questions to me are , 'why' (the intended message), 'how' (the appropriate medium used) and 'where' (the suitability of the audience) the topical subjects are portrayed.
Why: Often the actual meaning of a piece of entertainment can be misconstrued and especially when humour, pathos and even sarcasm are used the intent is lost by either generation, political and cultural viewpoints. For example , one of the clips we dicussed was the Alf Garnett character which, as explained by the creator and actor Warren Mitchell himself was meant to be a satire of such an extreme person. The shock came when the actor was often stopped in the street to be congratulated for the way his character behaved.
How: The medium itself also comes into play through the ethics debate. For example the written word i.e books and novels whilst admittedly under guidelines and ethics like other mediums do not seem to be at the focal point as much as the more modern technological areas of entertainment. Why is this so ? Generations ago novels such as D.H Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterly's Lover was published and subsequently banned due to the explicit content, a similar level of eroticity in books today are never given a second thought. Could this be due to changing standards of morality in society or, as I suspect, a wariness and fear of a relatively new artistic medium. When a new artistic medium becomes availabe to the masses fear seems to be generated in certain echelons of society, fear of people being provoked into a different, broader even revolutionary way of thinking.
Where: The suitability of the audience wether it be age,sex or race issues seems to be one of the biggest concerns where ethics and media meet. Of course there should be some common sense guidelines and legislation to follow for producers of media entertainment but in a world which is becoming increasingly smaller and culturally less separate, the boundaries of offending are becoming much less apparent, in other words no matter what is produced it will offend somebody somewhere.
The debate will go on concerning ethics, morality and media just as it always has with anything to do with the arts and availability to society but the question has to be constantly addressed as to what exactly it is we are afraid of seeing, reading, hearing.......................imagining!
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