Abstract:

Many researches discussed media ethics in terms of mass media performance and how media people are committed with media ethics codes, such as right of privatization, social responsibility, objectivity… etc. Other researches were concerned about how audiences perceive such ethics in various media production: press, TV, radio and internet. In these researches, media scholars analyze media content; evaluate their performance and put suggestions and recommendations. On the other hand, little attention was directed to media research ethics in the Arab world. How media scholars are following research ethical codes in their work.

This study investigates ethical codes that are essential in media and social research. These codes include the following. (1) Researcher social responsibility in terms of his/her freedom in choosing research topic and methodology, (2) relation between financial support associations and foreign universities that refers to hidden intentions in foreign financial support and the weaknesses of inner support, (3) confidentiality and privacy, (4) ethics of publication which refer to publishing media research in mass media, (5) ethics that are related to the relation between media researchers and their supervisors in MA thesis and Ph.D dissertations.

Several American associations have put ethical codes as vital guidance for researchers in social sciences. Some of these are American Sociology Association ASA, American Anthropology Association AAA and American Psychological Association APA. Wimmer and Dominik (2000) identified four dimensions for research ethics in media field. Autonomy, Beneficence, Justice and non-malfeasance are the vital dimensions according to them (p: 68). Poindexter and McCombs (2000) introduced Informed Consent, Autonomy, Integrity, and confidentiality as major ethics in conducting media research. We can summarize ethical codes of media research that were agreed upon by media scholars according to communication theories, media research methods, ASA, AAA and APA as follow: Importance, beneficial, honesty, and confidentiality.
The study investigates social sciences ethical codes of research and reasons that lead to the weakness in Arab media researches. A constructed questionnaire is created to collect the research data from 138 media scholars in Governmental Universities in Egypt. It aims to know how they assess media research ethical codes in the Arab world.

Keywords:

Code of Ethics, Research ethics, Media research, Social Sciences.