Real-World Media Ethics

CHAPTER 5

Ethics and Programmers

Programmers/creative executives select what projects they are going to develop or produce based on a number of factors, such as does the project appeal to the target audience? Or does it fit the network schedule or the studio release time table, as described in a New York Times article by Carol Ames, who wrote Chapter 12 on public relations and ethics? She noted that studios jockey hard to select domestic and international release dates. If they pick a wrong release date, box office results will suffer. She wrote, “A film shown on more than 3,000 screens earns an average of 31.6 percent of its total domestic box office during its first weekend.”¹ The studio thus needs to find the right release date, one that ...