Name of the course: Strategic Communication Ethics and Law
Country: USA
For your final project you are to analyze a case in depth and write 1500-2000 word paper on it. [excluding sources]
This is meant to be a case analysis, not an issue analysis. So you don’t ask “Is mood advertising ethical?” or “Should PR practitioners be truthful”. These questions are too general. Start with a specific case, an example of mood advertising or of a PR practitioner not being totally truthful.
Your paper should start with a detailed description of the case, containing all the relevant moral facts. It is absolutely crucial that you describe the issue in detail and explain the ethical issue at its heart. Feel free to provide links to the media content you are discussing, but you still need to provide a summary.
It is important that you pick a case that’s not black and white but that has compelling arguments for both (or more sides). Explain why all sides in this dilemma have a valid moral claim.
Next, you start with the analysis. The goal is not for you to take a position, but to further explore the issue in a way that allows the reader to make a judgement, similar to what your textbook does in its case studies. You need to do the following:
Summarize what some of the commentators have said about this issue. Get a diverse and varied range of opinions.
Connect the various arguments and positions to philosophical concepts and theories discussed in this class. If your case exposes a clash between privacy and the people’s right to know, you can connect this latter concept to utilitarianism and explore the kind of privacy interest that’s at stake here.
Fact check claims that are being made. If one side makes the claim about the effects of a certain action, check if that’s indeed the case. People tend to overstate the impact of media messages on people, don’t let unsupported arguments go un-challenged.
Find academic literature on this topic. Cite your sources using a citation format of your choice.
The approaches listed here should not be conducted in a grocery-list-style but integrated in the body of the paper. Once you have done this, summarize the case and ask one specific question about the case you are investigating.
Next, answer each of the questions you have asked yourself. If you did a good job in your description and initial analysis, taking a position can be as simple as stating a preference for a certain value over another, or can be based on the factual (in)accuracies contained in one of the positions. Ideally, you refer to philosophical concepts and decision making tools discussed in this class. Based on the answer to your question, make some more general statements and articulate guidelines for practitioners grappling with similar issues. This is an opportunity to widen your analysis from the specific case to a more general discussion.
The majority of the paper will be devoted to analysis, where you describe the case, explain what experts, commentators, and the literature have said about it. Keep your opinion out of it. Only in the last section to you answer the question at hand.
Grading Rubric
Word length and following instructions (15%)
Is the paper at least 1500 words?
Does the paper properly cite all the sources that were used and does it include a works-cited page? The works cited do not count towards the word total
Does the student consistently use an accepted academic formatting style such as APA or MLA? (Do not just provide links).
Is the paper submitted as a Word document? (do not submit PDF files)
Description of the case (15%)
Does this deal with a specific question about a specific issue to which there is no obvious right or wrong answer?
Are all the relevant details given to the audience?
Is it clearly explained why this is a dilemma and are the conflicting values identified?
Is the information properly cited in an academic citation style?
Is this a specific case rather than a topic?
Does the student include what some observers have said about this case?
Analysis of the case (40%)
Are all the possible arguments (or at least a representative sample of the possible arguments) regarding this case presented? (Avoid only giving one side of an argument)
Does the student critically assess claims that are being made by observers that are not factually accurate? (make sure if someone says something that is provable false that you point this out)?
Does the student use at least 2-3 scholarly articles and 2-3 non scholarly articles in discussing this case?
Does the student use class concepts and methods to analyze the case? Do not treat this as a shopping list. We have covered a lot of theories, codes of ethics, and decision making models. Use these to analyze the case and provide insights. It is ok to lean on one more than the other. If you use an ethics code, make sure it is an applicable one.
At the end of the analysis, are the various possible courses of action presented to the reader?
Answer to the ethical question (20%)
Using the insights from the analysis, does the student provide a principled answer to the question that was the topic of the analysis? There are no right or wrong questions, but students should refer to values and philosophies in answering these questions. They can also refer to arguments cited or quoted by others in this paper.
Using the insights of this particular case, does the students provide guidelines and pointers for practitioners dealing with similar cases.
Quality of writing (10%)
Proofread. Avoid sloppy writing, grammatical, and spelling errors.
Honesty – 1000000000%
This is an ethics course. Any form of plagiarism or other forms of dishonesty will result in an F for the assignment or the course, depending on the nature of the transgression.
