Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an idea that the “moral worth” of an action is solely determined by that action maximizing utility minimizing negative utility. Jeremy Bentham was the founder of  this “ greatest happiness or felicity principle”

Utility – it is an ideal occasion where happiness, or satisfaction is greatest. For example:

• only good things happening – pleasure, not pain.
•  promote the greatest good

Negative Utility – is when through choice one has to do little evil to prevent greater harm.

So, Utilitarianism depends upon us shaping our actions and making choices so that the end result is most favourable.

Moral worth – it is an intangible measurement of the end result by weighing the outcome against better/worse possibilities/probabilities.

Types

Act utilitarianism – when faced with a choice of actions, one must consider consequences of those potential actions and act accordingly so that the result is most favourable and produces most pleasure.

Rule utilitarianism – when faced with a choice, one must consider potential actions. And decide what would happen if that action was followed as a rule. And see if it produces most happiness.

E.g. doing homework – Act = failure to do, skipping of class might provide pleasure

Rule = but always doing so would lead to loss of marks etc.

Act utilitarianism applies to specific cases while rule utilitarianism is general.

Utilitarians will usually say, “Keep to the rules unless there is a strong reason for breaking them.”

Dilemma within Utilitarianism L

Strong Rule – says that rules must never be broken.

Weak Rule – rules can be broken for happiness.

Collapse of Rule into Act – if the breaking of a rule produces more utility, then it ought to be broken.

E.g. Local don is looking for your friend who threw a lola at him yesterday. Do you follow “do not lie” and surrender his/her whereabouts? Surely greater happiness would be attained in saving your friend by lying to the villain.

Two Level Utilitarianism

Normally, utilitarianism says one ought to follow intuition as it maximizes happiness.

But there are situations when critical thinking is required.

Motive Utilitarianism

It attempts to deal realistically as to how with human beings function psychologically. Since our minds are usually an abstract of ideas, not to underestimate the influence of emotion in our actions, we do better with positive goals rather than negative limitations.

It is pragmatic, not perfectionist.

Negative Utility

It requires one to promote a small amount of evil to prevent greater harm.

Is it more effective? E.g. to tell one’s newsroom staff what they can and can not do? Perhaps, it is.

 

Total vs Average

Total – says that the happiness/utility of the majority has to be addressed not that of a minority.

E.g. the poorer mass have to be prioritised instead of the richer few while making economic policies.

Average – says that the average utility must be measured.

E.g. a school priding itself that its SLC pass percentage is 90.

Another dilemma: would it be ethical to get rid of low-utility people to improve average?

Shortcomings

-          Not logical, rational, scientific.

-          Aggregate utility: a loss of individual consciousness

-          Predicting consequences is hard, and often tricky: Justification of the “People’s War” for Republicanism in Nepal

-          Ignores intentions, looks only at actions

-          Individual interests vs mass interest. E.g take class example

-          Karl Marx – i) it adds nothing new ii)people change, so do their notions of utility E.g. slavery

“He believed that all important statements were contingent upon particular historical conditions.”

JS Mill – The Individualistic Utilitarianism?

JS Mill solves the “Individual versus mass riddle” by unravelling utilitarianism as follows:

1. The qualitative separation of pleasure – each is different in quality and degree.- That not every one has the same qualification to act as the authority on what is gives utility.
2. People are allowed to act as they want for the benefit of themselves only if their actions do not harm others.
3. Mill hands individuals the supreme power to control everything that concerns to themselves only by stressing on the exception:”That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

Mill’s 3 essential freedoms:

• The freedom to think as one wishes, and to feel as one does. This includes the freedom to opinion, and includes the freedom to publish opinions known as the freedom of speech,
• The freedom to pursue tastes and pursuits, even if they are deemed “immoral,” and only so long as they do not cause harm,
• The “freedom to unite” or meet with others, often known as the freedom of assembly.

As a utilitarian, he separates happiness, which he values, from mere contentment by saying “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.”

But as a staunch advocate of individual liberties, the specific justifications he gives for each of the freedoms listed above rests not on any form of natural rights but rather on the fact that he believed these freedoms would bring positive consequences for society.

Therefore, he resolves the individual versus mass riddle by saying that the granting of these libertiesto people will ultimately bring a better result in society than not. His choice of individual liberties is utilitarian in that it brings a positive result.

(Thus, both advocates and critics of Mill’s views have argued that he does not take liberty as an absolute standard of value, prizing above it diversity, equality and social progress.)

Use in media?

The Code of Conduct for journalists is not a legally binding document, but has been accepted as standard behaviour throughout the world. So, as a probable journalist, what is your choice?

Often, working in the media demands compromises and makes one seek middle grounds for solutions. Therefore, although utilitarianism is not scientific, it will be in one’s mind consciously or unconsciously while making decisions.

Short – खेल्नु पर्छ

Another year, another course, another short.

Made as assignment for MEDS 310 – Media Workshop, Kathmandu University.

Shot, by divine coincidence, in less than an hour. Edited in four, sound done in three.

(विशेष धन्यवादमा Prem T. Sherpa को नाम थप्न चाहन्छु।)

——–

I don’t know what to make of this short. It turned out very poor.

एक तल्ला जुत्ता हुँदा नि एउटा हेर्न लायक छैन

Today, in the bitterly cold evening, I walked to Bhatbhateni Supermarket to buy a pair of shoes. It was something I had needed to do for two months. I went to Bhatbhateni not because they have a splendid collection of the most delectable footwear but because I was desperate. And in a whole storey dedicated to shoes, there had to be something I was looking for.

An array of choices at Bhatbhateni

I start with Can Torps. I have no idea what this means for I have never heard its name. Maybe it is worth mentioning that there was a picture of a camel in the logo?

Next up is the one that was brimming with Telent. It was tailor made for the extraordinary Nepali.

I have no issues with the pair that said Shoes other than WHAT THE FUCK ELSE COULD IT BE!!!

From afar, I saw Dunhill – resplendend in a green oasis amidst the dry leathery landscape; from close, I saw engraved to the sole – Qinyi.

A close cousin of Dunhill sat nearby in unfaltering conviction and grand pomposity. He was named DouHiU.

Prada represented Italy in a rare moment of clarity, yet several dodgy flecks of torn and withering leather suggested it was devoid of any quality. The pinyin inside of the tongue lapped up this point.

Conclusion

Bhatbhateni are robbing you with their cheap Chinese goods that are built neither for endurance nor quality. Is it any surprise that the Chinese embassy has resided nearby for so many years?

N.B. Perhaps what is most striking about supermarkets in Nepal is that they have escalators that go up, yet you may only descend by the stairs. Not for the fastidious, eh?

Media System in Latin America

[The following was originally a presentation for MEDS 201 (Global Media), Media Studies, Kathmandu University. Since this blog is a medium where reading prose is preferable to reading presentation-notes, it has been adapted into a writeup.]

Latin America stretches from Mexico to the Straits of Magellan in the western hemisphere. Although it is a terrestrial new world, it has a European heritage. Its culture is a result of the amalgam of its diverse indigenous populations, the mediaeval world that discovered it and new found wealth far away from the motherlands. All countries are Spanish speaking except Brazil which adopted the Portuguese of its European colonizers and inherit their cultures.

Until the early nineteenth century, Latin American territories were under the control of the European nations that colonized it. These colonial states won independence and their politics since then has been characterized by bloody conflicts between leftist radicalism and rightist conservatism. The answer to this was a military strongman who was backed by the US government and commercial enterprises such as the United Fruit Company into power. This setup of governance fell through in the 1980s, and in its stead came democracy with a new elite seeking power.

With the fall of US-backed military regimes, the economy has gone from state-controlled to private ownership. Latin America adopted free market policies. This liberalization of the economies is reflected in the growth of media institutions as well as openness and freedom in the media. Latin American Nations’ heads of state met in 1994 and signed the Declaration of Chaupultepec which states:

“Every person has the right to seek and receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely. No one may restrict or deny these rights.”

To quote a text:

The media systems of the region bear much in common with the political setups. Throughout Latin America, the media are mostly privately owned. Unlike Europe, where state broadcasting developed to be complemented by private broadcasting later, Latin American television and broadcasting were dominated by private broadcasting, particularly television, never really got off the ground.

The print media are largely in the hands of old press families. Since there are few laws preventing cross-ownership of the media, many print and electronic media organizations have merged to create huge media conglomerates. In much of Latin America, radio remains the most important medium. Given the low literacy rates in rural areas and the rough terrain of much of the region, radio serves as the single source of news for many people. Finally, the colegio system, which requires journalists to have university degrees in journalism and to be licensed members of the Colegio de Periodistas (College of Journalists), is a feature, often a hotly disputed one, of the regional media landscape.

Throughout the 20th century, Latin America’s media structure has played a key role in the authoritarian political systems that have characterized the region. With a few exceptions, the major media of the region supported or acquiesced to strongman rule. Many newspapers fed at the government trough, depending on government advertisements for revenue. Yet the media in Latin America were never truly under the heels of their respective authoritarian governments. That distinguishes the Latin American media systems from those totalitarian media systems that prevailed elsewhere under communism. The powerful Latin American media barons had the strength to resist the government. In this sense it is useful to think of Latin American polities as semi-feudal structures. The great media barons – the Mesquita family of Sao Paulo, the Edwards family of Santiago, the Phelps/Granier conglomerate in Caracas, the Azcarraga fiefdom in Mexico – were like semi-independent vassals of the state. They took a “get along, go along” posture and, as long as the government protected their interests and did not encroach on their independence, they would cooperate with it.

In the 1980s, the authoritarian governments in Latin America collapsed, and young democracies emerged in their stead. While they embraced greater pluralism and freedom of expression, these new democracies were not mature and many characteristics of the old authoritarian regimes remained. Governments still try to manipulate the media. And the corruption that sapped Latin America’s strength during the 1970s is no less prevalent. And journalists must still reckon with physical intimidation and violence in the practice of their profession.

What has changed is the media’s determination to uncover malfeasance and to hold government officials accountable to the public. The combat between the press and the political powers is intensifying in Latin America. Brazilian and Mexican media have doggedly investigated governmental controversies. Increasingly, Latin Americans look to the media to dispense justice and be the arbiter of society.

This increased prestige for the media is not without its problems for, in the media, as in politics, many habits from decades past still remain. The region’s big media giants “may have been able to resist the power of the authoritarian state, but they are self-interested beasts” say US ambassadors to the region. Latin American media conglomerates are family businesses and are motivated by a desire to advance the family’s interests. Often the media are used as a sort of public relations arm for a large family business empire – to advertise the family’s other businesses, attack rivals or serve as a family political mouthpiece. The number of dailies may exceed sustainable figures, but families tend to be less concerned about profits and instead look upon the press as publicity investments. “The media have done a good job of freeing themselves of political powers,” said William Hines, press attaché at the US embassy in Buenos Aires. “Now they have to free themselves from economic powers.”

For much of Latin America, television is the dominant medium. For instance, in Brazil, the number of televisions surpasses the number of refrigerators. Similarly, in Mexico, television viewing became a staple before newspaper reading ever became an institutional part of the life of the average Mexican. In some sense these cultures passed directly from an oral culture to a visual culture, without ever having passed through the stage of a written culture. Many observers worry about a pernicious effect that one source of news can have upon an impressionable populace and an undeveloped democracy. Viewers who are solely informed by such television giants as Globo and Televisa might be manipulated into political that suits those behemoths. Television powers could be foisted into the role of political kingmaker – a concern that many said materialized when Globo catapulted the relatively unknown Collor de Mello into the Brazilian presidency in 1989.

(Vanden Heuvel, 1995. pp 14-15)

Despite these issues, the overall trends in the media are positive:

1. The media have been de-ideolized over the past decade. New media have strived for a non-ideological stance which lies in contrast to the struggle between right and left in the past.

2. Business news is of a high standard and this reflects a vibrant growth in economies.

3. Cable television has increased variety and pluralism in media content.

4. Supranational media organizations have supported and helped inter-regional news sharing and cooperation. Regional news agencies have emerged.

Latin America and its media systems give reason to be optimistic. As regional democracies stabilize and tolerate pluralism, journalistic standards have risen and freedom of expression is expanding. The media have dispelled conventional thinking that a military leader is the easiest solution for political deadlocks or conflicts by placing itself as the arbiter of fairness and justice. However, grass-roots problems like rich-poor divide, increasing crime, environmental mishaps and inadequate public services still exist and it has to be the media that must work to educate people, create consensus and awareness. The media industry is a vital and robust one that reflects changes in these societies. They must be socially responsible and regard themselves as instruments for creating public spirit so that they can help usher in national reconciliation over their violent pasts and build a unified regional society that is beneficial to both media and democracy.

References

1. Vanden Heuvel, J., Dennis, EE. 1995. Changing Patterns: Latin America’s Vital Media. Columbia University Press

Hard statistics can be retrieved from:

http://www.pressreference.com/A-Be/Argentina.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Be-Co/Bolivia.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Be-Co/Brazil.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Co-Fa/Costa-Rica.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Co-Fa/Cuba.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Co-Fa/Dominican-Republic.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Co-Fa/Ecuador.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Fa-Gu/Guatemala.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Gu-Ku/Haiti.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Gu-Ku/Honduras.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Ma-No/Mexico.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Ma-No/Nicaragua.html

http://www.pressreference.com/No-Sa/Panama.html

http://www.pressreference.com/No-Sa/Paraguay.html

http://www.pressreference.com/No-Sa/Peru.html

http://www.pressreference.com/No-Sa/Puerto-Rico.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Sw-Ur/Uruguay.html

http://www.pressreference.com/Uz-Z/Venezuela.html

भिडियो क्रियाकलाप

MEDS 210. This semester we were divided into groups and asked to come up with 2 minute videos. The first two videos made was practice in telling a story with digital photos. The last one was the first video video assignment.

As I said, other videos were made previously, but I post this one because it is the latesht:

Communication and Globalisation

The following is homework and was based on the first ever lecture on Globalisation and Media by Nirmala Mani Adhikary.

Communication

Baran has said, ”In its simplest form, communication is the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver.”

The primary level at which communication takes place is said to be intrapersonal, i.e., with oneself. This, when spread to more than one person, is called interpersonal. If you increase the number of people interacting, it is called group communication. An even larger level of communication takes place in an organizational setting. However, in the 1920s in the USA, an even larger scale of communication emerged with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines which was termed mass communication.

Globalisation

It is hard to define globalisation but it can be agreed that it describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of exchange. The most important tool of globalization besides money is surely mass media.

In the present world, mass media is a highly developed and competitive arena with financial stakes and issues of power. Mass media reaches newer audiences everyday and influences people in an unprecedented manner. Society has been transformed, so has the behaviour of its members along with the transformation of communication and media.

The following transformations have been observed:

Society

from  Closed to Open

Society has been transformed from closed and xenophobic to open and welcoming diversity. Along with this change in society, there was a change in how peoples behaved and communicated with wider audiences.

Communication

Intrapersonal to Mass Communication of Global Scale

Communication has gone through a lot of changes. With contact with outsiders and gradually the ease with which mass media could be used to communicate, not only within one’s population but the globe as a whole, communication has been transformed to a global state.

Media

Local to Global

A local media is one that covers local events, while a global media covers and has interests with events occurring all over the world. Needless to say, a global media institution generally has better quality, reputation and financial strength.

The Concept of ‘Glocal’

While somethings are local, like Champagne in France, it is a global item as well, with markets and consumers all over the world. A glocal item is one that holds local as well as global significance.

Hari Manjushree’s Solo Book Exhibition

Hari Manjushree, writer of more than 50 books, editor of almost as many newspapers and periodicals, and contributor to the Nepali language for long, had a solo book exhibition organised in Dhulikhel at Kathmandu Univerisity’s international residency.

Dr. Suresh Raj Sharma, the VC of KU, and chief guest for the occasion, cut the red ribbon to announce the exhibition open and was all smiles at the occasion as was Manjushree, who had been formerly employed at the university.

NB: I had taken some smashing pictures on this day using my friend Anish Regmi‘s film camera, and my athletic prowess to scale walls to get the shots I wanted endeared me to the students of a local school who were volunteering, but it pains me to say that the pictures aren’t available because, alas, film appears to be outmoded in the rad field of photojournalism and our department doesn’t find a film scanner necessary.

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya say of themselves:

The Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) is the principal archive of books and periodicals in the Nepali language, the mother tongue (or lingua franca) of a little over 30 million people of South Asia. The Library is a not-for profit, non-governmental institution that is run by a trust whose members are eminent men and women of letters of Nepal. In addition to the archival collection which is at the centre of its focus, the Library is well known for its continuing work in the areas of publishing, education and training. It also manages two of Nepal’s most prestigious literary prizes, the Madan Puraskar and the Jagadamba Shree. The first four decades of the Library’s existence have been devoted to accessions and cataloguing (using the Dewey System). With beginnings as a private collection in the mid-1940s, the Library has expanded continuously over the decades, keeping pace with the development of the Nepali language in the modernizing nation state of Nepal, and in the hills of North India.

The first acquisitions for what was later to become the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) were made in the mid-1940s by a Kathmandu schoolboy, with pennies that came from his lunch allowance. As the personal collection grew, it attracted gifts in kind from several important literary personalities, statesmen and scholars of Nepal and India.

In 1956, the collection received an endowment from Rani Jagadamba Kumari Devi Rana. Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya was officially registered in 1985, under Organizations Registration Act of 1977. The foundations of the Library were even more secure when in 1986, it was gifted land and a building worth over NRs 10 million (about US$ 200,000) by that schoolboy, Kamal Mani Dixit, presently Chairman of the Library.

Besides archival, the organisation also runs several projects:

1. PAN Localization Project – A regional initiative to develop local language computing capacity in Asia.

2. Bhasha Sanchar – Furthering the usage of the Nepali language in the media.

3. Sambad – Beneficial usage of computers for non-literate or semi-literate people.

4. Endangered Archives Programme – Preservation of historic and rare Nepali monographs and periodicals.

5. Dobhase – On English to Nepali machine translation.

They also distribute for 15 rupees, the cost of a blank cd, Linux in Nepali -  aptly called NepaLinux.

नेपाली प्रेस कानुन सम्बन्धी एक महत्वपूर्ण दस्तावेज

राष्ट्रिय प्रसारण ऐन

प्रारम्भ: वि सं २०४९

नियमावली: राष्ट्रिय प्रसारण नियमावली, २०५२

संसोधन: वि सं २०५७, मार्ग १८ गते; दूरसंचार सम्बन्धी केही नियमलाई संसोधन गरिएको।

उद्देश्य: “जनताको अभिव्यक्ती स्वतन्त्रता तथा सुसूचित हुन पाउने हकलाई संरक्षण एवम् सम्बर्द्धन गर्न तथा प्रसारण प्रणालीको माध्यमबाट मुलुकको आर्थिक, सामाजिक तथा सांस्कृतिक क्रियाकलापलाई जनसमक्ष पुर्याई सबै जाति वर्ग, क्ष्रेत्र र धार्मिक सम्प्रदायबीच समानता, आपसी सदभावना र सामंजस्यताको वातावरण सिर्जना गरी राष्ट्रभाषा एवम् राष्ट्रिय भाषाको माध्यमबाट समेत जनचेतना जगाउन”

दफा: २३ दफा

मिडियाको लागि प्रावधान:

दफा ३-८ मा: प्रसारण र इजाजतपत्र सम्बन्धी

दफा ९ मा: भूउपग्रह केन्द्रको स्थापना सम्बन्धी

दफा १२ मा: प्रसारणमा निजी क्षेत्रलाई प्रावधान सम्बन्धी

दफा १३ मा: विदेशी प्रसारणलाई प्रसारण समयको प्रावधान

दफा १५ मा: विग्यापनका निशेधित पक्षहरु बारे

दफा १७ मा: कानुन तोडेमा सजायको बारे

दफा १८-१९ मा: पुनरावेदन र प्रसारण संस्थाको सुरक्षा