Ethical considerations on television infotainment

Abstract

Infotainment is considered one of the most important trends in today’s journalism, especially in television. In recent years, a large volume of research has been devoted to this subject but there has been much less research on the ethical principles relating to this type of information. This paper is based on previous research that characterized television infotainment and reviewed its stylemes in the light of the principal journalistic codes of ethics in Spain: the European Code of Journalism Ethics, the FAPE Code of Ethics and the codes of Radiotelevisión Española and Antena 3. The principles involved include the social responsibility of journalists, truth in journalism and editorial independence from commercial practices.

KEYWORDS: infotainment, journalistic ethics, journalistic deontology, television, code of ethics, social responsibility.