Developing Unified, Ethics-Centered Standards for Applied Media Production: Evidence from Palestinian Universities

Abstract

Amid rapid digital transformation, higher education lacks validated, context-sensitive
frameworks for evaluating applied media outputs, creating a critical risk of
misalignment between academic curricula, professional ethics, and labor-market
expectations. This study examines the acceptance among Palestinian university
academics of a set of expert-derived criteria for evaluating applied courses, graduation
projects, and student films. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed,
surveying 40 academics and conducting three focus groups with 14 media-training
experts; the survey instrument was developed directly from the qualitative findings.
Results from descriptive and inferential statistics, integrated with thematic analysis,
revealed strong consensus on the importance of ethical standards, narrative and
aesthetic craftsmanship, and fairness. Conversely, confidence was comparatively
lower for platform-specific and rapidly evolving technical indicators. Qualitatively,
experts reframed technical skill as an ethical narrative practice and emphasized
institutional accountability through supervised clearance protocols. Overall, the
results indicate the feasibility of employing a shared, multidimensional framework
focused on ethical evaluation, aiming to improve transparency, alignment with
professional practices, and sensitivity to the educational context in applied media
instruction.