Media ethics codes concerning privacy must be updated considering the ease with which information now can be gathered from social networks and disseminated widely. Existing codes allow for deception and privacy invasion in cases of overriding public need when no alternate means are available but do not adequately define what constitutes need or alternate means, or weigh in the harm such acts do to the public trust and the profession. Building on the ethics theories of Sissela Bok and Helen Nissenbaum, (...) balancing tests can be developed under a mixed-rule deontology that confines online misrepresentation and exposing the private information of private people only to cases where good most clearly is served. (shrink)

The right to privacy is a moral concept that has been debated for centuries. This article traces the histo y of the concept and examines how the existence of a right to privacy has been defended by philosophers through the years. This article examines the strategies behind those arguments, showing how some of them are more convincing than others. Following this analysis is a practical argument for recognizing a universal right to privacy over intimate relationships and information. Intimacy is a (...) part of human dipity, and revealing it does not tell much about the character of politicians, or anyone else. Intimacy deserves protection. (shrink)

The rapid progress of artificial intelligence (AI) has resulted in its integration into various stages of the media process, including information gathering, processing, and distribution. This integration has raised the possibility of AI dominating the media industry, leading to an era of “autonomous driving” within AI-driven media systems. Similar to the ethical dilemma known as the “trolley problem” (TP) in autonomous driving, a comparable problem arises in AI automated media. This study examines the emergence of the new TP in fully (...) automated AI-driven media (FAAIM), recognizing the complexity of this problem given the nature of media content and its societal impact. To address this complexity, we propose the adoption of the theory of “meaningful human control,” originally developed to address responsibility in the governance of lethal autonomous weapons systems, as a framework for governing FAAIM. By ensuring that humans can be held responsible for the operations of FAAIM, this paper aims to proactively confront the ethical challenges arising from FAAIM, identify potential solutions, and guide future research in media ethics. (shrink)

ABSTRACTCommunity-focused journalists increasingly publish their work for global audiences. This project defines a circle of “community privacy”—the understanding that some information is ethically...

Arguably, every new technology creates hidden ejfects in its environment, rearranging the social order it penetrates. Many ofthese effects are inextricably linked to ethical issues. Some are eternal issues such as censorship andfree speech, but others have new names and dimensions, and may even be new issues. Forty of these issues pertaining to the new communication technologies of the 1990s and next millennium are catalogued here. The author argues that each new communication technology either retrieves, amplifies, transforms, obsolesces, or mixes (...) ethical issues from the past or creates new issues for the future. However, as in the Ross Hume Hall (1974) effect, it is also likely there are issues yet unknown due to untested eflects of combining new technologies. (shrink)

The rise of computer-assisted journalism coincides with increasing public concerns about individual privacy, especially in the realm of information stored in electronic databases. This article contends that journalists (a) need to be more receptive to privacy concerns, and (b) need to reassure the public they will be sensitive in dealing with private information contained in electronic databases. The author calls for creation of a Code of Information Practices that could guide journalists in making decisions about usingprivate information in electronicformat. Such (...) a code might help persuade the public to be more receptive to journalists' arguments over the need for access to records and information. (shrink)

The need for those who govern to be accountable to the governed often conflicts with the right of an individual, albeit a public leader, to privacy. This survey found that most Ohio residents believe job performance can be affected by what goes on in private lives, but most don't believe scrutiny of private matters is a media responsibility and find such coverage excessive and unfair. Belief in importance of accountability was related to support for media's responsibility to provide scrutiny, but (...) not to concern with excessiveness and fairness. (shrink)