The Media and Democracy study started in 2007, in an attempt to formulate a new terminology for the ethical discussion of the media. This is necessary in light of the changes in the way we think of the media and its role in society. The need for re-examination is particularly evident regarding one main vector of change: the shift from thinking of the media as a mediator to thinking of it as a public arena. The ethical discussion of the media is mostly mired in the perception of the media as mediator; however, the terminology typical to such discussion no longer reflects the role of the media today – that of an arena where many public events that are central to our lives take place.

A salient symptom of the need for a new terminology is reality TV – these programs have flourished over the last decade and changed the face of television and the way we think of television and mass media. For this reason, the study focuses on reality TV programs in order to study media at large.

Reality TV invites general re-examination of the media around two main themes. First of all, reality television crosses the long-standing border between documentation and entertainment. The mixing of these two areas marks one of the main ethical issues of our time: the constant bleeding of entertainment into serious media and the increasing sway the measure of rating holds over news and investigative journalism. Reality programs also highlight the different ways entertainment invades the serious media – ways that are not always obvious. For instance, the great interest of reality shows in deviance, perversion, and crime indicates that serious media coverage of these issues might be a disguised form of entertainment. One sharp ethical question arises from the possibility of extensive use of hidden cameras in investigative reports, within the context of entertainment.

Secondly, reality television is unique in the special nature of the reality it presents – televised reality that is inseparable from the presence of the camera and the screen. The concept of television reality indicates a need to consider the media as an arena of public activity, not merely a mediator. This change has significant implications for ethical thinking, since the traditional terminology in the ethical examination of the media is primarily predicated on thinking of the media as mediator. But it seems that today, the very role of the media as an arena of public activity presents the most difficult ethical questions. Channel 10’s investigation of pedophiles in December 2007 is a good example: the ethical problem arising from this investigation is not related to television’s role in relaying information but to the way in which television interacts with reality and acts upon it.

Additional plans for the project: