One of the areas where media has an effect on ethics is in the news-gathering arena. The news climate with the Internet and cable TV is a 24/7 information cycle. This climate has also lead to fewer gatekeepers and lower limits on who is a real journalist and who is an amateur. Anyone with typing skills and an Internet connection can become a blogger and present himself as an expert on any topic. Bloggers can write any article and make any accusation without being asked for sources or being held accountable. Sometimes this has led to major breaks where traditional media could not have broken through, and other times it has led to false accusations that were never entirely erased. Decisions about what to print, broadcast or publish on the Internet now have no established guidelines, and the ethics of those decisions are in flux.
Another news-gathering question is in regard to the ethics of privacy. As the media becomes more invasive and the public increasingly seeks information about celebrities and every-day people, the ethics of how much to reveal, when to reveal it and how to get the information has changed. As private individuals voluntarily go on reality shows and open their previously private affairs to the probing eyes of millions of viewers, allowing their lives to be scripted, edited and molded to make interesting television or tabloid fare, it affects the ethics of viewers and media consumers. Privacy is discounted, and every aspect of a celebrity's life is fair game for exposure. The media coverage affects what people see as ethical in privacy issues.
Many parents, educators and psychologists fear that viewing or participating (through video games) in violent media will cause violent behavior. No definitive links exist between violent behavior and viewing game, movie or TV violence. However, some studies show that people, especially children, exposed to high levels of violence become desensitized to violent behavior. This can affect their ethical decisions so they see violence as an acceptable reaction to frustration or anger. They might also see the violence committed by such heroes and anti-heroes as Superman and Iron Man to justify violence when they feel they are righting a wrong or the ends justifies the means.
The media makes heavy use of stereotyping. While in some ways this is a useful tool for media -- when an audience sees the "geek" character on screen, it knows exactly what to expect from the character without needing any background -- stereotyping makes broad assumptions that are not true in individual cases. This kind of stereotyping affects the ethics of a community when they make real-life assumptions based on media-produced stereotypes. For example, if they believe all black, male teens are hoodlums, that all gay people are flamboyant or that all people of Asian descent are math whizzes, then members of the public may make poor ethical decisions regarding their interactions with members of those groups.
The media frames, or sets the boundaries, for many policy discussions. The media may affect the popular ethics of such controversial issues as legalization of marijuana, euthanasia or abortion because of the way the issues are presented. The primary concern that media observers have about this situation is that some people may not be able to make the best ethical decision because they are not given a complete picture or a full understanding of the issue from the media. This issue grows in importance as media concentration becomes more of a reality -- in other words, as more and more of the media outlets are owned by a very few, huge companies, so that there are fewer points of view being expressed.