Ethics in Multinational Media Corporations

There are less than a dozen multinational media corporations that control and/or dictate all aspects of radio, television, film, and book publishing. Some of these companies include, MSN, NBC, and Time Warner. In this paper we will take a closer look at Time Warner Communications and discuss their ethical guidelines and explain the implications on society.

Time Warner Communications Includes AOL, HBO, Time Warner Cable, New Line Cinema, Turner Broadcasting, Time Inc, and Warner Brothers. "Time Inc. magazines are read 340 million times each month worldwide by 173 million adults over18 years of age. Two out of every three U.S. adults read a Time Inc. publication every month. In the last year, about 70% of women in the U.K. read a magazine published by Time Inc.'s IPC Media unit, the largest consumer magazine company in the U.K." (Time Warner, 2006). Not only Does Time Inc. has more than 145 magazines, their magazines have won a multitude of awards.

Time Warner not only have policies on their by-laws, code of conduct, values and ethics, but takes pride in their reporting of major events around the world. Time Warner has incorporated a set of values that their foundation is built upon. These values include Creativity, Customer Focus, Agility, Teamwork, Integrity, Diversity and responsibility.

Their standards for business conduct is not only used by their company but also have been adapted by many others. Their standard for business practice, which was modified on June 23, 2005, is a 44 page long business conduct standards. Including a personal letter from the Chairman of the Board and CEO Dick Parsons where he highlights the most important aspects of the report.

• We Respect and obey the law.
• We conduct ourselves as professionals and value diversity and merit in the workplace.
• Our business loyalties are to the Company and we avoid conflicts of interest, real or apparent, that may jeopardize this primary allegiance.
• We are not false. We account for and disclose information about our Company honestly and in accordance with professional and legal requirements.
• We deal honestly, fairly and respectfully with each other and with our suppliers, customers, competitors, governmental agencies and communities.
• While our content may sometimes engender controversy, we want no one to question our character.
• We encourage and accept good faith questions and challenges to conduct that may run counter to the Standards and we will not retaliate against those who raise or assert them.
• We do not promulgate hollow words - we mean these things and want our Company to be defined by them.

This company exhibits corporate responsibility in its business endeavors by being sure the law is obeyed, avoiding conflicts of interest and conducting themselves as professionals. The code of Ethics of Journalists is "Seek Truth", "Minimize Harm", "Act Independently", and "Be Accountable". Time Warner has all these things in their values and in their standards for conducting business.

The media likes to create" hype" so that you watch their programs. With the expansion of news media sources growing over the last 30 years from a choice of three news programs to watch (pre-cable) and one or two newsprint choices, to a virtue of over 10 news stations, the internet and many radio programs journalists want to draw your attention to them. We can go back in time and look at many different media cases whereby the media hyped up the cases to make you watch them. We can remember such incidents like The O.J. Simpson trial, the Ramsey Case, and many others alike. Has Time Warner been involved in some of the cases I have listed above? Yes? The question we must ask ourselves is did they report in a professional manner, was their facts correct, did they seek the truth, minimize the harm and act independently? If we can answer yes to these questions, then the employee's of Time Warner have done their job!

References:

Time Warner Communications, Website, review of their corporate website along with policy's on ethics. Retrieved on September 1, 2006 from http://www.timewarner.com/corp/corp_governance
/governance_conduct.html

Time Inc. Overview of their website, retrieved on September 1, 2006 from http://www.timewarner.com/corp/
businesses/detail/time_inc/index.html

Time Warner Inc, June 23, 2005, "Standards for Business Practice", retrieved on September 4, 2006 from http://www.timewarner.com/corp/
corp_governance/pdf/SBC_External_062205.pdf

Society of Professional Journalists, 1996 - 2006, "Code of Ethics", retrieved on August 20, 2006 from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp