Ethics and social media 2011

Lee Hopkins

media social UniSA - 24th October 2011

Advanced communication strategies and tools

ethics &

effics So what’s wrong with this?

a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about

morality meta-ethics normative ethics applied ethics moral psychology descriptive ethics

Applied: a discipline of philosophy that

attempts to apply ethical theory to

real-life situations Descriptive: a value-free approach which

examines actual choices made by moral agents

a hybrid of applied ethics and descriptive ethics

applying ethical behaviour to real-life situations

No hiding

Punishment

Cynicism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7gKCFAEldk

“If you don’t want to talk about it with

your family at the dinner table, and

you don’t want to read about it on the

front page of the Boston Globe, it’s

not ethical.” Chris Brogan

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-ethics-imperative-in-social-media/

2002: ELLEgirlBuddy chatbot that used teen lingo and chat acronyms, had a history and a personality: 16 year old girl, 5’6” tall, straight red hair, green eyes and freckles. Lives in San Francisco with parents and brother, listens to music, favourite band is No Doubt. Favourite book: Catcher in the Rye. Favourite tv: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

One month after launch of ELLEgirlBuddy: Traffic up 83%; magazine subscriptions up 50%; adverts on ELLEgirlBuddy had 10% click-through

At its core – the Honesty ROI

Relationship (say who you are speaking for) Opinion (say what you believe) Identity (never obscure your identity)

One ‘real life male person’, several avatars (male, female, robot, warrior, etc.)

Each of his female avatars is a bot with pre-programmed text responses to text questions, making it appear they are really engaged in a conversation with the questioner

Question: is there an ethical dilemma?

It can be very tempting when you see an online community that matches your demographic to wade in and start selling your wares. Don't. It's just rude. It's like walking into someone's party in a park and trying to sell everyone stuff. Or using the emergency lane on the freeway because you're running late!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHwgI4e0VH4

Last Thursday, an anonymous message was posted to the comments section of an article about the recent controversies surrounding Sam Newman on the AFL Player Spectator blog…the message was out of context and irrelevant, promoting an event at Melbourne’s Federation Square and a ticket give-away: “Hi guys, NAB is giving away free tickets to the Collingwood v Carlton game on Saturday afternoon @ the MCG. Hop on down to Fed Square tomorrow… this is all to launch the new NAB SMS Banking! Thank you”

Honesty: State only what you know to be true – and be clear about opinion or conjecture vs. fact.

Transparency: Be straightforward about who you are – and who you’re representing online.

http://www.ruderfinn.com/blogs/ethics/2009/07/ethics-and-social-media.html

Respect: Respect for yourself, your peers, and even your adversaries.

Privacy: Treat the intimate details of others as you would your own personal information.

http://www.ruderfinn.com/blogs/ethics/2009/07/ethics-and-social-media.html

Relevance: Ensure that the content you’re posting is relevant to the audience and the venue where it’s being posted.

Responsibility: Take ownership of your online activities, the content you’ve created, and any missteps you’ve made along the way.

http://www.ruderfinn.com/blogs/ethics/2009/07/ethics-and-social-media.html

A ‘win’ at work

Celebrations at the local Karaoke bar

A smartphone with video capability

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHwgI4e0VH4