Cognitive Film and Media Ethics

Author(s):  
Wyatt Moss-Wellington

Cognitive Film and Media Ethics provides a grounding in the use of cognitive science to address key questions in film, television, and screen media ethics. This book extends prior works in cognitive media studies to answer normative and ethically prescriptive questions: what could make media morally good or bad, and what, then, are the respective responsibilities of media producers and consumers? Moss-Wellington makes a primary claim that normative propositions are a kind of rigor, in that they force media theorists to draw more active ought conclusions from descriptive is arguments. Cognitive Film and Media Ethics presents the rigors of normative reasoning, cognitive science, and consequentialist ethics as complementary, arguing that each seeks progressive elaboration on its own models of causality, and causal projections are crucial for any reflection on our moral responsibilities in the world. A hermeneutics of “ethical cognitivism” is applied in the latter half of the book, with each essay addressing a different case study in film, television, news, and social media: cinema that sets out to inspire moral dissonance in the viewer, satirical and humorous depictions of family drama in film and television, the politics of the romantic comedy, formal aspects of screen media bullying in an era dubbed the “television renaissance,” and contemporary problems in the conflation of news and social media. Cognitive Film and Media Ethics synthesizes current research in social psychology, anthropology, memory studies, emotion and cognition, personality and media selection, and evolutionary biology, integrating wide-ranging concepts from the various disciplines that make up cognitive theory to provide new vantages on the applied ethics of film and screen media.

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina A. Bramstedt ◽  
Ben Ierna ◽  
Victoria Woodcroft-Brown

Social media is a valuable tool in the practice of medicine, but it can also be an area of ‘treacherous waters’ for medical students. Those in their upper years of study are off-site and scattered broadly, undertaking clinical rotations; thus, in-house (university lecture) sessions are impractical. Nonetheless, during these clinical years students are generally high users of social media technology, putting them at risk of harm if they lack appropriate ethical awareness. We created a compulsory session in social media ethics (Doctoring and Social Media) offered in two online modes (narrated PowerPoint file or YouTube video) to fourth- and fifth-year undergraduate medical students. The novelty of our work was the use of SurveyMonkey® to deliver the file links, as well as to take attendance and deliver a post-session performance assessment. All 167 students completed the course and provided feedback. Overall, 73% Agreed or Strongly Agreed the course session would aid their professionalism skills and behaviours, and 95% supported delivery of the curriculum online. The most frequent areas of learning occurred in the following topics: email correspondence with patients, medical photography, and awareness of medical apps. SurveyMonkey® is a valuable and efficient tool for curriculum delivery, attendance taking, and assessment activities.


Author(s):  
David A. Craig

Social media have amplified and accelerated the ethical challenges that communicators, professional and otherwise, face worldwide. The work of ethical journalism, with a priority of truthful communication, offers a paradigm case for examining the broader challenges in the global social media network. The evolution of digital technologies and the attendant expansion of the communication network pose ethical difficulties for journalists connected with increased speed and volume of information, a diminished place in the network, and the cross-border nature of information flow. These challenges are exacerbated by intentional manipulation of social media, human-run or automated, in many countries including internal suppression by authoritarian regimes and foreign influence operations to spread misinformation. In addition, structural characteristics of social media platforms’ filtering and recommending algorithms pose ethical challenges for journalism and its role in fostering public discourse on social and political issues, although a number of studies have called aspects of the “filter bubble” hypothesis into question. Research in multiple countries, mostly in North America and Europe, has examined social media practices in journalism, including two issues central to social media ethics—verification and transparency—but ethical implications have seldom been discussed explicitly in the context of ethical theory. Since the 1980s and 1990s, scholarship focused on normative theorizing in relation to journalism has matured and become more multicultural and global. Scholars have articulated a number of ethical frameworks that could deepen analysis of the challenges of social media in the practice of journalism. However, the explicit implications of these frameworks for social media have largely gone unaddressed. A large topic of discussion in media ethics theory has been the possibility of universal or common principles globally, including a broadening of discussion of moral universals or common ground in media ethics beyond Western perspectives that have historically dominated the scholarship. In order to advance media ethics scholarship in the 21st-century environment of globally networked communication, in which journalists work among a host of other actors (well-intentioned, ill-intentioned, and automated), it is important for researchers to apply existing media ethics frameworks to social media practices. This application needs to address the challenges that social media create when crossing cultures, the common difficulties they pose worldwide for journalistic verification practices, and the responsibility of journalists for countering misinformation from malicious actors. It is also important to the further development of media ethics scholarship that future normative theorizing in the field—whether developing new frameworks or redeveloping current ones—consider journalistic responsibilities in relation to social media in the context of both the human and nonhuman actors in the communication network. The developing scholarly literature on the ethics of algorithms bears further attention from media ethics scholars for the ways it may provide perspectives that are complementary to existing media ethics frameworks that have focused on human actors and organizations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Samuel ◽  
W. Ahmed ◽  
H. Kara ◽  
C. Jessop ◽  
S. Quinton ◽  
...  

This article reports on a U.K. workshop on social media research ethics held in May 2018. There were 10 expert speakers and an audience of researchers, research ethics committee members, and research institution representatives. Participants reviewed the current state of social media ethics, discussing well-rehearsed questions such as what needs consent in social media research, and how the public/private divide differs between virtual and real-life environments. The lack of answers to such questions was noted, along with the difficulties posed for ethical governance structures in general and the work of research ethics committees in particular. Discussions of these issues enabled the creation of two recommendations. The first is for research ethics committees and journal editors to add the category of ‘data subject research’ to the existing categories of ‘text research’ and ‘human subject research’. This would reflect the fact that social media research does not fall into either of the existing categories and so needs a category of its own. The second is that ethical issues should be considered at all stages of social media research, up to and including aftercare. This acknowledges that social media research throws up a large number of ethical issues throughout the process which, under current arrangements for ethical research governance, risks remaining unaddressed.


Author(s):  
Ansarullah Omari

Research subject (review of moral don’ts in the news service of Baghlan local TV). The question of the research is how local TV stations in Baghlan act in order to avoid moral don’ts in their news services? Moral don’ts, in fact, are the red lines in the field of individual and social ethics that obliges journalists to refrain from them in preparing news and reports. The aim of this study is to understand the commitment of journalists of Baghlan local TVs in refraining from ethical don'ts in producing news productions. The importance of the research is that the journalists and officials of the local TV stations in Baghlan, by studying it, should identify the moral don’ts in news service and make efforts to eliminate them, and this will lead to the advancement of ethical journalism. Among the variables or moral don’ts (desecration, distortion of facts, promotion of slavery, and involvement in criminal and political issues, psychological warfare, sexual abuse, racial discrimination, ethnic discrimination and linguistic discrimination) have been studied in the Baghlan local TVs news services. The important findings of the study are that the relationship between four variables (desecration, distortion of facts, racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination) are meaningful in Baghlan local TVs news services; that its two variables (racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination) are common in all three TV stations (Baghlan National, Pasban and Tanwir) and the other two variables are only meaningful on Pasban TV. The present article is based on the theory of social responsibility. In the theory of social responsibility, the media accept and implement certain obligations in society, including refraining from moral don’ts. The research method is a quantitative research method of survey or field type. The statistical population is Pul-e-Khumri city and the sample population were selected using non-random (targeted) sampling. Keywords: ethics, media ethics, television, news service, moral don’ts


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-68
Author(s):  
Simon Simon ◽  
Tan Lie Lie ◽  
Heppy Wenny Komaling

Indonesian netizens are often labeled as social media users at will without heeding politeness when interacting. This assessment is further confirmed by a survey conducted by Microsoft,  that Medsos users are labeled as netizens with the worst politeness level for Southeast Asia scale. The predicate is certainly aimed at allreligius netizens without emphasizing certain beliefs. The low politeness indicates the lack of social media ethics applied by the people of the country. Ironically, Indonesia is known as areligius and civilized country, it seems invisible if you look at the behavior of netizens who are. The method used in this paper is descriptive qualitative method with a literature study approach. The description of this topic religion certainly teaches how politeness and politeness in the public space are displayed especially in social media, because politeness is an indikator we are called ethical or not. The principle of Christian ethics teaches that when using social media what a believer must do is not to do body shaming with other online media users, or not to comment racistically. Because God does not differentiate between fellow humans by loving one and not loving another just because humans are different physically, race or nation. The next principle of Christian ethics in social media is not to argue theologically and not to spit negative things. The goal is to avoid quarrels, let alone hate speech. Netizen Indonesia kerap di cap sebagai pengguna media sosial sesuka hati tanpa mengindahkan kesantunan ketika berinteraksi. Penilaian ini makin dipertegas melalui survei yang dilakukan oleh Microsoft,  bahwa pengguna Medsos dilabeli sebagai netizen dengan tingkat kesopanan paling buruk untuk skala Asia Tenggara. Predikat itu tentu ditujukan kepada semua netizen yang beragama tanpa menitik-beratkan keyakinan tertentu. Rendahnya kesopanan menandakan kurangnya etika bermedia sosial diterapkan oleh masyarakat tanah air. Ironisnya, Indonesia yang di kenal sebagai negara yang religius dan beradab, hal itu seakan tidak terlihat bila melihat perilaku netizen yang bar-bar. Metode yang digunakan dalam tulisan ini adalah metode kualitatif deskriftif dengan pendekatan studi kepustakaan. Uraian dari topik ini agama tentu mengajarkan bagaimana kesopanan dan kesantunan di ruang publik ditampilkan terlebih dalam bermedia sosial, karena kesopanan itu merupakan indikator kita di sebut beretika atau tidak. Prinsip etika Kristiani mengajarkan bahwa ketika bermedia sosial  yang  harus dilakukan orang Kristen  adalah tidak melakukanbody shaming kesesama pengguna media online, maupun tidak berkomentar secara rasis. Karena Allah tidak membeda-bedakan sesama manusia dengan mengasihi yang satu dan tidak mengasihi yang lain hanya karena manusia itu berbeda secara fisik, ras atau bangsa. Prinsip etika Kristiani berikutnya dalam bermedia sosial adalah tidak berdebat secara teologis dan tidak mengumbar hal negatif. Tujuannya  agar tidak terjadi pertengkaran apalagi ujaran kebencian.


2020 ◽  
pp. 19-60
Author(s):  
Claudia Megele ◽  
Peter Buzzi
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Wyatt Moss-Wellington

This chapter surveys a breadth of approaches to the ethics of film and other narrative media, both contemporary and historic, and positions them in relation to developments in cognitive media ethics. These include cine-ethics and film philosophy, phenomenological approaches, literary ethics and hermeneutics, notions of aesthetic autonomy, and ethics in narratology. The contributions and challenges of each approach are summarized, as are their uses in the development of a normative ethics for cognitive media studies. Throughout this chapter, a case emerges for the complementary, elaborative rigors of cognitive science, normative ethics, and consequentialism. The chapter concludes by indicating how methods for analysis developed at the center of these areas of study will inform the remainder of the book.


Author(s):  
Özlem Arda ◽  
Zuhal Akmeşe

This chapter provides an overview about media ethics that is very important for the news. Today, the rapid development and diversification of mass media tools have also accelerated the works in the field of communication ethics. Media responsibility, issues occurring in media, and public utility issues have come to the central position of communication ethics. Looking at the ethical codes in the media, it is seen that a large part of them are created for printed media, and the information about television is limited. The purpose of this study is to focus on the ethical issues that arise starting from the production stage of the television news with a holistic perspective in the context of the relationship between media and ethics by considering the ethical codes in the media and to offer solutions devoted to an ethical understanding of journalism. Within the scope of this study, the qualitative research method included the content analysis for the news about Princes Diana and Prince Harry as samples.


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