Drawing on known ethical theories assesses the BBC’s decision to broadcast Jerry Springer: The Opera in 2005.
This essay will discuss whether the BBC’s decision to broadcast the scandalous musical ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ came from a beneficial moral standpoint. It will inform basic information about the show itself, reveal complaint numbers, discuss the issue of freedom of expression again causing offence and then apply Kantianism and Utilitarianism theories to the situation. and discuss which theory provided the most helpful guidance in making that decision.
Background
In February 2005, the BBC made a controversial decision to broadcast the most outrageous musical to date, ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’. The musical was based on the American tabloid talk show whereby everyday people were welcomed to a stage and were confronted by a member of family consulting adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, drug use or other controversial situations. Reactions were often promoted by scripted shouting or violence on stage. The show received substantial ratings and a lot of attention and had 6.7 million viewers by 1998. The musical was written by British musician and comedy actor Richard Thomas and English stand-up
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Is a theory built on two main characters: Happiness and Consequentialism? Jeremy Bentham created Act Utilitarianism and the hypothesis behind his theories was that we as humans are all controlled by pain and pleasure. ‘The right thing to do is to maximise utility’. He used a utility calculus which was a quantitative approach discussing intensity/ duration/certainty/ extent/ remoteness/ richness/ and purity. This theory didn’t consider quality or different life experiences so Stuart John Mill then developed rule-Utilitarianism. He humanised utilitarianism and by universalising any rule so that experience could be
Nye, Howard. PHIL 250 B1, Winter Term 2014 Lecture Notes – Ethics. University of Alberta.
When asked "What is the trashiest show on television?" I wouldn't doubt that the majority of the population would agree that it was The Jerry Springer Show. The show deals with people and there issues in the way like many other self-help shows do, for example Oprah or Dr. Phil, but the issues that are dealt with are quite different. Although one may argue that the people on The Jerry Springer Show are simply freaks, a sociologist would say that the issues on the show are dysfunctions of society and this show is an outlet for them to show off their abnormality. We must first understand the life of Jerry Springer to analyze his role on the show. Without a doubt, the show affects the morals and norms of society along with our perception of class, gender, and sexuality. Another important aspect is the role of the audience on the show and how that effects the roles of the guests.
As we approach the darker realms of talk shows, we come to talk shows such as the Jerry Springer show. At first impression, one may get the inherent idea that the show is basically is exploiting the misery and troubles of real life people who do not live the blessed lives that we imagine up in our ideal minds. There is no doubt to me at all that the main aim of such shows is to exploit the lives of these misfits and the more dirt the producers get, the higher their ratings. But unfortunately, it is ironic that when the decrease in society's morals is highlighted in every episode Springer airs the producers are getting richer. Looking deeper at the show, we can safely say that the show is based mainly on relationships between people. Morality is first pu...
Albert Einstein one said, "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."(Quotations,162) There is some truth to what he said in relation to Natural Law Theory. It would seem that Natural Law is based at least in part on common sense. This essay will attempt to discredit the Theory of Natural Law on these grounds, as well as proving that it is inapplicable when judging the ethical value of homosexuality, and discrediting homosexuality as a "perversion." Act utilitarianism depicts the argument more clearly, because there are certain semantic inconsistencies with Kantian ethical Theory that will be discussed further on.
The topic that covers this essay:: is it morally permissible to torture an innocent child to stop a nuclear threat. I shall defend by stating that it is morally permissible to torture an innocent child by arguing, first, that by torturing a child one can save millions of lives, and secondly that if we torture the child we will be just harming him, not killing him. First I will depict the three approaches to morality presented in this course (Utilitarianism, Virtue Ethics and Kant’s). Then I’ll present my own stand and try to support my reasoning with the three moral approaches if possible. Then I’ll continue with a counter argument followed by a conclusion.
Nineteenth century British philosophers, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill sum up their theory of Utilitarianism, or the “principle of utility,” which is defined as, “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Munson, 2012, p. 863). This theory’s main focus is to observe the consequences of an action(s), rather than the action itself. The utility, or usef...
Johnannesen, R. L. (1990). Ethics in human communication (3rd ed.) Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Cahn, Steven M. and Peter Markie, Ethics: History, Theory and Contemporary Issues. 4th Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
This new form of infotainment led to the development of Tabloid television shows. These shows, also known as "Trash TV", have more entertainment than news. Thought there is a difference between good and bad trash. With shows like Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo Rivera, and Jerry Springer that in many cases exploi...
Bentham realised that because this theory is based on the outcome of our actions it may be difficult to assess fairly which action will produce the most happiness. He therefore developed the ‘hedonistic calculus’, a form of calculating the happiness resulting from an act by assessing 7 different factors of the pleasure produced such as intensity and duration. In doing this Bentham was attempting to create some sort of ...
Ethics can be defined as "the conscious reflection on our moral beliefs with the aim of improving, extending or refining those beliefs in some way." (Dodds, Lecture 2) Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism are two theories that attempt to answer the ethical nature of human beings. This paper will attempt to explain how and why Kantian moral theory and Utilitarianism differ as well as discuss why I believe Kant's theory provides a more plausible account of ethics.
The ethical theory of utilitarianism is associated with the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism essentially is the theory that good is what causes a person pleasure and evil is what causes a person pain. Bentham’s utilitarianism is sometimes titled Act Utilitarianism because it focuses on individual actions A “right” action, according to Betham, is one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Where a “wrong” action is one that would cause more pain than pleasure. Before a person commits an action, they should look at the consequences that it can have on the individual and others. Hedonic Calculus is a method in determining how much pleasure or pain an action will elicit. Hedonic Calculus consists of seven criteria including intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and extent. Each criteria can be given a score between -10 (worst pain) to +10 (highest pleasure). The action becomes ethical and moral if there is an overall net happiness for everyone that is affected. An acti...
Justice and ethics are, in part, conceptually what defines right and wrong. For many people, this stems from religious traditions, however there are historically, and current, instances when a religious regime grows so powerful it becomes virtually unchecked. To be clear, I do not interpret any religion as good or bad. However, from a historical and political perspective, religious institutions, customs, and laws have been used to hide heinous crimes. The movie, “Spotlight”, is based on a true story about a team of investigative journalists at the Boston Globe. The Spotlight Team was comprised of multiple reporters, namely: Marty Baron, Ben Bradlee, Jr., Sacha Pfeiffer, Mike Rezendes, and Walter Robinson. The film starts in 2001, when the team
His article entitled, "Living in a Jerry Springer World," seems to show criticism against Jerry Springer. The show is a mere representation to our society today. The author admits to having watched the show before, and calls it a "guilty pleasure." He continues to tell how he thinks we are all living in a Jerry Springer world by how our society has evolved. He says "The Springer show has come to represent the extremes in our society--perversion, unlikely pairings, lying, cheating and what have you.."
As we watch, listen, and are entertained, TV talk shows are rewriting our cultural scripts, altering our perceptions, our social relationships, and our relationships to the natural world. TV talk shows offer us a world of blurred boundaries. Cultural distinctions between public and private, credible and incredible witnesses, truth and falseness, good and evil, sickness and irresponsibility, normal and abnormal, therapy and exploitation, intimate and stranger, fragmentation and community are manipulated and erased for our distraction and entertainment.