Shaping Digital Democracy in the United States

Ethical challenges that technology poses to the different spheres of society are a core focus within the field of technoethics. Over the last few years, scholars have begun to explore the ethical implications of new digital technologies and social media, particularly in the realms of society and politics. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama's campaign social networking site, my.barackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website uses or misuses digital technology to create a healthy participatory democracy. For an analysis of ethical and non-ethical ways to promote participatory democracy online, the study included theoretical perspectives such as the role of the public sphere in a participatory democracy and the effects of political marketing on the public sphere. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study's results are explored in this chapter.

The Legal Challenges of the Information Revolution and the Principle of “Privacy by Design”

The chapter examines how the information revolution impacts the field of data protection in a twofold way. On the one hand, the scale and amount of cross-border interaction taking place in cyberspace illustrate how the information revolution affects basic tenets of current legal frameworks, such as the idea of the law as a set of rules enforced through the menace of physical sanctions and matters of jurisdiction on the Internet. On the other hand, many impasses of today's legal systems on data protection, liability, and jurisdiction can properly be tackled by embedding normative constraints into information and communication technologies, as shown by the principle of privacy by design in such cases as information systems in hospitals, video surveillance networks in public transports, or smart cards for biometric identifiers. Normative safeguards and constitutional constraints can indeed be embedded in places and spaces, products and processes, so as to strengthen the rights of the individuals and widen the range of their choices. Although it is unlikely that “privacy by design” can offer the one-size-fits-all solution to the problems emerging in the field, it is plausible that the principle will be the key to understanding how today's data protection issues are being handled.

Redefining the Boundaries of Humanity and the Human Body

What are the boundaries of humanity and the human body within our evolving technological society? Within the field of technoethics, inquiry into the origins of the species is both a biological and ethical question as scholars attempt to grapple with conflicting views of what it means to be human and what attributes are core to human beings within the era of human enhancement technologies. Based on a historical and conceptual analysis, this chapter uses a technoethical lens to discuss defining characteristics of the human species as homo technicus. Under this framework, both symbolic capacity and technical ability are assumed to be grounded within the free and ethical nature of human beings. Ideas derived from Modernity and Postmodernity are drawn upon to provide a more encompassing view of humans that accommodates both its technical and ethical dimensions as homo technicus.

Ethics, Media, and Reasoning

Due to the rapidly changing norms and constant developments in technology, media and communication educators and practitioners are expected to (re)evaluate the functioning of ethics and reasoning in this field. This chapter discusses the relationship between ethics, reasoning, and the media, and the integral role of ethical reasoning education for communication and media professionals. Ethical systems and theories are discussed to inform the debate on the importance of ethics and reasoning education. Globalization and the growing interconnectivity of global media systems are presented, providing insight on how different media systems function around the world. The large impact that the media have on society necessitates the possession of rational and ethical skills; thus, the connection between reasoning and ethics is explained.

Technoethics

Technoethics relates to the impact of ethics in technology and technological change in biological, medical, military, engineering, and other applications. Accordingly, new questions arise about the moral right and wrong of corresponding technological issues. These, in turn, generate novel trade-offs, many of them controversial, involving the desirable versus undesirable ethical aspects of the new invention or innovation from a moral viewpoint. The discussion in this chapter suggests that frequently much can be said on both sides of an ethical argument and that therefore, at times, agonizing decisions must be made about which side has the greater moral merit based on numerous variables. The minicases sprinkled throughout the text and the longer automobile engineering case at the end are used as illustrations.

The Relevance of Value Theory for the Ethical Discussion of Human Enhancement

The aim of this chapter is to provide a practical introduction to the central issues of value theory in order to demonstrate their relevance for the ethical discussion of human enhancement technologies. Among the value-theoretical issues discussed are value lexicality, the monism-pluralism dichotomy, and incommensurability. A particular enhancement technology analyzed from a value-theoretical perspective is radical life extension, the direct and intentional extension of the maximum human life span. Several examples are given to show how value-theoretical concepts are implicitly reflected in arguments for and against human enhancement. At the end of the chapter, it should be clear that value theory can and should make stronger contributions to the ethical discussion of human enhancement and that, in this discussion, an increased awareness of value-theoretical issues is desirable.

Sacrificing Credibility for Sleaze

This chapter uses an experiment to analyze how mainstream journalists' use of sensationalized or tabloid-style writing techniques affect the credibility of online news. Participants read four news stories and rated their credibility using McCroskey's Source Credibility Scale. Participants found stories written with a tabloid style less credible than more traditional stories. Soft news stories written with a tabloidized style were rated more credible than hard news stories that also had a tabloidized style. Results suggest that online news media may damage their credibility by using tabloidized writing techniques to increase readership. Furthermore, participants were less likely to enjoy stories written in a tabloidized style. The authors conclude by utilizing act utilitarianism to argue that tabloidized writing is an unethical journalistic technique.

Of Robots and Simulacra

In this chapter, the author proposes a theoretical framework for evaluating the ethical acceptability of robotic technologies, with a focus on social robots. The author proposes to consider robots as forms of mediations of human actions and their ethical acceptance as depending on the impact on the notion of human presence. Presence is characterised by a network of reciprocal relations among human beings and the environment, which can either be promoted or inhibited by technological mediation. A medium that inhibits presence deserves ethical evaluation since it prevents the possibility of a mutual exchange, thus generating forms of power. Moreover, the impact of social robots on human beings should be carefully studied and evaluated for the consequences brought about by simulated forms of human presence, which have both physical and psychological dimensions and are still unknown, especially with respect to weak categories, such as children, elderly, and disabled people.

Personal Liability and Human Free Will in the Background of Emerging Neuroethical Issues

In this chapter, the authors analyse the issues connected to emerging neurotechnologies, in particular their effects on (legal) concepts like capacity, liability, testimony, and evidence, and also on fundamental constitutional rights and freedoms like the right to autonomy and the right not to be treated without consent (in the general framework of the principle of human dignity). Starting from preliminary remarks on the key concepts of neuroethics/technoethics, neurolaw/technolaw, the authors investigate how personal liability is changing in the framework of new scientific developments. The chapter underlines that neurolaw challenges some of the traditional legal institutions in the field of law (e.g., criminal law). From the point of view of ethics, the chapter concludes that neuroethics is not challenged by the data coming from the use of emerging neurotechnologies, but human self-perception is strongly affected by it.

Privacy vs. Security

This chapter bridges the dilemma created by intrusive surveillance technologies needed to safeguard people's security and the potential negative consequences such technologies might have on individual privacy. It begins by highlighting recent tensions between concerns for privacy and security. Next, it notes the increasing threat to human life posed by emerging technologies (e.g., genetic engineering and nanotechnology). The chapter then turns to a potential technological means to mitigate some of this threat, namely ubiquitous microscopic sensors. One consequence of the deployment of such technology appears to be an erosion of personal privacy on a scale hitherto unimaginable. It is then argued that many details of an individual's private life are actually irrelevant for security purposes and that it may be possible to develop technology to mask these details in the data gleaned from surveillance devices. Such a development could meet some, perhaps many, of the concerns about privacy. It is also argued that if it is possible to use technology to mask personal information, this may actually promote the goal of security, since it is conjectured that the public is likely to be more willing to accept invasive technology if it is designed to mask such details. Finally, some applications to society's current uses of surveillance technology are drawn. Policy recommendations for surveillance organizations such as the National Security Agency are briefly canvassed.