COM354__Week.1
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Transcript COM354__Week.1
COM 354 Week 1 (8/23)
New Media Ethics
Related to my work
“Privacy and Participation in the Cloud: Ethical
Implications of Google’s Privacy Practices
and Public Communications” in Ethics of
Emerging Media (Continuum, 2011)
"This collection provides a rare opportunity to ask
how emerging media affect the ethical
choices in our lives and the lives of people
across the globe.”
OUTLINE
Introduction (course, syllabus, Wiki)
Traditional ethical theories
Spheres of Information ethics
– Group Activity
Central Issues of digital media ethics
Syllabus
Required Text
Basic Structure
Assignments
Grading
Student's Responsibilities
Course Schedule
Key terms
Values - goals and ideals we aspire to and
measure ourselves, others and society by
moral values - values that give voice to the
needs and legitimate expectations of others as
well as ourselves
Ethics - study of moral values, reflection on
how to think about them, and clarify, prioritize,
and/or integrate them.
Morals and ethics
Often interchangeable
Morals – something we hold (static)
Ethics –deliberate process of thinking them
through, criticizing, and revising them (dynamic)
pitfalls
Dogmatism
– Ask why, study other's views, reasons of
opposed positions
– Speak in an open ended way
– Hint of
Offhand self-justification
dogmatism
Ask why, study other's views, reasons of
opposed positions
Speak in an open ended way
• Less categorical, less final
Think in an open ended way
A hint of uncertainty is appropriate
Offhand self-justification
Know that its self-defeating
– rationalizing and making excuses can
perpetuate unintelligent opinions
Observe yourself
– Try not to make excuses just to put questions
to rest
Watch for signs of anger or irritation when
challenged
Avoid automatic counterattack
– Give yourself space to think
Three families of values
•
Utilitarianism
•
Theories of Right Action
•
Theories of Virtue
1. Utilitarianism
•
J. Bentham, J. S. Mill
– Moral commitment to happiness of all
– “greatest good of the greatest number”
– Typically asks “does it promote the social
good?”
– Involves balancing social costs with social
benefits (a calculation)
– Social utility
2. Theories of Right Action (also
deontology or categorical
imperative)
•
Kant
– Decide what is right independent of social
utility
– Social utility reduces people to a means, a
thing
– People are not “means” but “ends” in
themselves
– Profound sense of equality
2. Theories of Right Action (cont.)
•
Kant
– Decisions often framed as universal laws,
rights, rules applying to everyone, universally
– A law for all to follow
– Can't “make an exception for myself”
(golden rule)
– e.g., Universal Declaration of Human Rights
3. Theories of Virtue
•
Aristotle
– One's function, derived from his/her essential
activity, determines their virtues
– Our function, to bring a complex self into
order “balanced self actualization”
– “means between extremes of emotion and
action” (golden mean)
• e.g., courage is the mean between
cowardice and foolhardiness
3. Theories of Virtue (cont.)
•
Aristotle
– Moral virtues
• Courage, temperance, justice, generosity,
humor
– Vices
• Excesses
3. Theories of Virtue (cont.)
•
St. Thomas Aquinas adapted Aristotle's logic
– Reason a way to know oneself God.
– Theological virtues
• Faith, hope, charity
• Expanded Greek virtues - e.g., temperance
to include humility, patience, chastity
– Deadly sins – fatal to spiritual progress
• pride lust, avarice, etc.)
3. Theories of Virtue (cont.)
•
Alasdair MacIntyre
– Professions have a moral dimension
– Determined by specific function
• e.g., teachers enable and inform
– Virtue is related to professional practice
– Acquired qualities to achieve our goals
• e.g., Bloggers “code of ethics”
3. Theories of Virtue:
•
Ethics of Care
Our practices are rooted in human
relationships
– based on love, care, connecting
– Rooted in awareness of connections btw us
–& recognition of our responsibility for
one another
• Key virtues – imagination, sensitivity,
patience, acceptance, nurturing,
responding
Activity
•
Think about ethical problems:
– Wikileaks
– Online targeted advertising
– Virtual sex in Second Life
Activity
Speak to the issue from within each theory
•
– e.g., how would utilitarians view it,
– how would Kant view it
– what virtues are relevant? (list them)
–
Activity (part two) Declare yourself
•
Which of these theories describes how you
mainly think?
•
Are their good arguments for each?
•
How might you combine them?
•
How would you prioritize them?
•
Spheres of ICT ethics
•
Ethics of informational resources
– issues of availability, access, and accuracy
•
Ethics of Informational Products
– devices, applications, services (SNSs), sites,
games
•
Ethics of the informational environment
– piracy, IP, FOSS, FoE, censorship, filtering,
content control
Central Issues of Ethics in Digital
Media
• Ethics of informational resources
– issues of availability, access, and accuracy
• Ethics of Informational Products
– devices, applications, services (SNSs), sites,
games
• Ethics of the informational environment
– piracy, IP, FOSS, FoE, censorship, filtering,
content control
Central Issues of digital media ethics
•
Mainstream media reports on technology
– “moral panic” to attract attention
– focus on sensational and deep seated fears
• fosters polarized way of thinking
–e.g., technology=good, technology=bad
• short circuits critical reflection
Distinguishing characteristics of
digital media
•
Digital vs. analog (bits easily manipulated)
•
Instantaneous
•
enduring
•
global
Pedagogical approach
•
Case studies
• discussion/writing/reflection/research
•
We'll pursue our own case studies, as well
HWK (Due Monday 8/30)
Journal #1 (on Wiki)
Read Chapter 2