A Religious Approach to Media Ethics (with a Focus on the National Television)

With an axiological and normative approach, all voluntary and volitional actions of human beings are governed, with no exceptions, by ethical rules and norms and, thus, quite inevitably, they will be consistent with one of the dual types of affirmative or negative obligations (the “Dos” and “Don’ts” of the practical intellect) or the third type (the neutral pole, which is void of any kind of normative obligation based on the triple-poles logic). Moreover, the Mass media, as one of the vast domains of human communications with the mediation of media technologies, and due to the prominence of its position, its functional significance and sensitivity, the scope and the depth of its influence, the diversity of its products, the diversity and abundance of its audience, and its pivotal role in reviewing, reproducing, editing and promoting the culture, in addition to the inevitable acceptance of this universal principle, is bound, more than any other area, to a mandatory or optional conformance with the axiological rules, moral instructions, and justifiable patterns of behavior which enjoy theoretical and cultural support. The present paper seeks to educe and present the general normative preferences and obligations and the guiding ethical dos and don’ts of the mass media with a religious approach and with the purpose of providing one of the professional requirements of a religious media or one with a religious mission and function.